The Oregon Ducks may have lost the 2011 BCS championship to Auburn last January, but for the University of Oregon and its community of Eugene, they still registered an important postgame victory.

Knowing that their favorite team was headed to the title game, city officials from Eugene and university representatives asked themselves how they might use the opportunity to strengthen town-gown relations. Win or lose, Assistant City Manager Sarah Medary said, they would have a big “Champions Parade.” In January. In the rain.

The “champions” focus wasn’t just on football, but on “all of the many accomplishments and championships the university achieved,” said Medary.

Hosted by Town and Gown Tallahassee (TAG), Medary and University of Oregon community relations chief Greg Rikhoff will share their experiences next Thursday night at the second of a series of “best practices” public forums on town-gown relations in Florida’s capital.

Thursday’s event – from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the School Board meeting room of the Aquilina Howell Center, 3955 W. Pensacola St. – will be on communications partnerships. Capital City Bank is the forum sponsor.

In Eugene, Medary said, one of the keys to improving relations between town and gown was improving relationships at the executive leadership level – understanding that, while the university and city government have different missions and responsibilities, they share the goal of making both the university and the community better. That’s how the Champions Parade came to pass.

“Sure, football was the catalyst,” Medary said, “but it grew to much more. On the morning of the parade, downtown filled and the route from campus to downtown was shoulder to shoulder. We cheered everyone, and it brought a life to the community that was all about our gratitude for our town and our gown.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever had a better time, and it continues to be something that our community talks about as a ‘best of Eugene.’”

In recent years, the University of Oregon and Eugene city government have collaborated closely on several other initiatives. They include public safety, neighborhood livability, and what Medary describes as community relationships, or “a more coordinated partnership that promotes the things we are both working on for the good of all.”

That is virtually identical to TAG’s goal for Tallahassee, said project director Mike Pate.

“We know from what other communities have experienced, and our own experiences when town and gown have gotten it right, that when collaboration is the rule rather than the exception we all enjoy the benefits of that teamwork,” said Pate, former publisher of the Tallahassee Democrat.

According to two TAG-sponsored surveys conducted late last year, perceptions differ widely on the quality of communication between town and gown here. Only 25 percent of 54 community leaders said the quality of communication was good between Tallahassee’s institutions of higher education, local governments and the community; another 25 percent of that group said it was poor. Forty-three percent of the 814 local residents rated communication among those groups as good; 9 percent said it was poor.

Despite the different perceptions, Pate said it is crystal clear there is opportunity for significant improvement in town-gown communication as a tool for making Tallahassee a better place to live and work.

The TAG forums are structured to be interactive, Pate said. Following the presentations, there is considerable time provided for audience participation. Another forum is scheduled for Nov. 10 – also from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Howell Center — when representatives from Virginia Tech and the city of Blacksburg, Va., will be here to discuss public-safety partnerships.

The forums are the second phase of TAG’s initiative, which is supported by Florida State and Florida A&M, Tallahassee Community College, Leon County Schools, city and county government, the Chamber of Commerce, The Village Square, several local businesses and other organizations, and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. TAG’s third and fourth phases will include creating a process to enhance town-gown communication, and identifying specific projects that are tied to both research findings and community input at the forums.

Anyone interested in attending the upcoming forum is asked to register online at: http://www.wiki.tothevillagesquare.org/display/events/TAG+Tallahassee The forum will be digitally recorded, posted online, and broadcast on the cable channels of several local TAG partners.