The Michigan Rural Council is pleased to host this year’s conference on April 16-18, 2012 at Crystal Mountain in Thompsonville, Michigan.  We start Monday evening with a welcoming reception, continue all day on Tuesday and conclude just prior to lunch on Wednesday.

Visit the conference page to register, view the conference schedule and make your lodging reservations.  Be sure to bookmark this page too as we will be updating it with information as the conference approaches.  Due to the wonderful support of our sponsors, the conference registration rate will remain at $125.

Highlights from this year’s conference will include:

• Mary Randolph – “Empowering Rural Communities to Create Their Own Future”

Three simple questions asked of community members became the basis for citizen-driven change in rural Wyoming communities during the last ten years.  The state’s Rural Development Council assembled a cadre of nearly 400 trained volunteers willing to listen to the citizens of small towns and help them put together a simple and realistic plan for their future.  One hundred of these community assessments have been completed since 2000, and virtually every community participating has a list of proud accomplishments to show for their efforts.

• Roger Brooks – “The Reinvention of Rural America”

There are more ghost towns in the making today than ever before in American history.  There are nearly 30,000 counties, cities, towns and villages in North America and more than 28,000 of them are rural.  So how do you win when every community is working to become THE destination of choice for businesses, residents and visitors?  How do you stand out from the crowd and get noticed?  In this engaging and humorous keynote address, you’ll see and hear the stories of what works and what doesn’t, while Roger walks you through the three ingredients of change and the seven things you need to do to win as rural America works to reinvent itself. ”

• Becky McCray – “Small Town Rules”

Today, every business has to play by “small town rules”.  Consider that with social media any customer can express virtual satisfaction or dissatisfaction with a business as easily as word-of-mouth about a local merchant would spread in a small town café.  Really, our businesses in small towns already know what bigger businesses in bigger towns will need to learn.  Becky will outline these “rules” that, when followed, will allow small town businesses to thrive with limited resources while building their community and reaching beyond their geographic boundaries.”

We are also assembling a rich set of breakout sessions featuring a broad selection of topics impacting rural communities.

Register today!

Got’em, Got’em, Need’em… Keeping ‘em will return by popular demand.  Key businesses and institutions in our communities are like the prized trading cards in a kid’s collection, and we’ll deliver a new set of prized “trading cards” this year of unique ways communities have kept or created iconic businesses and institutions that are both good and valuable to their towns.   This is also an opportunity to nominate examples our attendees may know about. We’re particularly looking for examples of how a local library, local bank and perhaps a local hospital or clinic have been maintained in smaller communities with unique local initiatives.  If you have an example of these or other businesses and institutions saved or created, let us know.

This is an exciting time for rural advocates in Michigan. Two rural focused organizations have joined forces in order to better serve communities. CEDAM is pleased to announce that the Rural Partners of Michigan and the Michigan Rural Network have merged to create the Michigan Rural Council (MRC). For several years, these two organizations have both been working on behalf of rural places. This merger is a consolidation of both groups’ efforts and will create a more streamlined approach to addressing rural Michigan’s issues.

The MRC is poised to take part in the growing conversations about rural development in Michigan.  Governor Snyder has elevated rural development into the spotlight by explicitly adding it to the title of the Michigan Department of Agriculture, now titled Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.  In addition agri-tourism, agriculture and rural infrastructure were discussed in the recent State of the State address.  MRC members are excited to serve as partners and resources in the work to make rural Michigan a great place to live.

Representatives from each organization worked together to develop a shared mission and vision for the Rural Council. We hope you will join us in pursuit of these ideals.

Our Mission: The Michigan Rural Council connects and educates community leaders, provides expertise and advocates for policy and projects to impact rural Michigan.

Our Vision: The Michigan Rural Council is a bridge between leaders and communities to revitalize and enhance rural Michigan.

We hope you will join us in this work!  As part of the MRC, you will have the opportunity to participate in one of our issue-based working groups.  MRC convenes groups around specific areas including broadband, housing, economic development, rural philanthropy, transportation and more.  If you would like to be involved in action oriented projects designed to benefit rural communities, a working group is the place to be!  The Rural Council will also continue to offer bi-monthly meetings.  These meetings not only give you the chance to meet and converse with other community leaders and rural advocates, but each meeting also provides an in-depth discussion of a topic related to rural community building.  Finally, MRC will distribute a monthly electronic newsletter filled with rural news, policy updates, funding alerts and more.  You can stay up to date by having this resource delivered directly to your inbox.

If you would like to learn more about the Michigan Rural Council, browse the website at www.michiganruralcouncil.org or call at 517-485-3588.  We invite you to get involved today!

We have an exciting agenda for you at December’s Michigan Rural Network forum.  Along with the much requested information sharing and networking opportunities, we will be spending time talking about landbanking in Michigan, specifically in rural areas.  We are happy to offer you the opportunity to interact with the Center for Community Progress to learn about their work in this area and opportunities in your local community. We hope you will join us and invite your colleagues as well!

We will be meeting on Tuesday, December 13 from 2:00 – 3:30pm at Community Economic Development Association of Michigan (CEDAM) located at 1000 South Washington, Lansing, MI 48910.

Please RSVP to Kari Marciniak (marciniak@cedam.info) to ensure adequate space.

For meeting agenda and driving directions, click here. 

Earlier this month, the Board of Rural Partners of Michigan (RPM) voted to consolidate the work of the organization with the Michigan Rural Network (MRN).  Both RPM and MRN are passionate about rural communities in Michigan and both have been operating under very similar mission statements.

The consolidation will take place gradually during the next several months and a transition team has been formed to work through details related to time lines and logistics.  We will continue to keep you informed as we move through this process and we hope you share our excitement for the future!

In the meantime, do you have thoughts, hopes, dreams, or comments on this consolidation?  Let us know; we’d love to hear from you and would be happy to use your thoughts to inform the consolidation process!

• What does it mean to say “wealth”?
• How can we create wealth?
• What is currently being done that we can lift up as best practices?
• How does current policy affect the ability of communities to create wealth

Through many rich (pardon the pun) conversations, we did our best to answer those questions.  While we did not always succeed I think we came away with several “take home” points that help give a view of what a path to wealth creation may look like.

What is wealth anyway?

Throughout the conference, I heard several times that the term “wealth” is slightly misleading and I tend to agree.  When you use the word wealth, the mental image almost always gravitates toward people who have a lot of money.  This is not the connotation in which we want wealth to be perceived.  Therefore, I tend to prefer “capital” which most people are more familiar with and more easily lends itself to nuanced differences among difference types.  There are, in fact, several types of capital that can be nurtured and utilized to create a vibrant community (for the full descriptions. see “Keeping Wealth Local“.)

1. Individual – the stock of skills and the healthiness (both physical and mental) of people in a community.
2. Social – the stock of trust, relationships and networks that support civil society.
3. Intellectual – the stock of knowledge, innovation and creativity in a community.
4. Natural – the stock of unimpaired environmental assets in a community or region.
5. Built – the stock of physical infrastructure.
6. Political – the stock of power and goodwill held by individuals, groups, and/or organizations in a community.
7. Financial – the stock of monetary assets in a community.

What does this mean for communities in Michigan?  Well, that’s hard to answer.  All the forms of capital are important and those communities that are thriving tend to have all or most of them.  However, in the current economic conditions, it is difficult to move beyond financial capital and focus on building other forms when there are so many without jobs or solid economic standing.  Tell us what you think.  How do you view and work with different forms of wealth/capital in your day-to-day work? 

The last three questions are still unanswered by the participant community.  However, you have a chance to shape the answers!  An outgrowth of the conference is the Wealth Creation and Rural Livelihoods National Community of Practice.  This is an online place where researchers, practitioners, funders, intermediaries, policymakers and others can learn from and work with each other to advance what works.  Membership in the Community of Practice is wide open and anyone is invited to participate.

Help build the Community of Practice!  Join anytime – and feel free to invite your colleagues and friends. 

It is my last few days here in Lansing working on the Michigan Rural Network, as my AmeriCorps term of service is coming to an end. Looking back, I have been very happy to have this opportunity to get to know so many great organizations and the people who compose them.

I think we were able to do some great things this year that will help the MRN be an effective resource for rural community development in the future. Through fully integrating with CEDAM’s activities and programs and finding new ways to partner with the Rural Partners of Michigan, we have been able to create strong partnerships that will help expand our reach and resources further than it ever could by ourselves. We were able to pass an official Strategic Plan that lays out a 5 year plan for further development and accountability within the Network. I have been able to convene working groups that have brought in new members and interest into the Network and will be able to complete projects in the future.

I have read a lot about how small towns and rural areas are facing an uphill battle. Costs for providing community development services are increasing and budgets are shrinking. On the upside, I have met so many individuals that are hard to bet against this year. To make it rural community development, you have to be creative, sharp and passionate. Our Network is full of such people. It will be an uphill battle, but I think rural Michigan has the right people to come out on top.

Again, thank you for your help, patience and support this year as I tried to help grow the Michigan Rural Network. I am moving on to another AmeriCorps position at the Center for Community Progress in Flint, where I will help provide technical assistance and capacity building to land banks across the state.

Thanks and take care,

Charlie

We have an exciting agenda for you at this month’s Michigan Rural Network meeting.  Along with the usual information sharing and networking opportunities, we will be spending time talking about economic gardening in Michigan.  Many of you have heard Governor Snyder use this term in his talks across the state and you may have seen news articles about the Michigan Economic Development Corporation’s work in this area.

We are happy to offer you the opportunity to interact with Public Policy Associates to learn about upcoming workshops on the topic.  We will also be hearing from Mark Lange, Executive Director at the Edward Lowe Foundation on economic gardening specific to rural communities.  This is a great opportunity for you to learn from and talk with experts in this field.  We hope you will join us and invite your colleagues as well!

We will be meeting from 2:00 – 3:30pm at Greenstone Farm Credit Services located at 3515 West Road, East Lansing, MI 48823.  Please RSVP to Kari Marciniak (marciniak@cedam.info) to ensure adequate refreshments.

For meeting agenda and driving directions, click here. 

Photo used under Creative Commons from hyperboreal

Earlier this week, the Council on Foundations convened the third Rural Philanthropy Conference in Kansas City, Missouri.  While Michigan Rural Network was not able to attend in person, we have been following the conversations arising out of the conference.  But from those not currently involved in this field, I usually get the question “What is rural philanthropy and why should I care?”  Well, Rick Cohen just answered those questions in his recent piece for the Nonprofit Quarterly entitled “Where Is Rural Philanthropy Heading and Where in the World are its Partners on the Journey?”   It’s a terrific summary and I encourage you to take a few moments to read it.

This is quite timely for us in the Michigan Rural Network as we just launched a work group dedicated to rural philanthropy.  Over the past three months, we have been whittling away at an idea of how we envision rural philanthropy in Michigan.  You are invited to read our concept paper outlining those ideas.  We will be working in partnership with the Council of Michigan Foundations to examine how to best build capacity in Community Foundations.  We think that rural philanthropy can indeed be a tool for economic development in those communities who choose to utilize it.  How about you…what do you think?