From jleonard at minnesotaruralpartners.org Tue Aug 29 15:07:09 2006 From: jleonard at minnesotaruralpartners.org (Jane Leonard) Date: Tue Aug 29 16:07:28 2006 Subject: [Mn-Rural-Summit] Minnesota Rural Summit 2007 planning Message-ID: <07ca01c6cbaf$178e60c0$6601a8c0@Jane> Dear Colleagues: I can't believe we are beginning to plan for the 10th annual Minnesota Rural Summit, but we have a date and a place and a theme (thanks to the Minnesota Sesquicentennial), and we need you! The 10th annual Minnesota Rural Summit is scheduled for May 10 & 11, 2007, at Craguns Resort in the Brainerd Lakes area. The theme is "Thriving by Design!, a Minnesota Sesquicentennial Kickoff." It takes advantage of an opportunity and responsibility we have to make the most of the upcoming 150th anniversary of Minnesota's statehood (May 11, 1858). And we can use the opportunity to examine the last goal of five (and wrap them all together) that we set back in the 2000 Summit in Rochester, with the help of the 2000 keynote speaker Mark Drabenstott, VP of the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank and director of the Center for the Study of Rural America. (http://www.kansascityfed.org/ruralcenter/mainstreet/MSE_0300.pdf ) If you recall, he spoke then on "New Rural Policies for a New Century" -- about the need for us in the rural development world to consider new, integrated policy directions, including: 1. Closing the digital divide, 2. energizing entrepreneurs, 3. leveraging the new agriculture, 4. boosting human capital, and 5. sustaining the rural landscape. For the past five summits since, we have tried to stick to those areas -- and included an important tie to health care -- as we have stressed communications and information technology, innovation, entrepreneurship, and strengthened connections between urban and rural people and communities. The 10th annual Summit will use the process and context of design to wrap all five elements together, to sustain the rural landscape, to help Minnesota Thrive by Design well past our state's 150th anniversary and into the next generation of communities and leaders. Since June's 2006 Summit and Small Town Symposium, I've been spending a reflective summer thinking through the 2007 Summit possibilities and its connections to Minnesota's Sesquicentennial. I've been thinking about what our parents and grandparents did for Minnesota's Centennial in 1958. I talked to Tom Swain, the executive director of the Centennial Commission, and to Jane Freeman, who was First Lady of Minnesota in the late 1950s -- both now exuberant and active octogenarians. Minnesota leaders planned three years out before the Centennial. They made the Centennial a springboard for engaging every county and every citizen who wanted to celebrate our history, but perhaps more importantly, encouraged everyone to help Minnesota plan for future progress comprehensively across industry, agriculture, transportation, education, conservation, science and technology and more. They used it as an opportunity to position Minnesota as a national leader in policy and practice towards a high quality of life -- one that we have enjoyed for many years and need to keep investing in and planning for. Fifty years later, we have that same extraordinary opportunity. So let's make the most of it. Will you join me in planning for the 2007 Rural Summit? We will aim to hold a first planning meeting in September. Please let me know if you are willing to help, even if you can't make the first meeting in person. We are shooting for September 22, from 10 a.m. to noon, at a place in the Twin Cities to be determined depending on how many people can come that day. (By the way, if anyone with a conference room for at least 12 people would like to host, please let me know...). If you have the time and some patience, you can read thru the speech I gave at the 2006 Summit and Small Town Symposium, which lays out the context for the thinking behind the 2007 Summit theme. Here's the link: http://www.minnesotaruralpartners.org/2006summit/JLeonardkeynoteSummit06.pdf Thanks for taking the time to read thru this, and have a safe and restful Labor Day weekend! --jane Jane Leonard President Minnesota Rural Partners, Inc. 1533 Grantham St. St. Paul, MN 55108 phone 651-645-9403 cell phone 651-303-5263 fax 651-646-3818 email: jleonard@minnesotaruralpartners.org alt email: minntwin@comcast.net www.minnesotaruralpartners.org SAVE THE DATE - 10th Annual Minnesota Rural Summit May 10 & 11, 2007 - Craguns Resort - Gull Lake Kickoff to Minnesota's Sesquicentennial - Thriving by Design! -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mapnp.Geeks.ORG/pipermail/mn-rural-summit/attachments/20060829/b8a5b2d5/attachment.html