Posts Tagged ‘miner county sd’

On being a good coach

August 6th, 2010

Morgan’s article, “Do you need a coach?” from a couple days ago caused me to do a little reminiscing.  Although my thoughts initially focused on how I’ve personally benefited from some non-athletic coaching, my mind quickly turned to how our community development work in Miner County has benefited from coaches over the years.

Although there are many people who have provided valuable insights, I think two individuals stand out:  Dr. Daryl Hobbs of the University of Missouri and Dr. Tom Kilian, a Miner County native and true renaissance man.

Both men brought years of wisdom to our effort.  That’s important because all communities, rural and urban, need an injection of new ideas.  But as I shared in a comment on Morgan’s original post, wisdom wasn’t their greatest gift.

As I reflect, I think their greatest impact was their ability to help us discover our own path.  Too often community development experts come into rural communities with the answers and try to fix problems.  That seldom works.

If you want to learn more about what makes these two men special, check out what they have to say in this video that we shared with people at the 2009 Midwest Rural Assembly.

Tags: ,
Posted in Economic Development, Rural | Comments (0)

Home Again

May 21st, 2010

(Note: It’s Friday, which means this post is a part of our “I Feel Fridays” project.  Our goal is to share stories from the past week that generated an emotional response.  We encourage readers to respond to the post or to share something from their lives in the past week. To learn more about “I Feel Fridays,” check out this post- and then tell us what you’re feeling.)

I came home from college for the summer this week, and nearly everyone I met in my hometown made me feel welcomed back into the community.  That’s something I haven’t felt in a while.

I grew up on a family farm in Howard, SD.  I then decided to travel 788 miles down Interstate-90 to attend the School of Architecture at Montana State University - Bozeman.  I knew I would miss my family and friends, but I was ready to make the change.  What I didn’t think I would miss as much as I do is the community.

Howard is pretty small, and I was ready for bigger things - a bigger town, a bigger school and a sense of “bigger” that would come from me moving there.  I didn’t think I was better than my friends who stayed, but I thought I was on a new adventure to try completely new things.  While this is true, I started to miss the things I once took for granted. 

For instance, the meat that showed up on my dining hall plate was not from our cows or our neighbors pigs.  I couldn’t find any garden fresh kohlrabi in the salad department.  Worst of all, it definitely wasn’t cooked by Mom.

I would drive down to Target and the cashier didn’t ask me about my Grandpa, only if I wanted my receipt with me or in the bag.  My floormates laughed at my hometown newspaper saying, “It’s for the whole county, only comes once a week, and the main story is about a cow?!”   I started to defend my little paper by explaining it was Fair week, and the steer won Best in Show for a local 4-H kid.  They didn’t think it was a big deal.

I truly realized how much I missed the community my first night home from college during Winter Break when I walked into the Cabaret Steakhouse in Carthage, SD with my parents.  As we found a table, friends and neighbors all smiled at me and asked how it felt to be done with my first semester in Montana.  I was caught off guard because these people cared enough to stop eating, talk to me, and remember were I was going to school and what subject I was studying. 

That’s when it hit me: Bozeman may be a very friendly town, but it doesn’t even compare to Miner County.  When I go back to school, only my close friends and professors will welcome me with a smile and genuinely care how my summer went.  When I walk into the restaurants, no one will ask how it’s going in Howard or say how nice it is to have me back in town.

I think a previous post about Tom Bodett’s thoughts on a small town embody why I love Miner County.  The small-town community is hard to explain, but now that I have gone away the pull for me to come back is getting stronger.

I’ve now finished my third year at MSU and I’m no longer caught off guard by people saying, “It’s so good to see you!  How long are you home for this time?”  I happily answer, “The whole summer, and I’m really glad to be home.”

 

Photo: Miner County residents do their best in a pie eating contest to celebrate Straw Bale Days in Carthage, SD, uploaded to Flickr by the Rural Learning Center

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Gen Y, Quality of Life, Rural, Rural Life | Comments (4)

Community Wind: What’s a guy to do?

December 22nd, 2009

With wind farms popping up across the countryside, Midwesterners are becoming much more familiar with wind energy.  Yet few are aware of the type of wind development called “community wind.” That should change, however, thanks to a new publication called “Lessons & Concepts for Advancing Community Wind,” which was recently released by the Minnesota Project. 

 

What is Community Wind?

Without drawing much attention to it, I’ve talked about community wind before.  In a nutshell, community wind involves local ownership of wind turbines.  The electricity produced by the turbines is usually sold to area utilities. 

This model flies in the face of traditional wind farms, where a company builds and operates large wind farms.  Because wind energy is the focus of their business, these companies develop both the expertise and economy of scale that drives down the cost of production. 

But the downside to the traditional model is that it is dependent on the development of new transmission lines and causes a greater share of the financial impact from the turbines to bypass the local economy. 

 

Why aren’t there more community wind projects?

A simple answer to the question is that people who try to develop their own wind projects don’t know how to overcome the barriers that pop up in the development process.  “Lessons & Concepts for Advancing Community Wind” attempts to address these issues by providing case studies of three community wind projects:  City of Willmar, MN; Winona County MN; and Miner County, SD.  These three projects were selected for review because each took a very different path to completion.    

I’ve written about both the Miner County and Winona County projects before (see here and here).  The “Lessons & Concepts” guide, however, digs in much deeper.  It would have been nice to have had this guide back in 2001 when we developed the Miner County Wind Project.   

And that’s the value of the guide.  It’s intended to help people with little background in the energy industry build their capacity and understanding. 

We’ve fielded a lot of calls at the Rural Learning Center through the years from people asking how we developed the Miner County Wind Project. We’re always happy to help. But time is so short that we often hang up having only scratched the surface on the subject.  

That’s why the next time I receive such a call, I’m going to recommend the caller read “Lessons & Concepts for Advancing Community Wind” first.  I’m confident doing so will make our conversation more productive. 

Update:  David Tidball from Windustry offers some great advice in the comment section to this post.  For instance, he pointed out the “Communit Wind Toolbox” that Windustry has developed, as well as other great information on community wind (found here).  Thanks David.

Other resources

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Economic Development, Rural, Training and Events | Comments (4)

Big Problems can’t be solved by Big Solutions

December 14th, 2009

We’ve known for quite some time Dan and Chip Heath intended to include the story of the “Miner County Cash Flow Study“ project in their next book, Switch: How to Change Things when Change is Hard.  Chip interviewed Randy Parry about the project at Grassroots and Groundwork Conference in St. Paul, MN a couple years ago. 

Having the project, which kick started our development efforts in Miner County, SD, mentioned in Switch is pretty exciting for me.  I’m a huge fan of their first book, Made to Stick, and I regularly seek out their monthly column in FastCompany as the first article I read in the magazine. 

Yesterday, I stumbled across this blog post and learned a bit about how they intend to use the story of the cash flow study in Switch.  The author interviewed Dan and Chip, and wrote the following:

Another fascinating component of the conversation was the Heath’s belief that “big problems are only rarely solved by big solutions.” They argued that big changes must be shrunk into the smallest components possible and attacked bite by bite. Very thought-provoking for someone passionate about the importance of the follower! The illustration used here was that of some kids in a South Dakota small town economics class who managed to save their town simply by encouraging everyone in town to spend just 10% more of their money locally. And it worked!”  (Source:  “Chip/Dan Heath - Switch,” Hogshadows. 8-8-09)

Big problems can’t be solved by big solutions. That makes me think of Rosa Parks.  One lady, who refused to give up her seat on a bus, helped launch the Civil Rights movement.  Of course, her singular action - standing up to the injustice of segregation on Montgomery, AL buses — didn’t eliminate discrimination overnight, but her effort played a pivotal role in solving a problem many, at the time,  deemed insurmountable. 

It may be a bit presumptive to compare the herculean efforts of Rosa Parks and the civil rights activists who toppled segregation in the South to the efforts of Howard H.S. students who raised awareness about the importance of spending their money locally; but I think the Heaths are onto something important when they say the solutions to big problems must be attacked in smaller, more manageable bites. 

Of course, in the community development world, it means you also need sustained leadership.  The students who participated in the Miner County Cash Flow Study project addressed one issue - local spending - but it took a decade of sustained community development efforts to achieve success in Miner County. Rural decline is, after all, a pretty complex issue.

And do we ever really achieve success? Like fighting discrimination, transforming the economies of our small, rural communities will take constant vigilance.  It’s safe to say that something WILL go wrong in Miner County at some point in the future.  A business will struggle or a building will be destroyed by fire.  One never knows the challenges the future will bring.

But tackling big issues with small bites and developing sustained leadership makes a lot of sense as a foundation for creating change in our rural communities.  I look forward to what else the Heaths have to say on the subject in Switch. 

Note:  I’d encourage anyone interested in learning more about the study  to sign up for a free resource guide in the box found in the upper right column.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Community Development, In the News, Leadership, Rural | Comments (3)

Climate change: Every situation creates an opportunity

October 20th, 2009

In honor of my good friend Joe Bartmann of the Sioux Falls Green Project visiting me in Howard (SD) yesterday, I wanted to share a post related to the green movement in rural places.  Amazingly, an article titled “Climate Change and Rural Communities in the US: a Draft Briefing Paper” fell into my lap thanks to a tweet from the Rural Assistance Center.  The subject and the fact that it was produced by one of my favorite rural organizations, the Rural Policy Research Institute (RUPRI), make commenting on it almost mandatory.      

Admittedly, I haven’t studied the nuances of climate change legislation before Congress as much as I should.  In reading the document, I was alarmed to learn that the Secretary of Transportation had proposed a “vehicle miles traveled” (as opposed to a fuel tax) as a way to reduce pollution and increase revenue for our highways.  Residents of rural states undoubtedly cringe at the negative impact such legislation would have on their pocketbooks.  Luckily, the measure was quickly abandoned by the Obama administration, but it shows that we should be paying closer attention.

 As I read through the descriptions of potential measures intended to help our environment, I can say that I support some of them, and oppose others.  What was most interesting to me, however, was the last section titled “Opportunities for rural communities.”

It offered four potential areas of opportunity for rural communities to consider.  An overview of these opportunities include:

In Miner County, SD, we were early adopters of three of the measures:  renewable energy production, green jobs, and rural-urban collaboration.  The forth(carbon sequestration) is one that I still don’t know much about, let alone understand how rural communities can take advantage of. 

I’m not sure if the cap and trade legislation before Congress will pass or not.  But this article has made me more aware of why I need to pay attention to the issue.  Thanks RURPI. 

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Economic Development, In the News, Rural | Comments (1)

Bob Sutton “gets” ReImagine Rural

September 5th, 2009

In our work at the Rural Learning Center, we’ve long recognized the importance of place. It is, after all the root of our work that began with our Howard H.S. students back in the 1990s.

The theme of place emerged several times Wednesday in the speeches presented at the Rural Learning Center groundbreaking ceremony. While all were excellent, I think Bob Sutton, President of the South Dakota Community Foundation best captured the power of place.

Seeking inspiration to write his speech, Bob actually drove to Howard, sat under the trees of the Miner County Courthouse lawn, and absorbed the essence of the place.

The result was incredible. Inspiring and insightful. All in just under 10 minutes. That’s how place can get under your skin. If you don’t believe me, watch his presentation for yourself.

A couple topics stood out for me in Bob’s talk, and I’d like to share them below.

The Ingredients of Success

First, whenever one talks about the future of rural places, the conversation often turns to job creation and financial investment. As Bob eloquently describes, money is not the only ingredient; “Resources such as time and talent, leadership skills, motivational conversation, and a rekindling of the spirit of hope is just as critical in places like Howard.”

How true.

People sometimes think that the recent positive developments in Miner County have occurred because we were lucky enough to receive a sizeable grant from the Northwest Area Foundation. While important, money alone would not have produced the same results.

The Power of ReImagining Rural

Second, there’s a power in reimagining the future of rural communities. Having experienced 50-80 years of economic decline, rural residents in our part of the country have a tendency to look backwards and develop a feeling of hopelessness. That hopelessness causes us to doubt the success of projects like the Maroney Rural Learning Center - like one reader of the Argus Leader’s story wrote in their forum - even before the project has gets off the ground.

And that’s why celebrations like this groundbreaking were so important.

Why Groundbreakings?

Yesterday, I had an opportunity to interview Dan Scott, a lawyer from St. Paul, MN. Dan grew up in Howard where his dad was the long-time superintendent. (His dad is the guy who hired me to come to Howard back in 1996.)

Even though Dan lives 6 hours away from Howard, he made the trip back to Howard for the groundbreaking ceremony. This prompted me to ask “Why?” His response is below.

That’s right. We do need to pause, reflect, and celebrate. And through this reflection and celebration we can begin to dream of the possibilities for our future.

A big thanks to Bob Sutton for his remarkable remarks on Wednesday. He is someone who is helping communities in South Dakota to “reimagine rural.”

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Community Development, In the News, Leadership, Rural, Training and Events | Comments (0)

Photos of Rural Learning Center Groundbreaking

September 5th, 2009

It’s a clique, but it is true that a picture is worth a thousand words.  For that reason, we want to share photos from the Maroney Rural Learning Center Groundbreaking celebration.  I’ve uploaded some of the photos to this blog post, but you can find more at our Flickr stream. (go here to view all pictures) .

 

We’ve also created a Flickr group called “Maroney Rural Learning Center Groundbreaking” so that others who took pictures at the event can share them with us.  If would like to add your photos to this group, but need a little help, feel free to shoot me a message (mike@ruraltransformations.com) and I’ll help you do so.   

 

 

    

   

 

 

 

 

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Community Development, In the News, Rural, Training and Events | Comments (0)

What do famous people have to say about ReImaging Rural?

September 3rd, 2009

Well the Rural Learning Center created quite a stir yesterday with the groundbreaking ceremony.  Enough so, that the story has been featured in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, the Mitchell Daily Republic, and on KSFY television.  I expect to see more stories popping up throughout the day.

In all, we listened to twelve individuals at the ceremony and not one of them was a “dud.”  All were engaging, thoughtful and to the point.

Anyone who could not attend will be happy to know that we captured much of the celebration, including speakers and interviews, on video.  I’ve been busy ever since converting the video and taking notes.  Hopefully, I’ll finish up early this afternoon.

Besides being “quoatable,” many of the speakers used quotes from famous individuals to draw emphasis and interest.  Although the quotes originated with people from all walks of life, each offered guidance for what we need to do as we work to “reimagine rural” America. 

Until all of the video is ready to view, I want to share a few of those quotes.  I’d also invite you to reflect on the words, and see how they speak to you.  Perhaps you will find new meaning for them in addition to what our speakers had to share. 

 

John Mengenhausen, President of Howard Industries quoted  John F. Kennedy  
“One man can make a difference, but every man should try.”

Kevin Walker, President/CEO of the Northwest Area Foundation quoted William Blake   
“What is now proved was once only imaged.”

Mike McDowell, General Manager of Heartland Consumer Power District quoted Vince Lombardi 
“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.”

Mike McDowell also quoted Mark Twain 
“Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than the ones you did do.”

Jeff Duff, President/COO of Airstreams Renewable, Inc. quoted Wayne Gretzky
“You know I don’t skate to where the puck is, I skate to where the puck is going to be.”

 

Update: The Madison Daily Leader ran this story Thursday (Sept.3) in the afternoon.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in In the News, Rural | Comments (0)

Why does “Rural” matter?

September 2nd, 2009

In our part of the country, most rural communities have experienced 50-80 years of economic decline.  This decline often leads to feelings of despair and hopelessness. 

A Sense of Hope

At the Rural Learning Center (RLC), however, we have a sense of empowerment and hopefulness.  We base that optimism in part on the progress being made in Howard, South Dakota and surrounding Miner County, where our work began.

Two of the most compelling signs of that progress include the Howard municipal sales tax revenues and the construction of the second phase to the Rural Learning Center.

 

How did you get started in Miner County?

As Randy Parry, President of the RLC, indicates in the video below titled “How did you get started in Miner County?” our work began with high school students studying local sales tax trends. Seeking to make an impact, these students shared their learning with the citizens of Howard.  Their efforts as well as the innovative community development work that followed sparked an “invest in local” movement  resulting in significant business investment that translated into  record sales tax revenues.   (see image above)

Today, we are celebrating the groundbreaking for Phase II of the Rural Learning Center in Howard.  Dignitaries from around the country will be in attendance to help us celebrate and “reimagine” the possibilities for our rural places.

Why does Rural Matter?

But as we do, I think it is important that we reflect on why rural communities matter and why the Rural Learning Center is important to their futures. 

To help initiate that conversation, I’ve produced a short video in which I asked Rural Learning Center employees those very questions.  I hope it spurs you to reflect and share your thoughts on the subject.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Community Development, In the News, Rural, Youth | Comments (3)

Rural Learning Center on Facebook

July 17th, 2009

I returned to Howard Tuesday evening from a trip to the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship to discover a message on the Howard community sign saying, “RLC on Facebook.” 

Yes it’s true.  The Rural Learning Center has been exploring the use of Facebook as a way for people with an “interest” in Miner County to “connect.”  The effort is only about a month in the making, but it’s been fun to watch it develop. 

This is a good start.  166 members in such a short time is pretty amazing.  But now, it would be fun to see more of the over twenty-one year old crowd join, as well as increased participation (not just belonging) from everyone.  

Erin Heidelberger recently spoke about community participation over on her Prairie Roots blog.  She provides a great example of how people in Baltimore are contributing their ideas about what they want to have done with vacant buildings in their community.  Here are some other examples of communities becoming engaged through social media: 

Over the next several months, I hope to provide some updates on how the people of Miner County are participating on Facebook and other social media tools.  I’d also be very interested in hearing from people with examples of how communities are using social media to increase participation.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Community Development, Community Engagement, In the News | Comments (2)

« Older Entries