MISSION STATEMENT AND PRINCIPLES OF INVOLVEMENT
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The Committee for a Better New Orleans (CBNO) was founded in January, 2000, by a diverse group of business, education and community leaders.  Joseph C. Canizaro, Dr. Norman Francis and Barbara Major were named co-chairs of the Committee.
 

One key initial decision was to keep the project apolitical by including as Committee members only those individuals who were not holding or running for elected office.

However, an intense effort was made to include representatives from all aspects of the community, including all political interests and factions; the theory was that the best way to ensure that CBNO would be apolitical was to include the entire political spectrum.  City government was represented by the inclusion of several top non-elected officials.
Strong emphasis was placed on equal racial representation on the Committee, as well as multi-generational representation.  Nominees were asked to provide some statement of why they would be interested in participating, and full disclosure of all political and other organizational affiliations was required.  Individuals were chosen based on expertise on the key issues, their contribution to the goal of broad community representation, and their ability to get things done in their communities.  As a result, the Committee grew from an initial target of about fifty members to nearly triple that number.  This ensured tremendously broad community representation as well as preventing any individual or faction from dominating any of the issues.

Further representation and input were ensured by the establishment of the Faith Based Advisory Committee, representing a cross-section of the religious denominations and associations in the City.  Even the funding of the Committee affirmed the diversity and inclusiveness of its nature.  Contributions have come from a bi-racial mix of individuals, businesses and nonprofit organizations, and the universities have provided substantial assistance and support via research and other services.

Once the Committee was fully formed, an exhaustive study of the issues facing New Orleans ensued, highlighted by a review of all available studies from the past twenty years, interviews with the seven local college and university presidents, and a baseline poll conducted by Dr. Silas Lee.  From this, six critical issues were identified:  City Management, Economic Development, Education, Housing, Public Safety, and Transportation.  Preliminary position papers on each issue were prepared, and by September 2000, the Committee was divided into six Task Forces, each co-chaired by one black and one white member.  The Task Forces went through a rigorous strategic planning process, including a SWOT analysis, identification of the most critical problems, setting of goals to address the problems, establishing of objectives to meet the goals, and definition of certain implementation factors.  At every step, decisions were required to be made by total consensus of each Task Force.

The result of this process was a detailed, wide-ranging action plan entitled "A Blueprint for a Better New Orleans".  It was released in draft form in May 2001.  This was followed by a series of public input sessions held over a four-month period.  This input was incorporated into the final version of the document, which was released in December 2001.

While CBNO originally intended to exist only as long as was needed to complete the Blueprint, over the course of the planning process Committee members became resolved to continue working on the issues and on the implementation of the objectives set forth in the Blueprint.  At the same time, many members also felt that New Orleans did not need yet another organization.  This quandary was resolved by merger with the Metropolitan Area Committee (MAC), a well-known and established entity, in existence since the 1960s and with similar goals and philosophies to CBNO.  The merger was formalized in the fall of 2001.  MAC Chairman Dr. Tim Ryan became the fourth co-chair of the combined organization, known as CBNO/MAC, and several members of the MAC Board of Directors now sit on the CBNO/MAC Board.