New Learning Team!

Great news for those of you who attended the community meeting on Monday, September 15th, but didn’t find something you were passionate about. We have a new learning team that might suit your fancy! Jody Moritz and Gloria Bode are leading a team around community marketing and promotion They are digging into the question “How do we (Faulkton) become the destination community of choice for new businesses, new residents, and visitors?”

If this is something you’d like to work on, please give Jody or Gloria a call. I know they’d love for you to join them, and add your ideas to the mix.

the U…

We’ve talked with many of you about something we call the “U Process.” Joe’s written about it on a new blog, called Reimagine Rural, if you’re interested in learning more! Here’s an excerpt from his post.

U Process is a point of view, a lens to look at tough problems through. Scharmer also calls it a ‘social technology,’ a method to create results differently. I see it as a way of designing new solutions to old problems we haven’t cracked yet.

Most of us follow what I call the ‘normal path’ from problem to solution. We name the trouble we’re having, then we brainstorm about ways to solve it, and charge forward fast and furious. We choose ‘solutions’ that are the quickest, most efficient, and cheap. We figure so long as we plan carefully, throw some hard work at it and never give up, we’ll make our ideas be real solutions eventually.

The problem is, we still have most of the big problems in rural communities that we’ve been fighting for decades. We keep trying the same things in different ways, and get the same results: more decline of community. It becomes a vicious cycle.” read more…

ReImagineRural.com is a new blog that the Rural Learning Center is helping sponsor that seeks to connect and share information about rural with people living in rural. We’d love to hear what you think, either here or there! Leave us a comment or send us an email!

beautiful faulkton.

More pictures from the lake on flickr!

Data Resources

First, thanks to everyone who took the time (and missed Dancing with the Stars and the Vikings game) to be with us last evening! We appreciate your interest and willingness to participate!

As promised, here are links to a few data resources we use fairly regularly:

*Stats Indiana
*Census Bureau
*Bureau of Economic Analysis

There are many different ways to find information on these sites, play around a bit to find specifically what you’re looking for! And, please make sure to send me an email or call if you’ve got questions! (lindsey.karlson@rurallearningcenter.org or 772-5153)

Happy Learning!

107 times two!

The next community meeting will be held Monday, October 6th (yes, that’s one week from today!) at the Faulkton Community Center at 7pm. We’ll spend time working in our community learning teams, and have time to share with others about how our groups are looking at approaching the various topics.

Topics that are being discussed include: workforce development, city appearance, opportunities for young people, business development, and working as a county. You’re welcome to join any of these teams, or form your own learning team about something that’s important to you.

And just think, if everyone who was at the first community meeting on September 15th brings one friend, we’ll be up to 214!

Looking forward to seeing you all next Monday!

all together now

As promised, here are a few photos we snapped during the community meeting Monday night. Thanks to everyone who participated in the evening’s activities. We’re excited about what you all are going to do together!

See all the photos here!

Also, a big thanks to those who made the evening possible. Thanks to the Faulkton Development Corp for hosting the meal, to the Business and Professional group for donating the Faulkton Bucks (and congratulations to our winner, Martha Severance), and to Mayor Bormann for judging the pie baking contest (it was a tough job, but someone had to do it!)! Congratulations also to the winners of the pie baking contest, Ellen Melius and Carrie Deiter!

107 and counting!

Where to begin… We had a great community meeting last night with many of you… we were 107 strong! What a way to begin a fresh start in Faulkton.

For those of you who couldn’t make it, here’s the presentation from last night. As you can see, we spent a little time reviewing what the RLC heard during interviews and dialogues in Faulkton and the area, then dove into building community learning teams.

It was beautiful chaos. People added their ideas to the mix left and right. By the end of the evening, we had divided into 6 learning teams: employment, businesses, regional view, community appearance, youth opportunities, and ‘let’s be less busy.’ These teams will learn more about their topics, and will eventually contribute final ideas to the community’s plan.

More coming soon, including pictures from the night!

Tonight’s the night!

If you’re a resident of the Faulkton area, and don’t currently plan to attend the community meeting being held TONIGHT at 7pm (meal begins at 6pm), this post is for you! Here ’s a few reasons why you should consider attending:

Your Community Needs You

1. A community is about people, first and foremost. You are part of the Faulkton community. We need your ideas, your insight, and your energy to make Faulkton a better place.

2. There will be pie.

3. Did we say your community needs you?

4. Tonight is the night we launch community learning teams–these teams will spend some time learning about different topics of interest in the community, and will together develop a plan to address these topics. Your presence tonight means you will influence the future of our community!

5. We’re giving away $200 in Faulkton bucks!

You are invited…

Download a pdf invitation here!

Learning Summary Available Here

The Rural Learning Center began working with Faulkton over a year ago. We always begin working in communities with listening. Over 60 people in the Faulkton area were interviewed, and a number of follow-up conversations and dialogue sessions were held this spring. All of that listening resulted in a learning summary, and you can read it here!

The learning summary shares what we heard in three categories: leadership, the place factor, and innovation cultivation. Share your thoughts about the summary here, or send us me an email at lindsey.karlson@rurallearningcenter.org!