Posts Tagged ‘Minnesota’

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

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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Posted in Community Engagement, Economic Development, Gen Y, Rural | Comments (0)

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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Winona invests in wind

September 21st, 2009

News comes to us from Minnesota announcing a partnership enabling Winona County to become “the first county in Minnesota to develop renewable energy to benefit taxpayers.” (see “County finalizes wind turbine project,” Winona Daily News)

This sounds very similar to what the City of Howard accomplished back in 2001 when it became the first municipality in the state to own and operate wind turbines. (The two other communities in Miner County–Carthage and Canova–followed suit in 2002.)

Although similar in many ways, the two projects appear to differ in their desired outcome.  Howard’s motivation revolved around assisting a start-up wind energy company and developing a stronger community brand. Winona’s goals, on the other hand, appear to be to provide a model for wind energy development and develop a revenue source for economic development efforts.  (According to the article, the Winona County Economic Development Authority could receive up to $1.12 million from the sale of electricity over the next 20 years.)

The ability of the wind project to deliver over a million dollars in revenue to the Winona Count EDA will only be proven by time.  But I think the community leaders should be congratulated for looking at the wind development as a source of revenue for economic development.

 

Why investments like this are important

It has been the experience of the Rural Learning Center that most rural communities know they need to invest in economic development, but few have or want to use tax dollars to invest in those efforts.  If not tax dollars, then what?

Admittedly Winona’s investment doesn’t come without risks, and questioning public investment in private sector business is a legitimate concern.  But there’s little doubt that the Winona model points the way to one option for funding community development activities.

It also raises the question:  What is your community doing to fund economic and community development for your community? 

Note: Thanks go to Dakota Rural Action for tweeting about this project. (and who says Tweeting is a waste of time?)  And thanks to Linda Grover, Director of the Winona County Economic Development Authority, for answer a few questions.

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Housing crisis catches up to rural

May 13th, 2009

The Wall Street Journal recently put a face on the housing foreclosure problems confronting rural residents in Minnesota. Nestled into this human interest story are some interesting (and unfortunate) statistics that suggest more attention to this crisis in rural places is warranted.  

For instance, foreclosures outside of the Minnesota/St. Paul region of Minnesota have increased by 232% since 2005. 

Also, home values in rural communities have dropped 13% since their peak.  Although this decline is less severe than urban/suburban areas (23%), one must consider another compelling statistic: rural values only increased 45% from 2000-2006, while urban home values increased a whopping 84%.

Get a feel for the reasons rural residents are losing their home by reading this story, titled “Foreclosure Trouble Spreads to Those Who Bet the Farm“.

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Third Places in South Central Minnesota

February 25th, 2009

If you haven’t figured out what third places are all about, I’d highly recommend you check out an oral history project called “The Third Place Project.” 

Part of a larger project intended to record the oral history of the South Central Minnesota region, the “Third Place Project” focuses on third places in Mankato, MN.   

Although Mankato is not rural, I think the audio recordings do an outstanding job of showing the importance of third places in building a sense of community, regardless of a community’s size.  The recordings also offer great insights into how small business owners can compete against larger business in urban areas.  For instance:

In a slideshow about Dan’s Barbershop, you’ll hear long-time barber Dan Quaderer talk about the art of building relationships.  To quote Dan “”Haircutting isn’t about haircutting.  It’s about building relationships.”  

Through numerous audio recordings with customers of Mocol’s Supermarket, you can learn how the owners of a grocery store facilitated political discussions and encourage civic involvement.

Listening to the interviews on at the Wagon Wheel Restaurant, one gets the feeling that people from all walks of life make the place special, including college students and retirees. 

Developed by Dave Engen, an instructor in the Department of Speech Communication at Minnesota State University, the “The Third Place Project” is a must for anyone interested in third places. 

Other resources include:

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