Montana

Giddy up RURAL ENTREPRENEURS! If you are looking for a way to market and sale your products on-line…or you just wanna  learn a little more ’bout technology…eCommerce Training is the workshop for you! This two-day event will teach you how to sell yur  products and services online. In addition, you will also learn:

• How to create a website
• How to join an online chatroom, forum, or blog (heck you are on a blog right now)

Don’t forget! Everyone loves to be in the middle of the arena, so you’ll  also learn:

• the do’s and don’ts’ of advertising
• How to harness the power of marketing through email and pay-per-click
• And, how to “brand” your product so everyone will know who you are!

Yes siree! This is gonna be one wild show. Don’t miss the opportunity to be involved. And, for all of you who love to travel through the Big Sky–two seperate workshops will be offered.

• Sidney, Montana: Sidney Public Library on  April 2nd and 3rd
• Bozeman, Montana: Montana State University EPS Building on May 14th and 15th. Hold tight tur yur boots for more information on the Bozeman workshop.

Ya’ll better saddle up yur horses, strap on yur boots…’cause this is gonna be one wild ride!!

For more information on this wild rodeo event call:

Jamie Vowell at 406-994-1754 or email jvowell@montana.edu

The Rural Community Conference was a great success with over 150 individuals in attendance. Horizon Communities were very fortunate to have the opportunity to network with a wide array of individuals. Those in attendance, represented local businesses, policy-makers, education, and civic organizations. This state-wide event helped to provide the necessarily tools needed to helped build community-focused strategies to alleviate poverty.

Throughout the course of two days, individuals had the opportunity to participate in break-out sessions, panel discussions, and a Rural Community Share Fair. Events such as the Share Fair, helped to connect citizens with organizations that could provide grant opportunities, program ideas, and educational resources.

 Not only did the Rural Community Conference provide ample opportunities for networking, but many local and nationally-known speakers were in attendance to teach some of the practices that have worked well during their many years of community development. The speakers included:

• John Allen: Director, Western Rural Development Center and Professor, Department of Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology, Utah State University.
• Jennifer Anderson: MSU Rosebud/Treasure County Extension Educator and Community Coordinator for Horizons in Forsyth, Montana.
• Barbara Andreozzi: MSU Deer Lodge County Extension Educator and Community Coordinator for Horizons in Anaconda, Montana.
• Cornelia Butler Flora: Charles F. Curtiss Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Agriculture and Life Sciences. Director, North Central Regional Center for Rural Development, Iowa State University.
• Cathy Cooney: Program Director, Montana Community Foundation.
• Jim Goodwin: Sr. Program Officer, Western Rural Development Center, Utah State University.
• Daniel Kemmis: Board of Directors of the Northwest Area and Kettering Foundations, and the Missoula Redevelopment Agency; O’Connor Center Senior Fellow, is the former May of Missoula, and a former Speaker and Minority leader of the Montana House of Representatives.
• Al Nygard: President and CEO of Al Nygard Consulting-Bismark, North Dakota.
• Linda Reed: President/CEO-Montana Community Foundation.
• Craig Schroeder: Sr. Associate, Center for Rural Entrepeneurship-Lincoln, Nebraska.
• Patrick Scully: Deputy Director for the Study Ciricle Resource Center.

Overall, “[The conference] touched on a wide range of solutions in a variety of venues, highlighting best practices for community success, emphasizing proven strategies and introducing emerging idea.” Some of the most compelling insights from the Rural Community Conference came from the Horizons Communities. Speakers, such as Jennifer Anderson, of Forsyth and Barb Andreozzi, of Anaconda, spoke on the impact of  Horizons in their communities and the real work of networking, adopting, connecting and mobilizing to alleviate poverty.

Many communities have completed their Community Visioning and are developing their Community Coaching and Action Plan.  To help facilitate this process, Attached is the Action & Coaching Budget Narrative Worksheet. 

This worksheet is due no later than December 31, 2007.

As you prepare your action plan, please consider partnering with other communities both Horizons and non-Horizons to plan events, trainings and other capacity building activities.  

More detailed information will be out in the following weeks that will highlight community training and capacity building activities that are sponsored by the Horizons office.  These activities will include

1. Rural Community Conference, January 15-16 in
   Billings
2. e-Commerce Training (2 days), Dates and Location TBA (Likely March or April)
3. Real Colors Training – February 12-14,
   Bozeman
4. Asset Based Community Development Workshop by John Kretzmann March 24 & 24 in
   Bozeman and Great Falls

Please consider how these opportunities will fit into your communities Vision implementation and allocate financial resources to participate. 

http://www.smartcommunities.ncat.org/rural/arttoc.shtml

As we all are trying to create a vision and a plan of action for the Horizon communities; let’s see if we can partner to adopt sustainable development as a strategy for well-being. More and more cities, villages, neighborhoods and regions are using sustainable development as a guiding principle not only for near-term projects, but also for planning their futures. That’s because sustainable projects: 

• Strengthen your local economy;
• Improve and protect the quality of the environment; and 
• Enhance the quality of life and the well-being of all of the people in your community. 

As your community’s environment, economy and quality of life grow stronger, so does your future. That’s because truly sustainable development produces enduring benefits, not just today, but for our children and their children as well. But sustainable development projects offer real benefits in the short term, too. They create jobs. They lower operating costs for homes, businesses and taxpayers. They reduce pollution control costs. They make your community more attractive as a place to live and do business.

As your communities makes its development decisions—with all of the attendant impacts on transportation patterns, building efficiency, industrial productivity and so on—you affect energy security, as well as the nation’s economic and environmental health. 

• Read about other communities that have discovered the benefits of sustainable development; 
• Locate technical and financial resources that can help your community plan and carry out sustainable development projects; and
• Access model codes and ordinances other communities have used to implement sustainable development. 

America’s strongest communities in the years ahead will be those that consciously adopt sustainable development as the guiding principle of their growth. We hope your community will be one of them.

http://www.sustainable.org/index.html

Visioining January 2008
-Community have at least 5 entries in Strategic action part of blogs in categories identified
-Community has poverty reduction plan with targets for Community Plan that results from Visioning
-Community has begun to address structural change/sustaining activity from source of 5 entries in Proverty Structural Change; Leadership Structural Change and Community Structural Change

Action July 2008
-Blogs show strategic action on at least 10 items reported in plans
-Blogs show community has sought resources from at least 3 external sources
-Blogs show evidence of at least 5 partnerships with communities and organizations beyond Horizons

 The Montana Horizons Communities invitied over 30 representives of non-profit organizations, foundations, agencies and special interest groups across the state to Bozeman in September to make connections and develop productive relationships  in support of their communities’ visioning and creating a plan of action.

The Partnership Summit had three objectives

• Explain the Horizon Program and process to potential partners
• Provide an opportunity for communities to collaborate with potential part
• Develop a “menu system” taht enhances and facilities communities to connect with partners and the services, resources and programs they provide.

The Partnership Summit was an ideal opportunity for communities to “showcase” their programs and accomplishments to potential partners and other communities. Communities prepared tabletop displays highlighting their communities.