The Village of Lombard’s Bi-Annual Community Forum brings village staff, Village Board of Trustee members, representatives from local school districts, Chamber of Commerce members and village residents together to talk about the Village’s civic activities and to get feedback from the residents. The forum split the members into small groups of seven and nine people, where they participated in three group exercises. The first and second exercises had participants list Lombard’s past successes and had them share what they would change about the community. The third exercise was a budget game; in this hands on game, residents possessed the Village’s revenue and expenditure information, they created a mock budget and were asked to eliminate the $1.2 million deficit with a mix of spending cuts and revenue increases. Through this exercise, residents closed the budget deficit, and it gave them a deeper understanding of the budget process and the Village’s financial picture.