Crookston visioning effort needs 'civic stewards'

    References that include "steroids" are rarely spoken or taken in a positive fashion, but at a kick-off event Wednesday evening of a year-long "Community Stewardship Initiative" in Crookston, the person who will help lead the effort said he wants to see the good things that have happened in Crookston over the past couple years to...grow.

    "We've seen some great stuff happening in Crookston over the past three years or so...great stuff," said Dave Hengel, director of community stewardship development for the Headwaters Regional Development Commission in Bemidji. "Now, let's take that and put it on steroids. That's what I'd like to see."

    About 70 people turned for a social time in the Crookston High School commons, which was followed in the auditorium by a motivational presentation by Jim Bensen, president emeritus of Bemidji State University, and Hengel offering his own inspiring words before detailing what the next nine months to a year will entail as the Crookston community embarks on its visioning initiative.

    A team of "civic stewards" will drive the effort. At the conclusion of Wednesday's event, participants interested in being on that team were encouraged to leave their name and contact information. Hengel said he's hoping for a team of up to 30 stewards, but that more would be welcome. It was mentioned to him that, scanning the crowd, it appeared that several community leaders and potential stewards were not in attendance, and that they might want a chance to sign up later. Hengel said that's totally cool.

    Stewards don't need to be "elected, appointed or anointed," he said. They don't need to be tied to a specific interest area or organization, either, he said, but must be more than "community leaders" and instead have a "360-degree" vision when looking at their community's future. If those qualifications sound intimidating for anyone young or old who wants to take part, Hengel said all that's required of stewards is that they have a "hopeful attitude" and are "passionate" about their community. They also need to stick to things Crookston can control about its future.

    "Inevitably, you're going to start arguing about some things that are out of your control, and I'm probably going to step in and say 'stop it, stick to things you control,'" Hengel said.

    The next step in the process is putting the stewardship team together, which will coordinate the following steps, including a "call to action," followed by "planning for the future" and "digging in and getting dirty." The final step, "renew, rebuild and re-energize" won't be an end point, Hengel said, but a launch to an ongoing effort.

Bremer Foundation grant
    Crookston is the latest community to embark on the Community Stewardship Initiative, which is tied to the new Crookston Area Community Fund (CACF) that is fiscally hosted by the Northwest Minnesota Foundation (NMF). Last year, according to NMF President Nancy Vyskocil, the NMF applied for and was rewarded with a grant from the Otto Bremer Foundation to get matching funds for five communities in the region to develop community funds and "really being intentional about the process" that gets them started down the road toward meaningful successes.

    In order to spur interest among potential contributors to the CACF, Vyskocil continued, Bremer has committed to, if the fund reaches $50,000 by the summer of 2013, it will match that amount, dollar for dollar. In addition, she said, the NMF will kick in $10,000. "It's about building a culture of philanthropy," she said. "And when you build that culture, you have a fund for your community that can have an amazing, lasting impact."

    A CACF Advisory Committee, which coordinated and hosted Wednesday's event, is currently putting plans together to raise the new fund's profile in Crookston, and how it's intertwined with the visioning initiative, Vyskocil said.

Must have vision
    Without vision, Bensen and Hengel agreed, communities, organizations and businesses are "doomed" to fail. And vision isn't just about getting projects done, Bensen said. Vision is about looking beyond those projects, beyond the things that you're doing "within your mission."

    If a community ever achieves its vision, "Then you're not being visionary enough!" he said. A good, long-term vision is something that you need to always be just short of reaching, Bensen said. Or, as Hengel put it, the process Crookston is embarking on is going to have a "beginning, and a middle, and a middle, and a middle and a middle," he said. "This doesn't end."

    The "community fact finding" mission will focus on assets (What are we best at?), values (What are we passionate about?), and the community's economic engine (What will bring us prosperity?)

    It's about planning from the future, not necessarily for it, explained Hengel, a longtime economic developer who said he realized around five years ago that he "doesn't get it anymore." Why then? The rules had changed, he said, citing technology, specifically, because now families can pretty much live and work anywhere they want and never be more than a click of a button away from everything they need.

    "So it all comes down to a question for people: Why Crookston?" Hengel said.

    It's about developing a mystique, Bensen said, when it comes to how people view the community. Communities were once built around natural resources, like forests, rivers, lakes and farmland, he explained, "But, today, a community's biggest resource is its people." And those people will determine the culture, both internally and what's viewed from the outside, he said.

    "Culture trumps strategy every time because your actions speak louder than your words," Bensen said. "You talk a good game, but let's see you do it."

    BemidjiLEADS! got started because a few people didn't like some of the what was popping up on the shores of Lake Bemidji, Hengel said, like big neon signs. Then a huge grove of trees was bulldozed to make way for a strip mall and then a big box retailer, and more people started getting upset. It's no accident, Bensen said, that one of the 17 "destiny drivers" – also known as outcomes – on the latest BemidjiLEADS! list includes the planting of 10,000 trees a year in Bemidji. The local Rotary Club has taken over that specific destiny driver, Hengel said, and put collaborations together to make it a reality.

    Not all destiny drivers are attained, Hengel said, adding that some are downright outlandish, such as the one that says a four-lane highway will be in place from the Twin Cities to Bemidji. "MnDOT took one look at that and said, 'you're crazy,'" Hengel said. "But this is about being bold, about setting the bar high."

    Once Crookston's effort gets rolling, he said people who have never left the sidelines or who retreated to their comfort at some point will step into the action. "It's about turning a project into a movement," he said.