Great communities don’t just happen.  They need exceptional leadership and innovation, which comes from many unexpected places.  The most valuable asset is the talented people within a community.  Loudoun County, Virginia is a great example of how one locality reached out to citizens from diverse functions, companies, and industries to obtain innovative ideas and feedback to strengthen their community.   

In 2002, the Loudoun County Department of Economic Development successively formed three Cabinets to engage talented leaders in building a successful community and region.  Through the use of three cabinets, Science and Technology, Design, and CEO Cabinet, Loudoun County has been able to produce visible results for their community.  

Loudoun’s Cabinets are far more informal in the way they were created and operate from the formal appointed committee and boards.   Unlike many other public-private partnerships, the Cabinets are not chartered with by-laws through the county’s normal Boards and Commissions process, which requires appointments of members by the elected Board.  Instead, the Director of Economic Development teamed up with a key private sector leader to develop a simple purpose statement, an invite list of members to join the Cabinet, and a meeting schedule.  

The County Administrator and elected board were tolerant and trusting in allowing the Department of Economic Development the freedom to experiment with these new forms of partnerships and civic engagement, which provided the atmosphere to allow each Cabinet time to form, mature and produce results.  Each Cabinet complements the work of the formal bodies and develops credibility with elected officials and the community.  

Design Cabinet: The Design Cabinet, formed in 2003, brings together local architects, planners, engineers and graphic and industrial designers in a fusion of creative community problem solving.  
This Cabinet promotes high quality ecological, urban, architectural and landscape design in Loudoun County.  The annual Signatures of Loudoun Awards encourages and recognizes high quality design projects throughout the county, soliciting public nominations for outstanding design in seven categories.  The Cabinet also conducts design charrettes, complimentary brainstorming and problem solving sessions held at the request of both the public and the private sector.

While there is no obligation to use the results of the design sessions, results are often used to improve plans and stimulate new ways to think about these projects. View an example of the most recent charrettes to see how this volunteer group has supported the community: Journey Through Hallowed Ground 2010.

Science and Technology Cabinet: Founded in 2002, the Science and Technology Cabinet is a key forum to encourage the development of Loudoun County and the greater Washington, D.C. region as a global center of science and technology.  The Cabinet has helped to recruit several world-class scientists to George Mason University and was instrumental in bringing the International Medical Automation Conference to Loudoun through 2011.  Currently, this Cabinet is dormant and exploring how to restructure to focus more on technology.

CEO Cabinet: Formed in 2005, the CEO Cabinet is composed of top level public, private and non-profit executives at the CEO and Chairman/Vice Chairman of the Board level.  The Cabinet recently aligned with the Chamber of Commerce, giving it more autonomy.  The Cabinet aims to make the County a community that ranks in the top 20 in all the “best of” lists.  Together they have investigated governance issues, transportation concerns of the region, and have been very vocal in lobbying efforts.   

Loudoun County approached the Cabinets as an organizational experiment and continues to remain flexible to their structure, purpose or activity in order to benefit the community.   They discovered that talented people within the community, who would typically be unaffordable on a fee basis, are available in virtually unlimited quantities if you provide them a productive outlet.  By keeping largely to the rule of common sense and refraining from political involvement, allows the Cabinet leaders to focus on doing the important work.  The Economic Development Department prepared themselves to seize the opportunities that emerged from the Cabinet structure.