From dpfeifer at minnesotaruralpartners.org  Tue Apr 11 08:17:59 2006
From: dpfeifer at minnesotaruralpartners.org (Denise Pfeifer)
Date: Tue Apr 11 09:21:13 2006
Subject: [Mn-Rural-Summit] Symposium-Summit Planning Update
Message-ID: <002f01c65d72$bcb7e0e0$660aa8c0@hpzd7>

Dear Colleagues,

 

Thanks to everyone that attended our Summit planning meeting last Friday in
Bloomington. A special thanks to Wells-Fargo (Lynnette, Steve and Mary) for
hosting the space for the meeting. 

 

This is just a quick update on what is happening with some of our
responsibilities for the Center for Small Town Symposium-Minnesota Rural
Summit.

 

Symposium-Summit Agenda

An initial draft agenda for the Symposium-Summit is now available on the MRP
website and can be found at
http://www.minnesotaruralpartners.org/2006summit/summitschedule.pdf. 

 

Storytelling

Our annual Storytelling plans are also underway. This year, rather than
having a Long Arm of the Storytelling Contest, we will be having three
regional Storytelling Festivals. Our location, dates and times are Forest
History Center, Grand Rapids, May 21st 1:00 - 3:00 pm; Charles A. Lindbergh
Historic Center, Little Falls, May 23rd, 7:00 - 3:00 pm and the MN
Agricultural Interpretive Center(Farmamerica), Waseca, May 25th 7:00 - 9:00
pm. Each regional event will feature a storytelling workshop and "Story
Swap", where storytellers of all ages and all levels are allowed up to 15
minutes to share their stories that reflect this year's theme Working Better
Together for the Common Good. We have more information at:
http://www.minnesotaruralpartners.org/storytelling/. I will send out an
"official email" storytelling announcement that you can forward to others to
help us promote the festivals.

 

Rural Resource Directory

This year, one of our responsibilities as part of the Summit planning
committee is to organize a session for the Symposium-Summit that will
provide attendees with the opportunity to network with rural resources. We
would like to make this happen with both a paper directory and through an
interactive session that is similar in concept to "Speed Dating". We're
still working on the name. "speed spot,"  "speed networking".whatever is
decided. the objective is to have the conference participant network with
resource providers to find out what they have to offer and to get  contact
information. We would organize resources into categories such as Housing,
Healthcare, Agriculture, Business Development, Finance, Education, Economic
Development etc.. We would like to have about 20 people (Summit Planning
Committee members would get first crack at participating) who represent
different rural resources and are willing to share their knowledge as a
rural community resource and contact information in the spirit of Working
Better Together for the Common Good.    

 

To help us put together the paper directory, we have set up an online MN
Rural Resource Directory Construction Site which can be found at
http://www.zoomerang.com/recipient/survey.zgi?p=WEB22523TWDM38 or through a
link on the MRP homepage. This link takes you through 15 short questions
which will provide us with the data we need to put together this Rural
Resource Directory. 

 

There are two things we need from you: 1. Please go online and fill in
yourself as a resource - so you we can begin to promote you as a resource
and 2. Send the link on to your colleagues in other sectors so we can have a
complete listing. The Resource Directory is the basis to start organizing
existing resources and identifying and linking to already existing resource
directories. By doing so, we can also identify gaps. With so many resources,
it's hard to know exactly what exists and where they are located. The good
news, as Jane always says, is that "MN is resource rich," so let's take this
opportunity to work better together so we can work more productively with
each other. 

 

Because we are working on a short time frame, our goal is to collect as much
information as we possibly can by the end of this month. SO.go online..send
emails to your colleagues and let's work on gathering information that will
create a comprehensive directory that covers all sectors dealing with Rural
Minnesota. 

 

Thanks so much for your help!

 

Sincerely,

 

Denise Pfeifer

Minnesota Rural Partners

dpfeifer@minnesotaruralpartners.org

507.828.5559 

 

 

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