October means early sunsets, crisp fall nights, turning leaves, sweatshirts and football. It seems we’ve waited a long time for fall this year through an especially hot, dry summer.

Fall turns our collective eye to the coming year as companies and governments finalize budgets and strategic plans. The City of Overland Park has embarked on a long-awaited Comprehensive Plan process, aimed at providing a long-range vision for our land use, housing, environment, transportation and economic prosperity. It’s a chance for everyone – residents and businesses – to share our ideas about what we value the most in the city and what we would like to change. A steering committee has been appointed and there will be opportunities for you to engage. One of our councilmembers summed up the process succinctly by stating, “Anyone who cares about Overland Park has a choice to participate.” I encourage you to do so. We’ll share often how you can do that.

The postcards in your mailbox and ads on tv remind you it’s election season again. That means we will host candidate forums and interviews for you to attend or view on votejoco.com. You can also check this site for candidate surveys and voting information such as early voting sites and to view your ballot. The August primary had a historic turnout – let’s do that again!

I’m writing this column from Washington, D.C., having just attended a two-day meeting at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for some of the top chamber executives from across the country. We got updates from pollsters, economists, strategists and elected officials, including Sen. Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. We learned from the experts and each other, all for the purpose of making sure the businesses in our communities have the best environment in which to prosper.

At one of the meetings we joined executives from other industry groups and we had some time to get to know each other. I sat next to the head of an association representing the video game industry. His take on what chambers do? We get things done.

In just a few minutes of conversation, he summed up our brand and our vision in four words. It was perfect timing because we’re planning now for some big things. Later this month we’ll announce a bold new economic and community development strategy to bring to life our core purpose of making Overland Park – and your business – prosper. Let’s just say we’re going to get things done. Stay tuned.