RD26 - Council on Virginia’s Future Annual Executive Summary - January 2013


Executive Summary:
This report was prepared pursuant to § 2.2-2689 of the Code of Virginia, which requires the Council on Virginia’s Future to provide an executive summary of the activities and work of the Council annually to the Governor and the General Assembly. Included is a discussion of recent accomplishments. Highlights of recent progress include:

• Keeping Virginia Performs, a signature initiative of the Council, fresh and relevant remains a top priority. Regular updates and enhancements are made in collaboration with economists at the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service.

• The Commonwealth’s new Performance Budgeting (PB) System represents a major step forward in the ongoing transformation of performance-budgeting in Virginia, significantly enhancing analytic and evaluation capabilities and more fully merging performance and budgetary data. The strategic planning module was completed during the year allowing agencies to update their strategic plans and performance information in this new system. New PB System capabilities for analysis and evaluation will continue to come online during the coming year.

• Agencies are currently completing new agency Executive Progress Reports (EPR). The new EPR format was developed because agency heads and other thought leaders sought a more concise and accessible document that could clearly communicate what an agency does, its performance, and the most important opportunities and issues facing the agency.

• Enterprise Strategic Priorities were integrated into Virginia Performs. This represents an important step in the continued evolution of Virginia Performs and will help to further bridge the gap between long-term, high-level goals and agency key objectives. Capturing high-level priorities and objectives provides valuable direction for agency planning processes and will serve as a baseline for assessing progress on the highest priorities of government.

• The Virginia Performs Workforce System Report Card, a high-level scorecard to improve assessment of the Commonwealth’s workforce development system, was released in late 2012. This initiative, part of the continuing evolution of Virginia Performs, is the first product from a long-term effort to accelerate progress on key outcomes by developing more focused, issue-specific scorecards.

• A partnership with the Virginia Chamber of Commerce in its Blueprint Virginia initiative to develop a long-term plan to enhance economic competitiveness and growth across the Commonwealth was begun. This is part of a longer-term focus on the drivers of state and regional economic growth.

• Along with the high-level initiatives described above, special reports, analyses, and other products continue to enhance our understanding of issues important to Virginia’s long-term future. For example, published each November, The Virginia Report is an annual high-level assessment of Virginia’s progress in areas important to our quality of life. In addition, Virginia Performs continues to serve as a model for other states and nations, working in 2012 with the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the United Kingdom (through the Carnegie Trust UK), and the Government of South Australia, among others.

The appendix provides a brief introduction to the Council and Virginia Performs, the Commonwealth’s performance leadership and accountability system. More information is available on the Council’s website ( http://www.future.virginia.gov).