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Empower Rural Iowa - Executive Committee Minutes - August 2019

Governor’s Empower Rural Iowa Initiative

Executive Committee Meeting

Conference Call

Friday August 30, 2019

11:30 AM

  1. Roll Call:

Committee Members Present:                          

Lt. Governor Gregg         Hollie McCormick             Chris Ball

Dave Duncan                      Jenae Jenison                    David Barker     

Jim Thompson                   James Hoelscher              Jennifer Bergmann for Emily Schmitt      

Others on Call:

        Rand Fisher                         Taylor Collins                     Liesl Seabert

        Amy Kuhlers                       Bill Menner

       

  1. Approval of Minutes:  Minutes from the June 13, 2019 Executive Committee meeting had been distributed for review.  Dave Duncan made a motion to approve the minutes and Hollie McCormick seconded.  Passed unanimously.

  1. Grant Updates – Liesl: 
    1. Rural Grants:  The initial policy and procedures have been drafted, and a subcommittee has been established.  Copies will be sent to task force members for review.  Not a lot of changes from what was discussed at the State Fair.  Looking at high level, competitive applications, and applicants will self-select which of the three areas they will apply.  Scoring criteria has been developed and there will be a review panel consisting of IEDA and task force members.  Looking at having the rules complete for administrative review by October, with a launch at the Iowa Rural Summit next spring.
    2. Housing Assessments:  Has been working with Director Durham to see if the county data will be completed on the IFA Assessment Tool, as we don’t want to use funds to collect data that is already available for no cost.  Looking at partnering with both IFA and ISU to coordinate needs.  Grants will be competitive with a match component.  She is meeting with IFA next week and will hopefully have more information.

  1. Feedback on August Task Force Meetings:
    1. James:  Thinks the Growing meeting went well.  The panel was educational, and he is envisioning next meetings being more hands-on working sessions.
    2. Janae:  Agrees with James. Feedback from other task force members is that they are ready to get more involved.
    3. Liesl:  We need to identify ways where all task force member expertise can be utilized.  Could potentially have a worksheet with guiding questions to help define what the task force should be – lessons learned with more tangible outcomes.  Each task force is slightly different. 

  1. Discussion of September Task Force Meetings:
    1. Investing – September 9th, 1:30 Vinton:  Liesl has been in touch with Chris Ward with the city and they are looking forward to hosting.  They will be touring the former Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School and will then meet at 2:30 at Kirkwood Community College building.  They have suggested maybe starting 30 minutes earlier for the tour as there is a lot to see, so she will be in touch on that.  All three meetings will have the normal administrative start with roll call, minutes, comments.  They will then have a panel presentation looking at state programs for dilapidated buildings to learn what each of the programs do, how they are funded, etc.  Panelists include Scott Black with DNR’s Derelict Building Grant Program, Jim Thompson on the Community Catalyst Program, Ed Bosch with IEDA on CDBG, and Nuisance properties, Deb Arp on the DOT RISE program; and possibly someone from DCA to discuss historic tax credits. 

Lt. Gov:  We will be looking at the programs to see how they might be improved, streamlined, and to make sure we are funding correctly. 

Jim:  Challenge in rural with housing, they don’t know what tools exist and won’t start on anything until they know about all that is available.  Having clarification of what is available so communities can use ones that fit is important.

  1. Growing – September 18, Manning, noon:  Ron Reischl is helping to set schedule. Meeting at noon at the Main Street office for a walking tour then to Trestle Park for lunch and to hear from business owners under 40 for their perspective.  Will be taking a picture of full task force at the IOWA Sculpture. Will then drive to Hausbarn-Heritage Park for the meeting at 1:30. The panel topic will be on existing leadership programs.  

James: After panel he envisions a facilitated work session so members can leave with a draft plan of some pieces of rural leadership.  There are a lot of good programs in place, but many communities have not done anything.  Suggested creating two things:  1) Structure a guide for those who haven’t done anything; 2) create a way for those who have leadership programs to get together to network.  ABI had worked with Mary Foley from Farm Bureau on an annual event where leadership groups met to share best practices and mentoring.  How do we take all of this and make it fresh?  Talked about Empowering Rural Leadership Incubator where attendees would meet for a day or two with work time in between back in community.  Incubator designed for info and resources and to devise a plan. The working meeting in September will help members to think through what this looks like so they will leave with a good idea of what to offer to communities interested in leadership.  For those communities that have an existing program, create an Empowering Rural Leadership Exchange – event for once a year to share, learn from each other, basically a reboot of the ABI event.  Additionally, would like to have an online repository of templates, best practices, etc.  Work time where we are sketching these out. Break into small groups.  Work sessions will put together individuals with experience to serve as go-to experts and co-facilitators to help guide process.  

A survey to take an inventory of existing leadership programs went out today to members and a few other groups. Hopeful that outcomes will support James’ proposal.  Please share document to others.

  1. Connect – National Advanced Driving Simulator in Coralville with a tour at 1:00 tour and meeting at 2:00.  Panel will be discussing broadband in manufacturing and automation.  Panelists not confirmed but will be structured like panel on broadband in Ag at the fair and will highlight why connection is important to business, necessary for growth, location decisions, etc.    

Lt. Governor:  will be charging task force members to help build awareness in the media through op-eds.  Wil be important for the legislature as it looks to additional funding.   

Bill:  helping share techniques in how to get message out. 

Liesl: has reached out to the State Fair panelists and they are excited to participate. 

Task force members can contact her for assistance. Also, hoping to have a firmer date of when the broadband applications will be available.  Now tentatively scheduled for Sept 20.

  1. Upcoming Meeting Locations: 
    1. Investing will meet the afternoon of October 4th in Hawarden in a junior high that has been renovated into city hall.  Will Also tour the old city hall, now rehabbing into a museum.
    2. Growing will meet the afternoon of Oct 8th in Belleview.  Will focus on visioning and creative placemaking, the Heart and Soul program, and Hometown Pride. 
    3. Connecting will meet on October 9th, but not sure of location yet.  Would like the focus to be on telehealth.

Whether the November will be a joint meeting or individual task force meetings will depend on how the September meetings go. 

  1. Misc. Updates:  None

  1. Q & Comments:  Dave thanked the Lt. Governor for keeping this moving forward.  Looking forward to helping publicize across state.

  1. Adjourn

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