Community Conference Call Updates
We held our monthly conference call with Horizons communities on June 16th. My notes are below (click “more”). If you couldn’t make it to the call, this should give you a short and sweet rundown of the important details. Enjoy, and have a great week!
- Update on your workplans
These have been submitted to the NWAFoundation. Monica thought they all looked wonderful. We submitted them a week ago, and have been told we should hear back within two weeks (so that’s one more week!). If changes need to be made, we’ll let you know ASAP.
- Update on the future of Horizons and recruitment for the next round
We’ve been presenting the list of neighboring communities that are eligible at community celebrations. We’ll send out further information when we have new literature and information sessions scheduled. We would love for previous Horizons participants to come to the information sessions and talk about their experiences, if you’re interested.
- BEF, community education funds, and other deadlines
We haven’t heard from anyone that they’ll be needing to access the second portion of their BEF. July 11th is the deadline for submitting expenses you’ve made, and checks for the remaining funds. All expenditures must be made by June 30th.
Community Education Funds: as far as we know, all community education expenditures have been made. Every community used some portion. Remember the June 30th deadline for any last purchases or expenditures.
- Reports from communities about education events and activities:
Fertile: Tourism development presentation, report and discussion with Ryan Pesch, Regional Extension Educator
St. James: 4 people attended Everyday Democracy conference in Denver last week. They are very fired up to take action on race issues in their community. Heather from Eveleth attended as well, had a great time, and would love to go again.
Hokah: Heather attended Sustainable Tourism Conference in Duluth, and they’re purchasing software and book for another community member to learn website maintenance and design
- Wrap-up and closure activities in June and July
All events went forward except for New York Mills and Elmore, and storm warnings held attendance back in Hokah. Other than the weather, everything went great!
Sue reported hearing a lot of enthusiasm for community engagement processes and for Horizons at the conference in Denver.
Reporting and surveys - some were handed out at community events over the last two weeks, and Monica will be sending out an online survey, as well.
Exit interviews/visits - Monica and Lori or Jessica will be making final visits to each community in July, and presenting you with a book that captures the complete Horizons process for your community, including Action Forum reports, visions, etc. In addition, Kate Duffy will be in touch to schedule community interviews between now and the end of July. Kate’s project is to interview Horizons Team members and compile their comments, giving us the opportunity to lend a more narrative, human perspective to final reports.
If anyone has heard from any nearby communities that they are interested in participating in Horizons 3, please let us know! Our timeline for recruiting is short, so personal referrals and contacts will be especially useful.
- Open time for questions/issues community members would like to discuss
How is everyone doing? Everyone reported that though the relationship with Extension is closing out and moving into a new phase, they are energized to continue with the work that has come out of Horizons in their communities. The Foundation has expressed an interest in communities to continue to blog about their stories, and Extension may also be looking to check in with you periodically as you continue on. As always, let us know what we can do to support your amazing work!