Posts Tagged ‘Minnesota’

What’s going on in Hoffman, MN?

August 23rd, 2010

Thanks to a comment left on a blog post by Sheri Booms Holms, from the West Central Initiative Foundation, I learned about the community development efforts of Hoffman MN. Sheri lifted up Hoffman as a community that has “harnessed their can do spirit” in the face of decades of decline.  A couple years ago, most of Hoffman’s main street stood empty.  Enter Muriel Krusemark, who returned to town after years of managing a deli elsewhere.  She accepted the part-time job as  part-time coordinator for the Hoffman Economic Development Administration (HEDA), and that’s when all the fun seems to have started. 

Since Sheri left her comment, I’ve been scouring the Internet for information about what’s going on in Hoffman.  For a small town of 672, there’s a lot out there.  Perhaps the most informative sources are two short YouTube videos that capture Muriel’s presentation at this year’s Symposium on Small Towns at the University of Minnesota - Morris.  I’ve embedded both videos below.  (Note: unfortunately, the first part of Muriel’s presentation is missing.) 

(source:  “Muriel’s Hoffman presentation at the Symposium on Small Towns - part 2,” hoffeditor, YouTube, June 10, 2010)

 

(source: “Muriel’s Hoffman presentation at the Symposium on Small Towns - Part 2,” hoffeditor, YouTube, June 10, 2010)

 

In addition to the videos above and the links at the end of this post, I’ve also been talking to people about Hoffman, including Muriel, who I met at the Midwest Rural Assembly.  I’d like to lift out a bit of what I see happening in Hoffman.

 

8  ”bright spots” from Hoffman, MN

1) Asking “what can I do to help?” When Muriel first accepted her part-time job as economic development coordinator, she went around to businesses and asked “What can we do to make your business better?” In one situation, the business owner replied that he needed more space. Although she couldn’t finance a new building, Muriel helped connect him with a resource provider who verified that an expansion made financial sense. As a result, he moved into a larger space. Today his business is thriving.

2) Supporting entrepreneurs. Retail is tough in any small town. To address this issue, Hoffman created what might be termed a “business incubator.” Called The Galleria, the community purchased two vacant buildings on Main Street, and created attractive retail space from which multiple retail businesses could sell their products. Not only is the space affordable, but it addresses the issue of staffing; products from businesses are always for sale, even if the business owner is not always present. The Galleria is now privately owned and does not offer any formal businesses assistance training. But from the people I talked to, it sounds like Muriel is filling that void with advice she’s picked up over the years. Currently, there are twenty-two businesses operating out of this space.

3) Listening to the public. With assistance from a college intern, Muriel created a survey, asking the residents what issues needed to be addressed. High on the lists were increased healthcare offerings and a hardware store.

4) Improving health care.  When the community survey shows residents wanted more health care services in Hoffman, Muriel helped secure a grant to develop the Healthcare Mall. It replaced two more empty buildings on Main Street and has helped bring four medical professionals to Hoffman.  Now the elderly don’t have to drive elsewhere to receive medical care.

5) Building local economy.  Both the Galleria and the Healthcare Mall were public projects that help keep dollars in the community.  But an equally impressive effort has been the establishment of the Hoffman Farmer’s Market.  The market resulted from a rumor that went around town two year ago.  Since everyone was so excited about the rumor, Muriel decided she’d better create the market.  Listening to Muriel talk, I think it’s become more than a farmers market; it’s become a third place where residents come together to build relationships.

6) Creating amenities that attract people.  Hoffman is not located in a region noted for its outdoor amenities.  But in order to make the community more attractive to young families, they have taken steps to improve their recreational facilities.  For instance, they created an ice skating rink so that kids had something to do in the winter.  But when they noticed it was going unused, the community didn’t give up and call the project a waste.  Instead they discovered that children weren’t using it because they didn’t have skates. They addressed the issue by seeking a donation that helped purchase skates for children in need. 

7) Improving the housing stock.  It’s often easy to think that developing new housing should be a private sector project.  In Hoffman, the city took responsibility and helped create a new housing development, selling the lots for one dollar.  Even though the new houses that fill the development today are mostly from people within the community, I’m sure the development played a significant role in attracting the fourteen new families that have moved to Hoffman in recent months by opening up some of the older (and more affordable) housing stock.

8) Being transparent.  “Transparency” is a big word in the world of social media marketing.  Because word travels fast with social media, businesses have to be more open and honest with their customers than ever before.  (Just ask BP what happens when you don’t.)  I was very impressed to find many video clips of HEDA’s meeting being shared on Youtube.  Muriel tells me that most residents don’t access the videos online, but posting them as a part of the public record helps instill confidence and reduce false rumors. 

There’s a lot of good stuff going on in Hoffman.  What impresses me most is that there appears to be an understanding that there’s no quick fix to their problems.  The future will be tied to consistently developing lots of little projects that make sense in their community.  And with Muriel leading the charge, I’m sure Hoffman will have a bright future.

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Posted in Community Engagement, Economic Development, Housing, Rural, Training and Events, Youth | Comments (0)

Another learning opportunity from Minnesota

June 28th, 2010

A few weeks ago, I stumbled across the Southwest Initiative Foundation’s Blog.  I was familiar with the SWIF’s good work via their website as well as other sources.  But this was the first time I’d connected with their blog.  I was excited to see it because it gives me a reason to check back on their efforts more often.

Of particular note, I discovered one blog post titled “Social Marketing for Business 101“ featuring Neil Linscheid, Minnesota Extension Educator extraordinaire (you may also remember Neil from my blog post referencing “the stare”).  Neil had partnered with the SWIF to deliver “Social Media 101″ training to thiry-three Luverne, MN business owners.    

We’ve been advocating for quite some time that rural community development leaders figure out how to help local businesses engage in more effective social media strategies, so it’s great to hear about these efforts in rural Minnesota. 

After reading the post, I fired off an e-mail to Neil, asking for further details.  He responded with great information, including an invitation to a second round of training in Ortonville, MN.  There’s a long shot that I will buzz over to the sessions tonight.  If I do, I will report back on the details.  

In case I don’t, however, I’d like to pass along a few thoughts for anyone looking to develop similar training in rural communities. 

1. Make sure you extend a personal invitation to businesses owners. Neil offices out of Marshall, MN. I’m sure he’s got a great network across the region, but nothing can replace the power of a personal invitation from a friend. In the case of the Luverne training, Neil credits “Tammy” the owner of the Coffey Haus, for the great turnout. (I think thirty-seven attendees in a community of 4500 is outstanding.)

2. Develop a system for ongoing support. One of the pit falls of many training programs is that they often involve a one-night session. These sessions are great at building excitement. But excitement wears away quickly when people don’t have any place to go for ongoing support. Neil is currently developing some “coaches” who will fulfill that role.

3. Highlight examples of how local businesses are effectively using social media. Before jumping into anything new like social media, people have to see themselves being able to use the technology. That’s difficult if the only examples of businesses using social media effectively are the size of the Ford Motor company. Neil explained that Tammy, from the Coffey Haus, served that role as well. Leading up to the training, they worked together to develop the Coffey Huas’ plan. (check out the Coffey Haus’ Facebook page.) I’m sure many of the attendees thought, “If Tammy can do it, so can I.”  When I shared this with Neil he responded, “It’s the truth. Before we can make lasting changes we need to believe it’s something we can accomplish.”

Neil hinted at further training opportunities, but I’m not sure if any have been officially planned yet.  If you are interested in training like this coming to your community, I’d encourage you to contact Neil.

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Posted in Community Engagement, Rural, Training and Events | Comments (1)

What’s going on in Minnesota?

June 2nd, 2010

I need your help.  Back in January I marked June 9 & 10 on my calendar as the dates for the Center for Small Towns “2010 Symposium on Small Towns and Rural-Urban Gathering.”  Unfortunately, my niece’s high school graduation in Tacoma, WA will prevent my attendance.  That’s where you come in.  I’m looking for people who are attending and are willing to share their insights from the conference.

I’m particularly interested in the pre-symposium event titled the “Rural and Urban Gathering Agenda.”  The gathering stems from the work of the Rural Urban Connections Project (i.e. - Rurb.MN), which has developed under the leadership of Minnesota Rural Partners.   As I described back in February, the project’s primary goal is to identify and better understand the economic and social connections that connect rural and urban communities. 

I’m sure the project’s leaders will share key elements of what they have learned in the last 6-7 months, but the focus of the pre-symposium event is the formation of a Rural-Urban Partnering Council. The council will seek to leverage what’s been learned to increase innovation and wealth creation across Minnesota.    Rural and urban communities working together more effectively: that’s a very intriguing idea to me.

As I think about the value of people from rural and urban communities working together, I’m struck by the need for people in Minnesota and South Dakota to work together.  There’s a political boundary that divides our states, but connections exist that traverse this boundary.  Wouldn’t Minnesota and South Dakota benefit froma better understanding of these relationships?   Couldn’t both states  benefit from collaboration across state lines?

And that leads me back to my request for assistance.  If you haven’t already registered for the symposium, get it done.  It’s  an inexpensive conference($65),  and registration can be done online. 

And once you are there, I hope you will consider sharing your insights via social media.  I’d love to read some Tweets while I’m sitting in the Minneapolis airport, waiting for my connecting flight to Tacoma.  If you don’t use Twitter or have your own blog, perhaps we can work out a guest posts on ReImagine Rural.  It could be our first step in establishing stronger collaborative relationships.

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Should we banish “brain drain” from our vocabulary

January 8th, 2010

In his report “Rural Migration:  The Brain Gain of Newcomers,” Ben Winchester tells us that many parts of rural Minnesota are experiencing a brain gain with new residents age 30-45 moving in.  This is a very important occurrence because rural areas tend to lose younger individuals as they go off to college. 

For those who haven’t read the report, I want to share a few insights Ben sent me via e-mail. 

First, Ben’s research leads him to believe the trend he discovered in Minnesota is widespread across the Rural Midwest, including South Dakota.  While I trust Ben’s academic prowess, I’d still like to see some research to support it.  After all, my South Dakota heritage tells me that all the good stuff happens to Minnesota and not South Dakota.

Second, he highlights a point made explicit in his report:  Over half of the residents moving to rural communities come with college degrees.  This trend has helped raise the educational attainment level of rural communities.  In other words, the communities are getting smarter, not dumber, which leads to his last point.

Finally, using the word “brain drain” to describe the rural population movement creates problems for us as we try to move rural communities forward.  As Ben writes, “the use of negative language to describe the dynamics of our small towns (brain drain, outmigration) makes it difficult to foresee a way forward for our rural people.” 

This last point is one that I’ve long agreed with.  From my economic development specialist’s perspective, using “brain drain” creates a marketing challenge.  Why would we expect outsiders to look positively at our communities when we imply that the smart people are all moving away?

But I’ve continued to use the phrase anyway for a couple reasons.  First, even though it’s negative, the phrase helps focus our attention on the issue of young people moving out of our communities.  And second, I’m not aware of a term to replace it with.  

Ben and I hope to get together sometime in the near future to discuss this and other issues.  I’m open to the possibility of banishing the word from my vocabulary.  But before I do, want to throw the topic out to our readers here at ReImagine Rural. 

Should we banish the phrase “brain drain” from our language?  And if so, how can we continue to focus attention on the need to create change in our rural communities so that they become more attractive places for young people?  What do you think?

Photo Credit:  spierzchala - Flickr

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Rural “Brain Gain”! It’s true

January 6th, 2010

A few weeks ago, Jennifer Gumbel, a Gen Y lawyer from Le Roy, MN commented on a Minnesota Public Radio forum that she thought her rural communities was experiencing “brain gain” rather than “brain drain.”  In other words, young people are staying and moving into her community at a higher rate than those moving out. (see more on this here) 

Well, it looks like her intuition was right.  The University of Minnesota’s Extension Center for Community Vitality has produced a report titled “Rural Migration:  The Brain Gain of Newcomers,” which support’s Gumbel’s claims.

Using a “simple cohort technique” to analyze population growth and decline, the study found that many rural Minnesota communities are experiencing an in-migration of adults in age cohorts of 35-49.  Definitely a positive trend.  And when these new residents move in, they often bring children, causing an increase over time in the class sizes in rural schools.  This trend points out the importance for rural communities to develop “people attraction strategies” targeting young adults in their child rearing years. 

The report doesn’t analyze why residents were attracted to these rural Minnesota counties, but it does offer analysis conducted by the University of Nebraska. This research of why people age 30-44 have moved to the Panhandle region suggests they do so because they want:

I’m definitely over simplifying the analysis of the “Rural Migration:  The Brain Gain of Newcomers” report, so I hope readers will dig in deeper.  (BTW, I found it to be a very readable report.) I hope that someone will eventually study the specifics of why people are moving to these rural Minnesota communities and why they are not moving to others.  I suspect employment plays a key role, but I doubt that it the only factor.  The report has also left me hoping to discover current trends in rural South Dakota.  Could we have a “brain gain” and not know it?

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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

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Are you toiling in the urban mailroom?

December 22nd, 2009

As I mentioned in my previous post, there is a lot of insightful information in this Minnesota Public Radio virtual forum.  I shared some of the best themes and comments in that post, but I wanted to pull out one comment for publication by itself.

Late in the conversation, Jennifer Gumbel (10:52) provided the following insightful comment:

I feel I live in an area that is brain-gaining… SE MN. I’m originally from Sioux Falls and have lived in the Cities and in Des Moines. I now live in Le Roy, MN and work in Preston as an attorney. My professional and personal life is more fulfilling in many ways than my big city classmates. I have more responsibility on more interesting cases. I’m a homeowner and live next to a State Park. I have the opportunity to play part time in a symphony. I see many of my colleagues or friends who are originally from this area returning. I couldn’t be happier to be in a small town.”

Wow!  What an endorsement for rural Minnesota.

What Jennifer suggests is an often overlooked attractor to rural places:  Many talented young people who migrate to the city often end up toiling in the mailroom, while their rural counterparts are taking on real responsibilities right away.

Obviously, that’s not universal for every person and job, but it’s important to note because we know Gen Y is very interested in being given responsibility.  If I were recruiting a young person to work in a rural community, I would definitely emphasize this point.

And congratulations to Le Roy and Preston, MN.  Sioux Falls’ loss is rural Minnesota’s gain.

 

Photo Credit — libraryimages - Flickr (Preston, MN 1874 — click to enlarge)

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Hollowing out the Middle in Minnesota

December 21st, 2009

As hoped, Hollowing out the Middle is drawing some much needed attention to the issue of “brain drain” in the Heartland of Rural America. (read my past posts about the book here.) 

Recently, Kate Smith of Minnesota Public Radio interviewed Hollowing out the Middle’s co-author, Patrick Carr.  At the same time, fellow MPR employee, Mike Caputo, hosted a virtual forum with people from around Minnesota offering their ideas. 

Carr issued his usual excellent performance in his interview with Smith.  He provides insights into why young people leave and what he thinks rural communities should be doing to change it.  You can listen to the interview by following this link .  

You can also review the entire transcript from the virtual forum by following this link. What you will find is lively conversation between individuals with firsthand experience from living in rural communities. 

Unfortunately, following a conversation in a virtual forum can be a bit difficult  to follow. For that reason, I’ve attempted to lift a few key points from the transcript and organized them around three main points. 

 

Conversation Starters

First, it’s important that young people have a good experience in their community while growing up.  Carr and Kefalas talk at length about how many of the young people they interviewed for Hollowing out the Middle felt a deep connection to their community.  But this connection is not universal across individuals and communities, and it often dissipates over time.  It’s something that needs constant cultivation.  The following quotes from the virtual forum offer a sampling of ideas on how this can be done. 

I like that the conversation is about connecting with young people before they move away.  Too often, people think the retention of young people only starts after they’ve finished high school.  If that’s your community, you’re waiting too long. 

 

Second, make sure you are building a community that young people want to return to.    Many individuals on the virtual forum spoke of the importance of employment opportunities.  We definitely can never lose sight that.   But I was impressed with an insight provided by Dan Erkkila (10:10) who noted that being able to offer young people jobs is only one aspect of what makes community life fulfilling.  A community can offer all the jobs in the world, but if people don’t want to live in the community they won’t. 

Some additional comments on this subject include:  

 

And this leads me to the last point that I want to lift out of the forum:  Young people need to feel a sense of belonging to the community if we expect them to choose our rural communities.  Personally, I liked Neil Linscheid’s comment (10:30) on this subject best; “Good friends and relationships = quality of life for me.”  When making this comment, Neil was speaking more to a definition of quality of life, but he also highlights how important relationships are to a sense of belonging.  Later (10:35) he mentioned having to personally seek out community groups to get involved with because it can be tough for people who don’t frequent the bars to build relationships otherwise.

I appreciated that other individuals recognized the importance of intentionally building friendships through community involvement as well:

There’s really something to this notion that getting people involved in the community is important to attracting and retaining young people in the community.  But as the Soul of the Community study notes, it’s also important to the overall economic wellbeing of the community. 

There are a lot of other great insights offered throughout the virtual forum.  It’s a great place to start for any community seeking to address the issue of youth outmigration.

 

Photo Credit:  Mulad - Flickr

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You only see the tip

December 17th, 2009

When Neil Linschied told the audience at the Midwest Rural Assembly how he deals with “the stare,” I knew he had something good to say about how young people fit into a rural community.  (go here for more on “the stare.” ) 

Today, an article titled “Area leadership program winds down” in the Worthington Daily Globe convinced me that Neil has a lot more to share about leadership development in rural communities. 

The article highlights the Worthington Integrative Community Leadership Program, which was organized by University of Minnesota Extension’s Center for Community Vitality.  The program’s intent is to build broad based leadership.  Worthington, MN, for those who don’t know, is a rural community with a large Hispanic population.  As program facilitator Toby Spanier states in the article:

If Worthington is going to be successful, the leadership should mirror the community as much as possible.”  (source: “Area leadership program winds down,” Worthington Daily Globe. 12-16-09)  

Even though I don’t know Worthington first-hand, I couldn’t agree more.

Neil, also interviewed in the article, shared something about how we relate to newcomers to our communities that I had never thought of before. As the article states:

Linscheid presented a culture iceberg, saying only 10 percent of a person’s culture is accessible through first impressions and stereotypes. Things like food, dress and language are only the tip of the iceberg, while beliefs, attitudes, problems and emotions are “below water.”

Think about someone you meet and what you notice right away,” he said. “What are those things you can’t see? … The important thing to remember is this stuff is what makes people who they are.”

The stuff that we can’t see about someone else is really the stuff that makes the person who they are.  Yet, we make snap decisions about newcomers to our rural communities the moment they walk into the café.

It’s a good reminder for us as we think about how we can transform our community into places where young people want to live.  Judging others before they get a chance to become a part of the community is an easy way to drive them away.   

Photo Credit:  natalielucier - Flickr

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Economic Development - It happens in Rural Communities too!

November 11th, 2009

Prairie Business Magazine just released a story touting recent job creation activities in small, rural communities of the Upper Midwest.  The article’s message: small, rural communities can enjoy job growth if they are focused and work at it. 

There’s a lot of good advice for communities in the article.  What caught my attention, however, was how Marshall, MN is using the web and social media as a part of their economic development plan.  Mark Hanson, economic development director with the City of Marshall, MN is quoted in the article saying:

“Cities like Marshall don’t have a lot of money to spend on marketing and advertising.  We have to find the best ways to spend what we have. We have decided to stop printing brochures. The website is less expensive and we can continuously update it.”

Brochures, no! Website, yes…and Facebook and Twitter too!

When I took a quick a quick peek at Marshall’s Facebook  and Twitter accounts, I was impressed: mostly updates on events and news articles, with a few video’s added for extra flavor.  Through it we get a more authentic look at Marshall than if we were looking at a flashy brochure.  

We’ve previously listed other communities that have created Facebook Pages (Energize Clinton County (OH), Webster, SD and Miller, SD) as a part of their economic development strategies.  We definitely think it’s a move in the right direction.

As more and more communities embrace this strategy, however, we need to start asking:  How has creating a Facebook page made an impact on your community?  What is the measurable impact?  Any new businesses come to town?  Do you see community problems getting solved on-line?  What’s actually happening?  If you have some answers, we hope you will share. 

Note:  Congratulations to the South Dakota communities of Milbank, Watertown, Arlington, Eureka, Britton, and Roslyn on the recent opening of Link It Software offices.

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