New York Mills, MN

Here are a few of the pictures that I took during the Visioning Event on Saturday night.  I have a lot to learn about the camera, but at least I have a couple to share! 

On Saturday, October 27, over 60 community members worked together to create vision for the future of our community. Looking 10-15 years out, this is what we came up with:

New York Mills is a special community that has developed a unique economy which encompasses culture and arts, outdoor recreation, and the tradition of agriculture. Farmers markets and buying local provide an opportunity to support our young entrepreneurs, our neighbors, and in turn sustain our community and ourselves. New York Mills is a welcoming place for everyone from the young to the young at heart.

Our heritage of cooperation is strong in our collective spirit. Our traditional values nurture strong volunteerism. The involvement of youth is seen in every aspect of the community. We have a collaborative, close-knit and supportive community culture that is underpinned by visionary leadership.

Share your thoughts with us!

1. Take a survey. It is only 7 questions and will help us reach the 15% benchmark:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=2_2f4_2bvFKcTfr5arUadbhbiw_3d_3d

2. Come join the action. Our next meeting will be: Tuesday, November 13 at 6 pm at the NY Mills School Media Lab. Free dinner will be provided.

Together we can make a difference!

The visioning event held last Saturday was attended by more than 60 New York Mills area residents.  David Beurle, the facilitator, was a tremendous asset as were the UM Ext staff.  David’s ability to connect, clarify, keep us focused and on task was critical to having a successful developmental process.  The UM Ext Staff did a great job taking the ideas from the discussion and turning them into a powerful statement of vision. 

More important than either David or the MN Ext staff, was the presence of New York Mills residents who took the time to BE THERE.  The facilitators were able to successfully direct the conversation because we showed up!  That is HUGE.  The discussion was candid and we were able to take pride in what we do well and put into perspective what is necessary to elevate our shortcomings to create a successful vision for the future.  The vision we created is one that I can support wholeheartedly and hopefully so will the rest of the community. 

The Jazz Band was entertaining and the food was excellent!  My children had a pretty good time.  Even though they didn’t participate directly in the conversation, simply being around the process allows them deeper knowledge and understanding of how committed we are to their future! 

Submitted by Todd Cameron.

When it comes to creating a thriving community, community members themselves are the key to success. Over the past six months, many citizens in the community have participated in the Horizons Program. What is Horizons? Horizons is a community-based initiative sponsored and supported by the University of Minnesota Extension Service. The program happens in five phases.
•Showcase – A one day overview of the program.
•Study Circles – Groups of citizens that discussed poverty and a plan for community action.
•LeadershipPlenty – Community members received nine sessions of leadership training.
•Strategic Visioning – Neighbors and community members will come together to prioritize the next steps.
•Action – With help from Horizons, vision will become reality.

COMMUNITY/STRATEGIC VISIONING
When: Saturday, October 27, 2007
Where: NYM Public School
Time: 5:00 – 6:00 pm – Free Meal
6:00 pm Horizons Program - Auditorium
Purpose: Community Visioning
Note: NYM Jazz Band will be performing during the meal.

University of Minnesota Extension Service through the Horizons program have invited motivational speaker Mr. David Beurle all the way from Australia to make a presentation on community leadership and to lead New York Mills in a community visioning session on Saturday, October 26th. Mr. Buerle provides hands-on services and approaches, from community economic development projects, to speaking engagements, entrepreneurial development, and leadership programs.

David holds a firm conviction that the future of rural and regional areas, lies in the hands of the local people. He created Innovative Leadership Australia, with the mission of bringing the tools and skills to the people who care the most - the people who choose to make rural towns, centers and regions their home. He has a passion for rural life; having been raised on a farm and having worked all his life in, and with, rural communities. His career has covered a wide range of experiences - from working for many years in the remotest parts of northern Australia, where cattle ranches are often over 1 million acres; to working at the highest levels of Government, with 8 years as the ‘right-hand man’ to a senior Australian Cabinet Minster; the WA Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries. This also included a short diversion as the producer of a pilot TV series that explored and showcased innovation in rural areas.
David’s experience covers a similar breadth; from working on the ground with farmers and Aboriginal communities; to building international trade relations and strategic alliances between Australian farmers and their markets in Egypt, China, India and Europe.

For more information you can Todd Cameron at the New York Mills Public School (385-4201).

We’re getting down to the wire to get people involved in the Visioning Process. I have the posters here, but don’t have all of them done yet. I will finish them up soon. If any of you have time, please stop by the Library on Monday and pick up a few posters to put up around town.

There will be an article about the Visiong in next week’s paper–Todd took care of that. He will also be on “Talk of the Town” on Lakes 99.5 next week. The New Horizon’s organization is going to do some calling around, inviting people to attend. I hope all of you can send out an email to community members that you have on your email lists to remind them of the event. We will send something home with all of the kids at school–inviting their parents. If I get on the ball, I might even organize that coloring contest thing that we talked about at our Blog lunch.

When you talk to people, please make sure to emphasize that this is for EVERYONE to be involved in–whether they have participated in any of the Horizons activities before or not.

If any of you can think of anything else we need to do in the next few days to get the word out, please leave a comment!

The meeting set for 5 o’clock on Wednesday, October 10 has been postponed until further notice.

This is actually just a practice entry to see if I can do this right, but as long as I’m here . . .

I hope all of you can come to the NYM Public Library tomorrow at 12:30 for a Blog Meeting. Please bring your own lunch. Lori will be here to talk about getting our blog up and running.

See you there!

Thank you to everyone who turned out last night for the bloggers training in NYM. You have such passion and momentum, I can’t wait to start reading your blog. Indeed some of you are already hooked. Check out Victoria’s page. For those of you who would like to blog NYM Horizons Happenings, you too can chime in! Send an email to Lori at: roths040@umn.edu and I’ll let you know how you can get involved.