Mid-July 2004 Volume II, Number 6

Compiled by Deb Miller Slipek, News Finder Extraordinary &
Jane Leonard, MRP President & Editor

IN THIS ISSUE:
In this issue:
- Governor Pawlenty to address Rural Summit in August - Early Bird Registration until Friday, July 23 - Scholarships available for West Central attendees
- Rural Resource Roundups collecting great innovation stories across the state
- People & Places
- Policy & Programs
- Funding
- Training/Conferences
- Tools
- Across the Field, by Jane Leonard

2004 MINNESOTA RURAL SUMMIT UPDATE - Early Bird Registration by July 23!

--Governor Tim Pawlenty will address the 2004 Minnesota Rural Summit, on Thursday, August 19. The Summit, which starts Wednesday evening, August 18, and concludes on Friday afternoon, August 20, in Hibbing, focuses on innovation, entrepreneurship and the complex mix of sectors that work together to 21st century rural development. The early bird registration deadline is this Friday, July 23. Registration will continue after July 23, but you can save $50 if you register by this Friday. To register and for more information, go to http://www.minnesotaruralpartners.org/2004_summit/index.htm

--Summit Scholarships for West Central Minnesota residents: The West Central Regional Sustainable Development Partnership is offering five, $200 scholarships for the Rural Summit. Scholarships will go first to community leaders/citizens from the west central Minnesota area contacting Dorothy Rosemeier at the West Central Regional Sustainable Development Partnership: phone 320-760-3735, toll free 877-501-3735, Fax: 320-875-2022 or 320-589-4870. Web Site: www.regionalpartnerships.umn.edu

SECOND ANNUAL RURAL RESOURCE ROUNDUPS - "ON THE ROAD TO INNOVATION!"

Rural Summit planners have hosted several Rural Resource Round-ups in preparation for the Summit, all across Minnesota. Check out the Innovation Stories that have been collected, many of which will be featured at the 2004 Summit: http://www.minnesotaruralpartners.org/innovation_stories.htm

Attend one of the following scheduled Rural Resource Round-up meetings in your area! People are encouraged to bring information to share about their organizations, resources and programs. There is no charge to attend these meetings. For more information and to RSVP please go to http://www.minnesotaruralpartners.org/ruralroundup.htm.

July 22 - Bemidji - Co-hosted by Bemidji State University - Center for Research and Innovation, Northwest Technical College - Bemidji, Northwest Minnesota Foundation, and Headwaters Regional Development Commission. -- 9:00 AM - 11:30 AM at Northwest Technical College, 905 Grant Ave. SE, Bemidji -- RSVP online or call 218-755-4900 or email cri@bemidjistate.edu

July 27 - Moose Lake - Co-hosted by the Moose Lake Technology Initiative Committee and the City of Moose Lake -- 3:30 PM- 6:00 PM at the Moose Lake Community and Civic Center, 313 Elm Avenue in Moose Lake. -- RSVP online or to Carmen Palazzari, on behalf of the MLATI, at 218-485-4441 or by email at cpalazzari@firstmooselake.com

July 28 - Duluth - Hosted by the UMD Center for Economic Development. -- 9:00 AM - 12:00 Noon at the UMD Center for Economic Development, 11 East Superior Street, Suite 210 Duluth -- RSVP online

July 29 - Grand Marais - University of MN Extension Service, Cook County -- 1- 4:00 PM at the Cook County Community Center, 317 West 5th Street, Grand Marais -- RSVP online

People & Places

Carla Carlson, former MN Rural Partners Board Member, and Chief of Staff at the College of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, has additionally been named Assistant Vice President for Agricultural Policy, effective June 14, 2004. Carla continues in her role as Chief of Staff. Her new title formally recognizes the system-wide
responsibilities that she has undertaken in supporting the University of Minnesota's role in economic growth and development, the presidential interdisciplinary initiatives and special projects. Congrats, Carla!

--The U.S. Department of the Treasury has selected 62 organizations to receive a total of $3.5 billion in tax credit allocations through the second round of the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) Program. The NMTC Program is administered by Treasury's Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund. The CDFI Fund anticipates that applications for the third round of the NMTC Program will be available during summer of 2004. A complete list of 2004 NMTC recipients and additional information can be found on the CDFI Fund's Web site: www.cdfifund.gov.

-- The tax bill in the U.S. Senate includes a tax credit for starting and growing small business in rural counties losing population. The Jumpstart Our Business Strength Act (S 1637) would provide a 30 percent tax credit for money invested in starting or expanding an owner-operated business with five or fewer employees. The bill now goes to the House of Representatives. The idea for the small business tax credit was taken from the New Homestead Act, co-sponsored by Senators Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and 15 others. The provision was placed in the tax bill by Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Max Baucus (D-MT). Read the entire article:http://www.cfra.org/newsletter/current.htm

Funding Seminar

--The Minnesota Community Foundation is launching a pilot statewide initiative to fund visionary ideas addressing issues important to Minnesotans. In each of the next three years, the Foundation will award up to 10 vision grants of approximately $10,000 each. In 2004, the Foundation is requesting visionary ideas in the areas of Health, Environmental Education, and Public Safety. These small, flexible grants are intended to seed and spark nonprofit leaders and communities to explore concepts and take risks. The application deadline date is August 9, 2004. More details and application materials are available on the Minnesota Community Foundations Web site at www.mncommunityfoundation.org

--The W.K. Kellogg Foundation will award up to $8 million in grants to foster entrepreneurship across rural America. Four grants of up to $2 million each will be awarded to regional rural entrepreneurship development systems. The deadline is August 13. More application information is at http://www.wkkf.org/ruralentrepreneurs or CFED's Web site at www.eshipsystems.org. For additional questions, please contact CFED at 202-408-9788, ext 261, or email CFED at eshipsystems@cfed.org.

Training and Conferences

--The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis are sponsoring the 2004 National Community Development Lending School (NCDLS), being held this week at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. To download a copy of the brochure and application, visit http://www.frbsf.org/community/resources/ncdls2004.pdf.

-- Business and Diversity Conference: Strengthening Rural Communities August 10, 2004, 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. in Marshall, Minnesota. Sponsored by the Rural Cultural Diversity Coalition, the Otto Bremer Foundation, and the Southwest Minnesota Foundation, this conference aims to share the message that immigrants to Greater Minnesota have a tremendous and critical economic impact to the survival of rural communities. It will include best practices in various areas of community life including business, education, and others that promote inclusiveness. More than 20 concurrent sessions will be available, in addition to keynote speakers Rob Grunewald, Regional Economic Analyst with the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis; Matt Kramer, Commissioner of the MN Department of Employment and Economic Development; and Bruce Corie, Professor of Economics at Concordia University, St. Paul. Registration is $30 per person, $20 per person if individuals from a business and a public service/nonprofit agency register together. For more information or to register, see www.marshall-mn.org or call 507-537-7046.

--The Minnesota Department of Human Services and the Minnesota Board on Aging present, "The Age Odyssey 2004: A Timeless Journey," scheduled for August 24-25, 2004, at the St. Cloud Civic Center. The Age Odyssey is a two-day conference dedicated to aging services and community long-term care in Minnesota. The conference focuses on strategies that help seniors remain independent and ways for communities to develop the infrastructure and services needed to best serve them. More information is available at www.mnaging.org/ageodyssey, or call the conference hot line at (651) 917-4645, or send an e-mail to ageodyssey@tcaging.org

-- Cooperative Innovation - The 7th Annual Farmer Cooperatives Conference, November 1-2, 2004, Kansas City, Missouri, will highlight the innovative activities of our agricultural cooperatives. Cooperative leaders from around the country who have successfully initiated novel approaches within their organization or helped start new ventures will speak at the conference. With over 150 cooperative board members, managers, and cooperative scholars expected in attendance, ample time for discussion and interaction will be included. Cooperatives are not generally thought of as entrepreneurial organizations and yet, today many are at the forefront of agribusiness innovation. Cooperatives are being created in the renewable energy and other sectors to help farmers capture the full rewards of new market opportunities. Some existing cooperatives have modified their financial and ownership structures in order to remain competitive in today's global marketplace while continuing to meet the needs of their diverse memberships. Recent changes in state laws allow unprecedented prospects for the evolution of the cooperative model.
Visit http://www.wisc.edu/uwcc/farmercoops04/index.html for more information.

Tools

--Request For Applications: University Of Minnesota Community Assistantship Program. Deadline November 1. The Community Assistantship Program (CAP) provides research assistance to community groups, organizations, and local governments in Greater Minnesota.

Community groups can apply to CAP to access a student researcher to work on a project that will have a positive impact on the community and help it achieve its goals. CAP's objectives are to: (1) enhance the capacity of community-based organizations by providing access to research and technical resources available at the University of Minnesota; and (2) provide students and faculty increased opportunities to complete useful, community-driven applied research projects. Projects may include any area relevant to the needs and interests of rural community groups. Student assistance is short-term (generally 3 to 4 months for 10 - 20 hours per week). Among other areas, past student projects have addressed issues of housing, health care, education, social services, agricultural production and marketing, natural resources management and conservation, tourism and trails development, economic development, downtown revitalization, alternative and renewable energy, land use, community-based planning, cultural and historical preservation, and meeting the needs of Greater Minnesota's aging and increasingly diverse populations. The CAP Application form is available on the web at http://www.cura.umn.edu/programs/CAP/capcomappform.html, or by contacting the CAP office at 612/626-7537 or by e-mail: capcura@umn.edu.

--Hispanics and nonmetropolitan growth - Hispanics are among the most urbanized ethnic/racial groups in America, with 9 out of 10 Hispanics living in a metro area. In the past two decades, however, Hispanics have become the most rapidly growing group in nonmetropolitan America. See this report and others about rural America in the latest issue of Amber Waves from the USDA's Economic Research Service at http://www.ers.usda.gov/Amberwaves/June04/Features/

-- Evaluation of the Kansas Sirolli Project - Ernesto Sirolli and his Sirolli Institute has captured the interest of many across North America with his enterprise facilitation strategy. By and large Enterprise Facilitation has not been independently evaluated. The Center for Rural Entrepreneurship in Nebraska, in partnership with EntreWorks, is doing such an evaluation of the Kansas Sirolli Project. The Year Two evaluation report has recently completed and it is now available at
http://www.ruraleship.org/index_html?page=content/Kansas.htm#Library. Questions regarding this report and other work related to the Kansas Sirolli Project can be sent to Don Macke at don@ruraleship.org

POSITION VACANCY
COMMUNITY/ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PLANNER

The East Central Regional Development Commission (ECRDC) is seeking a Community/Economic Development Planner. Duties include providing technical planning assistance to local units of government in economic development, grants administration, and management of a revolving loan fund program. Background in comprehensive land use planning and zoning is desired. Requirements for the position are a bachelor's degree in planning, urban affairs or related field and at least two years of experience. Relevant certifications in economic development finance or housing may substitute for experience. Salary range: $34,826 - $50,027 DOQ plus benefits. Send resume and cover letter to ECRDC, 100 Park St. So, Mora, MN 55051 or e-mail at ecrdc@ecrdc.org. Deadline for applications is Friday, July 30, 2004. Call (320) 679-4065 for additional information and a job description or visit our web site at www.region7erdc.org.

ACROSS THE FIELD – by Jane Leonard, MRP President

Many organizations and people have worked together all year long to bring to you the 2004 Minnesota Rural Summit, "Gearing Up for the Innovation Economy." We all hope you will take the time to consider coming to Hibbing, August 18-20, for the Rural Summit, and participate in what has always been at its heart the annual "rendezvous" for rural development. Like our ancestors, once a year we come from woods and prairie and hamlet and town to gather to exchange goods, services, and ideas. This year, so many people have said to me that they have never been to Hibbing, or to the Iron Range - and my reply is always the same: "Then come, for Pete's sake, and see another part of YOUR state." Get out of your comfort zone. Get out of your region, out of your town, out of the suburbs. Get out and see Minnesota. See the place the helped win World War II with ore used round the world. Talk to the people who learned a long time ago to work together, despite their ethnic differences. Learn from your neighbors - that's how innovation happens - sharing ideas even if you don't always agree at first.

It's become rarer in recent years and months that Minnesotans have had ways to come together - to think of ourselves as Minnesotans first. We think of ourselves as Democrats or Republicans, or Greens or Independents a lot these days. We identify with our city or a region, or metro or rural or suburban. We find so many ways to separate ourselves that we narrow our ability to come together. Yet, we must come together as one state to have even a fighting chance of being economically and socially resilient and strong in the Midwest, in the nation, and on the world scene.

I love Minnesota absolutely, unconditionally. I was born here but moved away at age four and was heartbroken. I came back every summer to my grandparents' farm, and finally, as an adult, I moved back permanently. That was 25 years ago - 1979 - working my first job on the Norman County Index in Ada, Minnesota. I am heartbroken again, though, at how we have polarized ourselves in so many ways. The state I love has become pieces, not a whole. We've lost our ability to see a statewide vision, and to make even basic infrastructure and educational investments that not only benefit those close by, but other Minnesotans who may live hundreds of miles away from us - whether on the Iron Range and Lake Superior shores, on the prairie in northwestern and southwestern Minnesota, in the woods and lakes of our central region (including the Twin Cities), and the valleys of southeast. They are all a part of us, because we are all Minnesotans. Come to Hibbing in August and learn again the interconnectedness of our economic and social fabrics. Remember why we are Minnesotans, rooted in a heritage of rural values: sacrifice for others, determination to succeed, and innovation borne from shared adversity and opportunity. See you on the Range!

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