FRIDAY, SATURDAY & SUNDAY MAY 18,19 & 20 – Chippewa County Park in Wegdahl, MN along the Minnesota River

INTERNATIONAL CAMP-OUT & FIRESIDE SING ALONG  FRIDAY, MAY 18 & SATURDAY, MAY 19  7 P.M. CHIPPEWA COUNTY PARK, WEGDAHL

 Rain or shine, bring a tent to pitch and some food to share along  with your musical instruments and join exchange students from  Sweden, Germany, Norway, Italy, Denmark, Thailand, Switzerland,  Taiwan and more as they prepare to paddle the Minnesota River on  Saturday as part of their year-long exchange experience facilitated  by EF (Education First) and CURE River Keeper John White of  Clara City.

 Note that the Wegdahl Park does not have electricity or water –  so plan for that. For more information, call CURE at 1-877-269-2873

“TRAIPSE AROUND WITH TRAUBA”  SATURDAY, MAY 19 8 A.M. TO 10:30 A.M.

DNR WILDLIFE EXPERT Dave Trauba will lead a special Rivers &  HistoryWeekend hike of the erratic boulders of the Plover Prairie  Meet at the Hwy 75 dam at the Big Stone National Wildlife Refuge  south of Odessa in northern Lac qui Parle County. Come prepared  to hike through wet prairie for 1/2 mile on uneven ground. Bring  boots, a water bottle and your camera. With any luck you can  make it back toWegdahl by noon for an afternoon paddle!

Event is free and open to the general public. For more information call 1-877-269-2873.

SELF-ORGANIZING CANOE TRIPS SAT. MAY 19, SUN, MAY 20TH
MEET AT NOON at the COUNTY PARK IN WEGDAHL
BRING YOUR OWN CANOE OR KAYAK
MEET UP WITH OTHERS WHO WANT TO PADDLE:
· THE LAC QUI PARLE
· THE POMME DE TERRE
· THE CHIPPEWA
· THE MINNESOTA RIVER
· HAWK CREEK AND THE YELLOW MED
(IF WATER LEVELS ALLOW)
Feel Free to post to CURE’s Facebook Site (Cure MnRiver) to find others who want to  canoe the same river as you do beforehand and then meet up in Wegdahl to arrange  shuttles and find other paddlers to join you.

 A limited number of canoes and kayaks may be available for rent.  For more information call the CURE office at 320-269-2984.

HISTORY TALKS AROUND THE CAMPFIRE

Saturday May 19, 6 to 7:30 p.m. Chippewa County Park in Wegdahl -

Minnesota River photographer extraordinaire Ron Bolduan from New Ulm will talk abotu the 10 new interpretive panels that have been erected at historic sites along the Minnesota River National Scenic Byway to help tourists learn more about the Dakota/U.S.War of 1862. While you are visiting the valley this summer, be sure to check this new signage out. For more information visit: www.mnrivervalley.com

Teresa Peterson – Executive Director of Dakota Wicohan will also be around the circle to talk about her work to keep the Dakota Language alive. DakotaWicohan is a non-profit organization based in Morton, Minnesota, which seeks to renew Dakota language and life ways with youth and families. For more information visit: www.dakotawicohan.com

Bring your own Lawn Chairs & a Dish to Pass. Coffee, lemonade and a grill for meat and veggies that you bring will be provided.

Campfire Concert and Story Telling begins at 8 p.m.
Bring your instruments!!
FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL 1-877-269-2873

Following a slow start, ACS is making up some time in their 40 week contract.  If ACS can keep to a 3% weekly increase, they will be back on schedule before the end of the project.  This shouldn’t be too difficult for them, as they have made up 8.5% per week so far this year.  Once they get fiber pulled into the empty duct in the town of Dawson, this will make their numbers jump up as well.

To date, they have 94 drops plowed & 70 miles of cable in the ground.

Although the pace has been slowed by an economy that discouraged mobility, people in their 30s and 40s have continued to move to parts of rural Minnesota that otherwise are characterized by populations that are aging and declining, new research shows.

In a study published online today by University of Minnesota Extension, rural sociologist Ben Winchester reports that trends he identified earlier from 1990 and 2000 censuses continue in numbers from the 2010 census.

One shift in the first decade of this century is that even in some outstate counties — those around Willmar, Mankato and Marshall, for example — people entering their middle years are moving to more rural counties. In his earlier research, that trend mainly involved people that age leaving the Twin Cities metro area for the rest of the state.

The results add nuance to larger trends of population decline, young people leaving and elderly populations increasing in rural areas. You can find examples and videos of what people in our Public Insight Network told us about going rural by visiting this post.

“While we lose the kids, we gain the people aged 30 to 49 and a lot of these people coming into our rural communities are arriving with high levels of education, with earning power, with experience and with children,” Winchester said. “It’s counterintuitive.”

Winchester’s new study, “Continuing the Trend: The Brain Gain of the Newcomers,”found similar trends outside Minnesota but cited housing debt and the recession as reasons migration generally slowed down in the country.

The report notes that the “brain drain” of young people continues as people aged 18 to 25 leave home for college and broader horizons. But at the same time, the study found, almost all rural counties in Minnesota saw the number of people in their 30s and 40s rise above what would have been expected had no one moved in. This is a phenomenon Winchester has termed the “brain gain” because it represents people whose careers are in full swing and who bring skills and education to an area.

One example: In Lac qui Parle County in western Minnesota in 2000, there were 883 people between 20 and 39. Ten years later, the county’s overall population dropped by 10 percent to 7,259. But that subgroup — in research language the “cohort” that was by then 30 to 49 years old — had increased by 15 percent to 1,016. That increase represents the “brain gain.”

“I really do feel it,” said Pam Lehmann, economic development director for the county. “It feels very much like the existing businesses that are transitioning are transitioning to younger generations.”

The lumberyard in Dawson is now run by a young man who moved back to town, she said. “Perfect example of a local boy who went to school, started a career, had a baby and had an opportunity to come home and purchase a thriving business. His wife was not from the area. Both are happy they bought the business and a new home. They’ve really taken root.”

State demographer Susan Brower, who wasn’t involved in the research, said she found the results interesting. “This story gets masked by overall population trends.” Nonetheless, she said, “there’s still population loss just because of the huge out-migration among young people.”

Winchester doesn’t dispute that. “The kids leaving our communities certainly outnumber those returning.” But he thinks the research provides a lesson for rural communities that want to tap into some people’s desires to go rural, provided they can “get themselves on the map” for potential new residents.
Why are people moving to rural areas? Typically not for jobs. In surveys of residents who have moved to rural areas and among Public Insight Network members, people cited what they perceive as a higher quality of life, a slower pace, greater security, lower housing costs and a better place to raise children.

“I was born and raised in Minneapolis and did not want to move to a small town,” June Kallestad, who moved to Cloquet from the Twin Cities in 1993 when her husband found a job there, told us. “I thought people would be small-minded (in some ways I still see that, but there are small minded people in Minneapolis, too!) and there would be nothing to do. I found out that I LOVE the woods and outdoors. Didn’t know that about myself.”

Karen Tolkkinnen, a Twin Cities native who lives in Clitherall in Otter Tail County, said, “It’s so easy to feel part of the community. You can move to a rural area and it’s not long before you’re in the grocery store and recognize that lady from church or that guy from the play you saw last weekend. City life can be pretty anonymous, but in the country, you might actually have gone to school with the EMT who gives you CPR, or be an ex-in-law to the township clerk. This familiarity can be good or bad, but so far I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it.”

But not everything goes well. Alyssa Besonen, among those leaving Willmar for a smaller town, Madison, said, she and her husband wanted to simplify their lives. But “it has been a much more difficult transition than I anticipated. Many people who are here grew up and have family connections.”

Said Dave Konshok, who moved to his childhood home of Park Rapids after 20 years in the Air Force: “Without a doubt, the biggest challenge of living in rural areas or small towns is economic: making enough money to survive and thrive. It’s very unlikely a high-paying job will even exist, let alone be handed to you. You have to dial down your financial expectations, while at the same time be ready to do whatever it takes to survive financially. What I like best about small town life is convenience – everything is close by, whether that’s the grocery store or walking paths through the woods. I also love that strong sense of community rarely found elsewhere.”

(For a summary of what Public Insight Network members told us and even a couple videos people made for us, see this post by reporter Jennifer Vogel. You can find more comments in this post. And you can even see a couple video rural residents sent us here. Feel free to add your own.)

DR. Mary Ann Hertlitzke on Service learning
DR. Jim Walters Building a problem solving organization

Assessing Employees as a Crucial First Step for Problem Solving
Fundamentally, problem solving involves people working together to overcome obstacles that hinder the development of a new process and/or product. Dr. Jim Walters will speak about problem solving and employee assessments as a crucial first-step in the problem solving process.

Strengthening Communities through Service-Learning
In times of limited resources, organizations and communities may struggle to find ways to meet needs within a community. Service-learning, a method of instruction, provides an opportunity for partnerships that assist in meeting a community need while at the same time helping students to build skills and develop an appreciation for the responsibility that they have within a community. Dr. Mary Ann Herlitzke will provide an overview of service learning and discuss the important role that community members and organizations have in developing partnerships with educational institutions promoting service-learning.

Bob Meeks Executive Director of the Minnesota School board association

Patrick Klinger V.P. of the Minnesota Twins
10 Homerun Strategies To Grow Your Business online
Last season the Minnesota Twins drew over three million fans despite having a team that lost 99 games. Learn how from Patrick Klinger as he outlines the innovative marketing techniques used by the Minnesota Twins. These techniques-from using current customers to increase your business to building buzz in the marketplace-apply to any product in any company. By utilizing these principles all marketers can turn their offerings into profitable winners!

Updates on Chamber of Commerce of Southern Minnesota initiatives
Update on (C)hanging (H)ow (A)merica’s (N)ext (G)eneration (E)ducates (CHANGE)
Update on Smart buyer’s Network-connecting Minnesota business
Update on Public Research Council
Update on Business retention and expansion and modern economic development techniques.
Legislative progress updates.

Dr. Jim Walters of the Power of learning and a certified trainer with the Creative Problem Solving Group and the Chamber of Commerce of Southern Minnesota have collaborated to offer standard and customized assessments for your organization’s on problem solving assessment situational outlook assessment. View explains the different styles that folks bring to problem solving and then how to manage the same. SOQ targets behavior as it relates to the climate of an organization. The SOQ quite accurately distinguished climate from culture; the former can be changed the latter takes years.

Q&A panel including Businesses, educators, local government and legislatures Senator Carla Nelson and Senator Mike Parry

To register please go to info@chambermn.com or 507-776-4120
$25 includes lunch

It’s interesting to take a look at what’s happening around the counties in communities that are similar to Lac qui Parle with providers that are as forward thinking as our local providers Farmers Mutual Telephone and Federated Telephone. They feature applications in Education, Health Care, Agriculture, Electronic Government, Public Safety, Utilities and the Consumer’s Home.

You have 3 registration options (choose the one that applies to you)
-Symposium–hosted by the Center for Small Towns
-Leadership Chautauqua*–hosted by the Bush Foundation
-both the Symposium and the Leadership Chautauqua
(*Note: the Leadership Chautauqua is for program providers, funders, and researchers of leadership programs. If you work in the areas listed above, we hope you will consider being a part of this unique convening.)

Register Here

Bush Foundation is generously providing a limited number of scholarships to help make this event more accessible to everyone. Please, register soon to take advantage of this offer.
If you are unable to register via the registration website above, please call: 612-624-2345 and you will be assisted.
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Call for Proposals

We are extending our Call for Proposals for the Symposium on Small Towns for a bit longer; please, SUBMIT YOUR PROPOSAL ASAP!

We want your participation and ideas…we need you to be a presenter, storyteller, convener, or showcase presenter.

Submit your proposal here:
https://docs.google.com/a/morris.umn.edu/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGJwdERBLVpaUkxjUzJxbzYtSW1uOXc6MA

Or for more information about the Call for Proposals:
http://www.morris.umn.edu/cst/symposium/2012/CallForProposals-4-3-12.pdf
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For more information about the Symposium:
http://www.morris.umn.edu/cst/symposium/2012/
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For information about the Leadership Chautauqua:
http://www.bushfoundation.org/leadership-chautauqua
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Please share Symposium and Chautauqua information with your networks!
We can’t wait to see you in Morris this June!
If you have general questions about the Symposium on Small Towns, please contact the Center for Small Towns at 320-589-6451.

The U.S. Small Business Administration and its private sector partners are holding key business forums, and are encouraging small business owners and entrepreneurs to sign up, register and spread the word to other small businesses interested in attending.  

The free forums include a town hall with SBA Administrator Karen Mills on why small businesses are good for the long-term health of any economy; a social media forum on best practices for putting new media tools to work for small businesses; and an exporting forum on how SBA can help businesses find customers abroad.  The schedule also includes sessions on federal contracting, selling to large companies, and business matchmaking with major corporations and government agencies.

The town hall and forum events will be webcast live to allow business owners across the country to participate if they cannot attend in person. While registration is required to attend forums and sessions in person (onsite registration will be provided), the live online webcast will be available free at www.NationalSmallBusinessWeek.com.  To register to attend, find more information on the live webcast, or for a detailed schedule of events and speakers, visit the National Small Business Week website at www.NationalSmallBusinessWeek.com.

If you are an entrepreneur, a mentor or someone that believes in the importance of start-up success,  this program is for you!
REGISTERATION and Event Details at www.minnesota.tie.org or (Direct Registration Link with More Info tab: https://www.123signup.com/register?id=svfqv.)

FEATURED ENTREPRNEURS

Arvind Raghavan: Tychon Bioscience
Dr. Arvind Raghavan has co-founded two biotech startups based on technologies discovered & developed by co-founders at the University of Minnesota. As Interim CEO of ApoGen Biotechnologies, a genetic engineering reagents company, he was instrumental in helping secure a $250,000 seed-stage investment from the U of M for prototype development. He is currently VP of Business Development at Tychon Bioscience, a nanobiotech company developing targeted diagnostics and therapeutics for breast and prostate cancer. Dr. Raghavan is a CEO-in-Residence at the University of Minnesota’s Venture Center, and the Judging Committee Chair for the Cleantech Open’s accelerator program in the Midwest. He initiated, developed and managed strategic partnerships for Signum Biosciences, a Princeton University spin-off that is developing Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease therapeutics. Dr. Raghavan holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology; his research experience and publications span the fields of Immunology, Cancer Biology and Genomics.

Tychon Bioscience is a University of Minnesota startup biotech that is developing a platform technology for the targeted delivery of drugs and next-generation imaging agents for various cancers. Tychon’s unique ‘nanovehicle’ technology is based on research by Dr. Carston Wagner, Endowed Chair in Medicinal Chemistry. Nanovehicles carry drugs and imaging agents to specific tumor cells, deliver their molecular payloads, and are then disassembled for easy excretion from the body. What differentiates Tychon from the crowd? Pharmaceutical development is undergoing major upheavals throughout the world. Lean and smart biotech startups that understand and implement collaborative, risk-sharing strategies, are the new paradigm for success in the highly competitive and rapidly changing field of molecular medicine.

Michael Winikoff: Needl
Needl is a Q&A platform that enables healthcare professionals to ask questions about the drugs they prescribe—within the web and mobile Apps they use every day. Needl collects and routes these questions directly to the best solvers in Pharma, whether it’s the Sales Rep or the Scientific Liaison.

 Needl captures those questions in real time and translates them into hard metrics which can be used to predict trends across healthcare. Through the Needl dashboard or API, we provide up-to‐date business intelligence about what healthcare providers want to know and the trends influencing their behavior.

Michael began his career as a technology consultant at Sudler & Hennessey, the healthcare arm of Young & Rubicam. He went on to become managing partner in two companies specializing in technology sales & training for the Advertising & Design industry before starting his own marketing and designing practice. His clients include startup and growth companies in vaccine development, security for cloud infrastructures, and biotech consulting. Michael earned his BA from Tufts University and his MA from Columbia University.

Neal Tovsen: Telemetry Web
TelemetryWeb is an online platform that creates the link between people and the things they care about. Experts predict there will be as many as 50 billion devices connected to the Internet by 2050. But the vast majority of these will not be PCs, tablets, or mobile phones. They will be industrial devices, consumer appliances, vehicles, factories, and farms. The TelemetryWeb platform enables device manufacturers to bring these kinds of connected devices to market quickly and at low cost, while providing a unique ability to use the information collected in new ways.

Neal Tovsen is an entrepreneur and experienced software architect who loves to bring innovative ideas to market. He has spent the last decade specializing in web-based, software-as-a-service technology for business applications, and his experience spans supply chain, energy, finance, and mobile industries. He is currently Founder and CEO of TelemetryWeb.
Rob Fuglie: Serial Entrepreneur
Rob Fuglie is a founder and entrepreneur focused on integrative innovation. His broad career as a generalist could conventionally be described as Business and Corporate Development. However, his lack of industry specialty and inability to state his experience in 15 seconds or less indicates his desire for the non-conventional. His experience includes: start-up, turn-around, consulting, business development, valuation, and human resources. The industries include: Internet, consumer finance, commercial construction, and corporate art. He has a Bachelor of Science from St. Cloud State University and MBA from University of St. Thomas.

For the last two years Rob has focused on new product and company development, acting as his own incubator. He currently has three projects in various stages of becoming companies. A software-as-a-service to ease family financial friction, a snack food company focused on making “allergen free cool enough to eat”, and a consumer product that is gives end users the tool necessary to fully enjoy a brilliant industrial design. Financing strategies have included full private placement memorandum, revenue share, and straight-up bootstrapping. The results to this point are two patents pending and two operating companies with revenue.

Frank Grazzini: TelemetryWeb
Frank Grazzini is co-founder of TelemetryWeb, Inc. and has been a member of TiE Minnesota for over two years. Frank spent much of his early career in global manufacturing organizations where he worked in several startup business segments, typically in financial roles. This gave him valuable business experience and a taste for entrepreneurship that eventually led to him starting an electronics recycling business in early 2010. He learned of TiE later that year, and quickly found it to be a great fit. TiE exposed him to much of what was going on in the Metro entrepreneurial community. In the months that followed, his entrepreneurial journey made a turn, included the opportunity to meet, through TiE, Neal Tovsen and the decision to join Neal in founding and building TelemetryWeb.

May 10, 2012, 11:00 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. – Register

To better serve all our EDAM members, we have revamped Thursday’s presentation so that all three speakers, Dennis Foldenauer, Terry Mattson and Anna Tanski will make their presentations at the Duluth location.  The telecast to St. Paul and the webinar download will allow participants to submit their questions to our speakers if you are not able to be in Duluth for the live session.

Sign up for the location that works best for you — Duluth, St. Paul, or webinar!

Locations:

UMD-Campus Event:
11:30am – 1:30pm
Kirby Plaza – Room 173
Speakers will be present at this location.
**Lunch included in registration fee      

Twin Cities Event:
11:30am – 1:30pm
Ewald Conference Center
Presentation will be given via webinar.
Lunch included in registration fee

A webinar only option is also available

Cost:

• If you are attending the event at one of the locations above: $25 for EDAM Members, $45 for Nonmembers
• If you are attending via webinar only: Free for EDAM Members, $25 for Nonmembers

Register online, or download the brochure to pay by check.

Clean Energy Resource Teams (CERTs)
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
9 a.m.-12 p.m.
City Council Chambers
Appleton Civic Center
323 West Schlieman Avenue,
Appleton, MN 56208

00 Welcome & Introductions – Jeff Vetsch
9:10 Overview of Options: Demystifying the Alphabet Soup of Acronyms – Jeff Vetsch
9:25 B3 Building, Benchmarking, & Beyond –Sarah Steinman, GreenCorp, CERTs
9:35 Panel: Energy Efficiency Financing Tools for Local Governments (GESP, PBEEEP,
Performance Contracting)
Bill Klyve, Energy Management Representative, Otter Tail
10:15 Q&A/Discussion
10:25 Break and Networking
10:45 Panel: Projects (how they used financial tools, lessons learned)
John Paulson, City of Hutchinson: Energy Services Contracting from a City’s Perspective
11:05 Q&A/Discussion
11:15 Resources from Utilities
11:35 PACE: What is it and how can it help my business or city?
11:45 Q&A/Discussion
11:55 Next Steps to Move Your Project Forward – Jeff Vetsch
12:00 Adjourn