September 2004 Volume II, Number 7

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

IN THIS ISSUE:
In this issue:
- Rural Heritage Rural Roots Campaign
- 2004 Rural Summit
- Across the Field, by Jane Leonard
- Policy & Programs
- Funding
- Training/Conferences
- Tools

RURAL HERITAGE RURAL ROOTS CAMPAIGN

In March, 2005, Minnesota Rural Partners celebrates its 10th anniversary! Stay tuned on this channel for exciting events and related programs and services ahead! To commemorate this occasion and help move us forward into the next decade, please give generously and join the “Rural Heritage, Rural Roots” campaign. We have three donors thus far and counting!

Lately we’ve read and heard lots of stories about how Minnesota is losing its rural roots—that the very soul of Minnesota is disappearing as the 11-county metro area now holds 58% of the state’s population and many people living there don’t care or don’t know about the people and places beyond. Many of us do live in the metro now, but came from rural roots, and still have a rural heritage in our values and rural roots in the form of people we love and places we hold dear. It’s been said that we are the last generation that does care and have experienced the interdependence between rural and metro and the essence of Minnesota as one state, not bifurcated by geography or in spirit.

Rural Heritage, Rural Roots will try to re-energize the deep rural roots of Minnesotans everywhere. It will support projects that unite rural and metro Minnesota. It will focus in particular on connections between small businesses across the state to help them grow. We will match former rural residents who now live in metro (your friends, your kids, your grandkids!) together with rural communities, businesses and organizations to help make a difference and rekindle those ties that bind rural and metro. May the circle be unbroken!

You can support this campaign in several ways.

(1) Please sign up for the campaign by printing off and completing the form below. Please mail the completed form with a check made out to Minnesota Rural Partners, Inc. to Minnesota Rural Partners, c/o Jane Leonard, 1533 Grantham St. St. Paul, MN 55108.

(2) Or donate online

(3) And /or send us your ideas and stories about rural-metro connections. We have a fun and spirited story-telling contest in mind so stay tuned!

Donation form:

( ) Yes, I want to join the Rural Heritage, Rural Roots campaign. Here’s what I can help with $________. Please send me your monthly email newsletter.

( ) Yes, I want to join the Rural Heritage, Rural Roots campaign. Sign me up at the Charter member level: $150 per year. Charter members receive a commemorative t-shirt, invite and discount to the 2005 Rural Summit, and monthly newsletters.

( )_Yes, I’m joining at the Charter member level. And I want to sponsor the 2005 Summit. Please contact me.

Name:_________________________________________

Address_________________________________________

State______ Zip Code_______________Phone ( )_______________

Email address:__________________________________

Sign up as a charter member between now and January 1, 2005 and we’ll send you a Rural Heritage, Rural Roots commemorative shirt. We’ll also make sure you get an invitation and discount to the 2005 anniversary activities, including the 2005 Rural Summit. Our working title for the anniversary celebration is, slightly tongue-in-cheek but semi-serious, too: “Rural Heritage, Rural Roots – Or, The Last Generation: Does Anyone in Metro Really Give a Darn about Rural or do They Just Drive Through it to Get to the Lake?” We are very curious to hear your answer to that question.

ACROSS THE FIELD – by Jane Leonard, MRP President

We apologize for the gap in the newsletter – no time to be had in August! We were on a breakneck schedule of meetings and transitions and grant applications. Honestly, the 2004 Rural Summit was a miracle. It wouldn’t have happened at all if it were not for a cadre of volunteers. Please tell everyone involved how much you appreciate their efforts.

I’ve been doing conferences for 20 years and have never seen the resources spread so thin as now. State and federal cutbacks. Cities and counties out of money. The private sector pulling back. It’s not a pretty sight anywhere, but especially at the grassroots. No money and no staff to back you up at work, and yet people came through for the Summit once again, helping where they could, because we believe in each other and have passion for rural Minnesota and for Minnesota’s future. Thanks so much to everyone. You are all awesome, and let’s hope in the next year you get some help out there doing the amazing jobs you do.

Call us a glutton for punishment, but we are already thinking about and planning for the 2005 Rural Summit. We’ve been lobbied hard by Rochester folks to have the Summit there next year, but people were really pleased to have the 2004 Summit located in a smaller town (Hibbing – which is big by most rural standards), so we will keep options open for now. Themes for next year are also kicking around – Entrepreneurship and Health Insurance, and Indian Country issues, and Rural-Metro relationships, among others.

Several of you wrote at length on the Rural Summit 04 evaluation about ideas for next year. Most importantly, we have heard from folks who want to make sure that lower income people will be involved and able to participate in 2005. It was eloquently expressed by one RS04 attendee: “Too many of our conferences – including the 2004 Summit – just give middle- to upper-income, well-placed people a chance to say that they are discussing and collaborating. Meanwhile those who can’t afford to be there (time or money) and don’t have the power – are struggling just to get thru each day. It is the knowledge gap at work – the rich, intelligent, well-connected gain more power and the others drift further behind…..” We could not agree more.

We sure don’t have all the answers, but together we can try to make headway. I invite you and anyone else who wishes to serve on next year’s Summit Planning Team to contact me at jleonard@minnesotaruralpartners.org. We will be setting up a 2005 planning meeting soon. Alex Weego, of Todd County, has graciously offered to host the first planning meeting, so stay tuned, and get ready to shorten the knowledge gap and share power.

2004 RURAL SUMMIT - Gearing Up for the Innovation Economy - A Great Success!

The results are in and this year’s Summit, held last month in Hibbing, was another resounding success, especially in content and for networking opportunities. Evaluations highlighted both areas, with “well done” and “inspiring” as some of the comments on the event. Friday’s keynote speaker, Rob Atkinson, got high marks, as did UM President Bob Bruininks. Both spoke with great sincerity and candor about the investments we need to be making to keep Minnesota and rural America strong and competitive in the face of constant innovation elsewhere in the world. Twenty-five percent of the people attending had never been to a Summit before; over half attending had never been to Hibbing before, so we are glad to get people out to see parts of Minnesota they have never seen.

Thanks to all who presented and attended, especially our co-hosts – “True North” and the Northeast Entrepreneur Fund. Thanks also to our sponsors. We hope we can count on you for next year’s event, too. Rural Summits are not money-making affairs in the 21st century. We hope they will break-even. Many of our traditional sponsors – state agencies for example – have had to cut back their funding because they have been cut back, too. Despite these hurdles, we will continue to keep registration costs low. For those of you who also put on conferences, you know that registration fees never cover the true cost of the conference. But we won’t advance as a society if we don’t get together face-to-face once in a while and exchange ideas, and somebody has to pay for such leadership capacity building. It’s not an instant return-on-investment, but certainly one that pays over the long-haul. We’ll keep trying!

Editors’ note – we reprint this article for you because it relates to what Minnesota Rural Partners has been trying to lift up for the past two years with our work on entrepreneurship and innovation. We don’t agree with everything written here -- but we do agree that Americans, both metro and rural-based, must have a serious discussion about the changes swirling around us and seek ways to be more competitive and compassionate than simply going for lowest cost – because that race just puts us at the bottom. We need to talk seriously about changing what we value as consumers and producers. Right now what Americans seem to value most is low-cost – hence the rise of Wal-Mart's and other superstores. What about the true cost of “low cost?” What about craftsmanship and stewardship? Do we produce in ways that sustain the environment? Do we consume in ways that help farm families and other small businesses sustain their livelihood and still allow them time to be community leaders? Do we invest enough in knowledge to innovate? This article and others mentioned raise questions and sometimes heated discussion – but it is discussion that ought to be happening at local, state, and national levels.

New Ideas for Rural Development
by Thomas D. Rowley

Over the past year, several institutions have taken a fresh look at rural development and proposed major policy changes to promote it.

At a March meeting convened by the international Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, the United Kingdom’s Countryside Agency and the Rural Policy Research Institute, some 120 senior policy officials and experts from 15 countries gathered near Washington, D.C. to discuss the future of rural policy. The consensus: rural policy in developed countries must change if rural communities are to prosper.

“Existing subsidies tie regions to the status quo….,” said Thomas Hoenig, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. “Holding a steady course in rural policy is likely to be expensive and less than effective.”

In his keynote address, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan pronounced that the key to improving the well-being of rural people and places lies in giving them the flexibility to innovate and adapt to changing global conditions. He went on to warn that flexibility is stymied and rural development hindered by the de facto rural policy of agricultural subsidies, which distort market forces, restrain trade and trap resources that could be better utilized in other endeavors.

According to these and other experts, new and effective rural policies would do three key things:

Replace agricultural subsidies that preserve the status quo with investments that enable innovation;
Help rural entrepreneurs find and exploit niches in the global market in which they already have or can build competitive advantages; and
Allow a wide range of individuals and institutions—public and private—from all levels—local, regional, and national—to work together to initiate and administer them.
In Competitiveness in Rural U.S. Regions: Learning and Research Agenda, Harvard Business School professor and author, Michael Porter, also makes the case for new rural policy. Commissioned by the Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration, Porter provides a useful synthesis of the rural economic situation and some ideas for improving it.

The highlights of Porter’s report:

The pain felt by some rural areas notwithstanding, Porter notes that most of the job losses have been concentrated in a few industries such as textile, apparel and footwear that now account for a small part of rural employment and are concentrated in a few regions. These industries, he says, are not representative of the whole rural economy.

“The performance of rural economies is far from dismal, and is actually promising in many fields,” Porter writes in his article. “This suggests that there may well be more opportunities for economic growth in rural areas than are generally perceived.”
The essence of rural areas is their differences, not their similarities. Efforts to improve rural economic performance must be region-specific. One size does not fit all.

Furthermore, the efforts must be truly regional—encompassing both rural and urban areas. “There is little or no structure in place to forge the strategic linkages between rural and nearby urban areas that will be critically important in moving to the next level of economic development,” the author notes.
Productivity is the key. “A region’s standard of living,” writes Porter, “is determined by the productivity of its economy. Productivity is measured by the value of goods and services produced per unit of labor, capital and the natural resources employed. Productivity sets the wages that can be sustained and the returns to investment in the region—the two principal components of per capita income.”
Porter’s article argues that the way to increase productivity is to create and commercialize innovations. And the way to promote that is to see to it that rural areas have the research, training and investment capital needed to support entrepreneurship.

Porter believes a rural policy framework is needed that recognizes and addresses the differences in rural regions and focuses on building their competitive advantages rather than simply reducing their disadvantages.

In Reversing Rural America’s Economic Decline: The Case for a National Balanced Growth Strategy, the Progressive Policy Institute’s Robert Atkinson lays out his plan for revitalizing the rural economy. In it, he writes “our de-facto federal rural policy—providing massive subsidies to a shrinking number of farmers—does little to help develop competitive rural economies or boost opportunity for rural residents.”

Atkinson’s three-pronged approach:

1. Convert farm subsidies to investments in place-based rural economic development. Citing the billions of dollars that the U.S. (and Japan and the European Union) spend propping up agricultural producers, Atkinson calls for a multi-lateral disarmament in agricultural subsidies over a 15-year period by developed nations. The money saved would be used to help rural communities plan and gear up to compete in the New Economy. (In 2001, rural development programs in the U.S. got only $1.2 billion, a fraction of the sum given to farm payments.)

2. Move rural programs out of the federal bureaucracy and consolidate them in a single quasi-governmental agency. Hundreds of federal programs exist to help rural America. Clearly, that bewildering array isn’t getting the job done and, in fact, gives community leaders fits trying to figure out where to go for help and how to get it. Atkinson wants Congress to create a new Rural Prosperity Corporation—directed by folks from business, labor, state and local government, and by rural experts—and give it the flexibility and entrepreneurial drive to make things happen.

Specifically, he wants the corporation to manage grants to states (with financial contributions by the states) that enlist them in helping communities develop. He also wants funds targeted to so-called growth poles, rather than spread all over the map.

“In order to effectively create the most jobs in rural areas,” Atkinson writes, “efforts should be targeted to a small number of centers with the potential to be the regional anchors for growth that surrounding rural residents can commute to for employment.”

3. Move government facilities and jobs out of congested, high-cost urban areas that don’t need them and into un-congested, low-cost rural areas that do. He cites Social Security Administration claims processing centers and teleservice centers as prime candidates of “routine back office government functions” that could be relocated to rural growth poles—reducing costs, maintaining service and helping rural areas.

Whither Farming?
In all these ideas, agricultural subsidies are reduced drastically, if not eliminated. What, then, will be done for farmers?

While agriculture can no longer be the driving force behind rural policy, farmers and ranchers cannot be forgotten. Rural development policies must be crafted to enhance their well-being too. Indeed, the link between the two is obvious, if sometimes ignored or presented cart before horse.

Most U.S. farm households rely on non-farm employment for the majority of their income. Rural development provides jobs, income and benefits (32 percent of the country’s farmers have no health insurance) for farmers and their families. And just like everyone else, farmers need the hospitals, schools and other services that rural development helps provide. Farmers today depend more upon the rural economy for economic survival than vice versa.

As Secretary-General of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Donald Johnston put it, “Agriculture must find itself within a new, broader, synergistic policy, not outside of it.”

Reports are available at:

New Approaches to Rural Policy: Lessons from Around the World
http://www.kansascityfed.org/RuralCenter/mainstreet/MSE_0604.pdf

Competitiveness in Rural U.S. Regions: Learning and Research Agenda
http://www.eda.gov/ImageCache/EDAPublic/documents/pdfdocs/
eda_5frural_5fregions_2epdf/v1/eda_5frural_5fregions.pdf

Reversing Rural America’s Economic Decline: The Case for a National Balanced Growth Strategy
http://www.ppionline.org/ documents/rural_economy_0204.pdf

AND FROM ACROSS THE SEA -- European Union Adopts Significant Farm Reform -- In 2003 and 2004, the European Union (EU) adopted major reforms to its agricultural policy that have important implications for the way the EU supports its farm sector, for its obligations under current WTO agreements, and for its position in ongoing WTO agricultural negotiations. This Amber Waves feature presents the key elements of the reforms and summarizes the expected impacts on production, trade, and the EU's position in the WTO.

See http://www.ers.usda.gov/AmberWaves/September04/

--Economic Research and Data - Economic Review - "New Approaches to Rural Policy: Lessons from Around the World-A Conference Summary." This third quarter Economic Review article summarizes the discussions of leading officials and rural policy experts from around the world. The conference, which explored new approaches to rural policy, was jointly sponsored by the Kansas City Fed, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Rural Policy Research Institute, and The Countryside Agency (UK). http://www.kc.frb.org/PUBLICAT/ECONREV/ermain.htm

PROGRAMS

--Entrepreneurial Development and Services - BizPathways and Finance Avenue go subscription-based as of October 1. The free ride is over. We’ve tried and we’ll keep trying, but after three years of development (thanks to the U.S. Dept of Commerce Technology Operation Grant and lots of blood, sweat and tears by our staff and partners), including one year of free services, the online entrepreneurial development and service provider matching service, BizPathways and Finance Avenue, will start charging a very modest annual subscription fee ($52) beginning October 1 so we can keep operating. This amounts to less than the cost of one cup of coffee per week and will connect you – entrepreneur or business service provider – with the assistance and clients that fit your specific needs. We are offering the service in a BizPathways Gateway plan as well for communities, counties, and organizations who wish to customize this service for their citizens and/or customers. Contact MRP at 651-645-9403 or email jleonard@minnesotaruralpartners.org for more information, or go directly to the website and sign up: http://www.bizpathways.org or http://www.financeavenue.org.

--The Community Assistantship Program (CAP) of the University of Minnesota 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 3-4 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 deadline for applications is November 1, 2004. For more information see www.cura.umn.edu/programs/CAP/capcomappform.html, call 612-626-7537, or email capcura@umn.edu.

Funding Seminar

--Blandin “Get Broadband” Program seeks applicants --Up to $15,000 available to qualifying communities. The first-round application deadline is October 8. Blandin Foundation’s ‘Get Broadband’ program is accepting grant applications from rural Minnesota communities to stimulate the use of broadband-based technologies. “The Foundation will provide resources, technical assistance and up to $15,000 to each qualifying rural community in the first round of funding,” said Bernadine Joselyn, the Foundation’s Public Policy & Engagement director, who is responsible for the ‘Get Broadband’ program. Up to six community awards are expected in the first round, with subsequent rounds to follow. Applicants are urged to demonstrate community commitment to introducing and increasing:

· Awareness about the benefits of broadband

· Business, institutional and residential use

· Public and private investment in broadband capacity.

Program information and applications are available online at www.blandinfoundation.org or from Joselyn at 218-327-8728; brjoselyn@blandinfoundation.org.

--Health and Long-Term Care Career Promotion Grants. The MN Office of Rural Health and Primary Care, in partnership with the Minnesota Department of Education, is seeking applications from education-health employer partnerships for 2005 grants. The grants are available to consortia of health and long-term care employers, school districts, and higher education institutions to assist them in developing health and long-term care careers curricula. A total of $147,000 is available and the maximum grant amount is $20,000. Applications are available September 1, and due October 14, 2004. More information and applications are available at http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/chs/grants.htm#health. For more information, contact Lorry Colaizy at (651) 282-3851 or lawrence.colaizy@health.state.mn.us

--A joint application for the Community Clinics and Rural Community Health Center Grant Programs is now available.

1. The Community Clinic Program is a grant program for community clinics to support their capacity to serve low-income populations, reduce current or future uncompensated care burdens, or provide for improved care delivery infrastructure.

2. The Rural Community Health Center Program helps create community health centers to provide primary health care services that would otherwise be unavailable. Grants are offered for establishing new health centers, expanding existing centers, and converting private practices to community centers.

Due to limited funding, applicants will be required to submit pre-applications. The pre-applications for both programs are due November 10, 2004. The strongest pre-applicants will be invited to submit a full application. Final applications are due January 14, 2005. For further information about this program, contact Deb Jahnke at (651) 282-6334 debra.jahnke@state.mn.us

Training and Conferences

--Regional Forum Addressing Minnesota’s Healthcare Workforce 2010: Planning for Minnesota’s Future Healthcare Workforce in Mankato, October 1. The healthcare industry continues to face the challenge of a workforce shortage. In Southern Minnesota over 2,000 healthcare jobs were open in the second quarter of 2004. The Healthcare Education-Industry Partnership/Minnesota State Colleges and Universities is working with the healthcare industry and educators to plan for the future healthcare workforce at a Forum on Friday, October 1 in Mankato. The Forum’s goal is to identify workforce issues and potential strategies that impact the education, recruitment, practice and retention of the future healthcare workforce in Southern Minnesota. Healthcare professionals, educational institutions, economic development, chamber of commerce, business leaders, legislators, county commissioners and workforce centers have been invited to attend.

The Forum will feature Barb Embacher of District 77 Healthcare Workforce, Jeff Halbur of Open Door Health Center, Sally Buck of Rural Health Resource Center, Anne Willaert and Sonya McNamara of Healthcare Education-Industry Partnership, Michael Mitchell of Minnesota Department of Education, Kathy Huntley of Southern Minnesota AHEC and Karen Welle of the Office of Rural Health and Primary Care. Facilitated discussions will allow participants to discuss creative approaches to address the current and future workforce shortages. For more information about the Forum, please contact the Rural Health Resource Center at (218) 727-9390 or http://www.ruralcenter.org/mcrh/mnw2010.shtml

-- 9th Annual Minnesota Development Conference, Minneapolis, October 6 - 7, 2004. Join economic developers from around the state at the 9th annual event, packed with information on economic development, workforce development, and education. For more information, go to the state Department of Employment and Economic Development website at www.deed.state.mn.us and click on the development conference logo.
--Minnesota Council of Nonprofits – 18TH Annual Conference Participation! Creating and Sustaining Engaged Communities. October 14–15, River Centre, St. Paul.

Nonprofits must continually bring people into their organizations to be successful. And, for many Minnesotans, nonprofits are the most accessible and productive channel to participate in the life of their community. Through engaging volunteers, board and staff members, voters, advocates, and donors, nonprofits mobilize the people power of Minnesota.

Creating and sustaining high levels of effective participation in our organizations and communities is hard work. This conference will address the opportunities and challenges nonprofits face in engaging people and explore how our organizations can enhance and improve participation.

Active participation is in every organization’s interest, and thus this conference will have sessions for leaders of Minnesota’s nonprofit organizations; nonprofit staff members, board members and volunteers; professionals who work with nonprofits; foundation staff members and trustees; corporate and community leaders; elected and appointed officials; and job seekers and career changers. With over 30 breakout sessions, options are available to staff with all types of responsibilities and levels of experience. This year’s conference will feature eight tracks of breakout session:

- Executive Leadership (new this year!)
- Governance
- Finance and Management
- Marketing and Communications
- Human Resources
- Fundraising
- Public Policy and Advocacy
- Creating and Sustaining Engaged Communities

For more information, call MCN at 1-800-289-1904 or see the web site at http://www.mncn.org/Conference/index.htm

--At Your Service Training – University of Minnesota Extension Service – October 28 & 29. Instructor training for the "At Your Service: Working with Multicultural Customers" program is scheduled on the St. Paul campus of the University of Minnesota. At Your Service is a proven quality customer service curriculum focusing on building service providers' skills to manage attitude, identify and respond to customer needs, and understand how culture affects the service experience. Instructors receive full training materials to deliver the half day program to organizations or communities. State associations, HR departments and state government can add this customer service training to the tools you use to prepare employees and organizations to better serve customers in this changing Minnesota. Cost is $459. For more information, contact the University of Minnesota Tourism Center at 612-624-4947 or e-mail tourism@umn.edu

TOOLS AND MISCELLANEOUS

--Amber Waves, Sept 2004 presents the broad scope of USDA’s Economic Research Service’s research and analysis. The magazine covers the economics of agriculture, food and nutrition, the food industry, trade, rural America, and farm-related environmental topics. Available on the Internet and in print, Amber Waves is issued in print five times a year (February, April, June, September, and November). The Internet edition, or "e-zine," includes links to web-only resources. See http://www.ers.usda.gov/AmberWaves/September04/

--County Typology Codes provide policy-relevant information about diverse county conditions to policymakers, public officials, and researchers. ERS has developed a new set of county-level typology codes that captures differences in economic and social characteristics. This release revises the preliminary codes released in May 2004.

The 2004 County Typology Codes were developed for all 3,141 counties, county equivalents, and independent cities in the United States. Their primary function is to help differentiate among non-metro counties, but metro counties are also coded to facilitate comparisons.

The 2004 County Typology codes classify all U.S. counties according to six non-overlapping categories of economic dependence and seven overlapping categories of policy-relevant themes. The economic types include farming, mining, manufacturing, services, Federal/State government, and unspecialized counties. The policy types include housing stress, low-education, low-employment, persistent poverty, population loss, nonmetro recreation, and retirement destination.

A preliminary version of these codes was released on the ERS website in May 2004. This is the final version and includes revised farming-dependent counties, along with five economic types that have not previously been released. More information on the revised farming-dependent counties can be found here http://www.ers.usda.gov/briefing/rurality/typology/. The policy types remain unchanged from the May 2004 release. See http://www.ers.usda.gov/data/TypologyCodes/

--The Population Reference Bureau has issued a report, July 2004, Rural Kids Lagging in Health, Education. It’s available at http://www.prb.org/rfdcenter/ruralkidslagginginhlth.htm.

--Rural Infrastructure is featured in the summer issue of Rural Voices magazine from the Housing Assistance Council (HAC). It contains articles on water and wastewater, utilities, roads, and more, and is available at http://www.ruralhome.org/pubs/ruralvoc.htm. One print subscription per organization is free. To subscribe, contact Luz Rosas, HAC, 202-842-8600, luz@ruralhome.org.

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