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Empower Rural Iowa - Executive Committee Minutes - July 2019

Governor’s Empower Rural Iowa Initiative

Executive Committee Meeting Agenda

Conference Call

Tuesday, July 24, 2019 - 1:00 PM

  1. Roll Call:

Committee Members Present:                          

Lt. Governor Gregg         Sandy Ehrig                   Hollie McCormick

Chris Ball                         Dave Duncan                 Emily Schmitt

Jenae Jenison                    Steve Gilbert                 David Barker

Committee Members Absent:

        Jim Thompson                   Dave Barker

Others on Call:

        Rand Fisher                       Taylor Collins              Amy Kuhlers

        Logan Shine                      Liesl Seabert                     

  1. Approval of Minutes:  Minutes from the June 13, 2019 Executive Committee meeting had been distributed.  Emily Schmitt made a motion to approve the minutes as edited and Jenae Jenison seconded.  Passed unanimously.
  2. Discussion of August Task Force Meetings:

Prior to opening discussion on the upcoming meetings, the Lt. Governor mentioned he’d attended the NLGA Conference earlier in the month and presented on ERI. There was much interest from other states, and he heard about efforts in other states that we can learn from as well. A takeaway is that broadband is an issue that unites. When talking about Iowa’s issues, the Lt. Governor of NY mirrored similar issues and talked about some of their efforts. Two different states, two different parties, with a unifying issue.

Regarding the next task force meetings, the Governor thought holding the meetings during the State Fair would be a good fit, as it is centrally located and highlights rural Iowa in a major way. He, Liesl, and Sandy drafted an agenda and will look for feedback from members.

Liesl provided overview of the day’s draft agenda. All meetings will be held on August 12 at the Fairground’s Youth Inn. All members are invited to a joint lunch at noon and a reception, potentially at the Jake’s Club on the second floor of the Jacobson Exhibition Center. Individual meeting agendas are as follows:

  1. Investing in Rural Iowa:
    1. Task force meeting will be at 10:00 – 12:00, or possibly at 9:30 if more time is needed for this group.
    2. Jacque Matsen with the Iowa Economic Development Authority will present an overview on the new “This is Iowa” campaign (at all three of the meetings).
    3. Liesl will give an update on the timeline of the Rural Innovation Grants and the Housing Needs Assessments grants.
    4. Gary Taylor with ISU will provide an overview of their new housing assessment readiness tool.
    5. Dan Clark with Iowa Prison Industries and Mike Norris with SEIRPC will give an overview of the Homes for Iowa program.
    6. Input from Task Force:
      1. James:  Is the meeting structure more educational then a working meeting? 
      2. Lt. Gov:  Yes.  We have more time this fall so can look at issues and gain a better understanding of recent developments and identify gaps in service. 
  2. Growing Rural Iowa:
    1. Task force meeting to be held from 1:00 – 3:00 PM
    2. “This is Iowa” campaign overview
    3. Rural Innovation Grant Program update
    4. Panel presentation - two options:  Look at some local leadership programs that exist and have a panel of representatives; or look at panelists from some of the different statewide programs, such as Leadership Iowa. 
    5. Input from task force:
      1. James: Option 2, build from existing programs.
      2. Jenae:  Also likes option 2 for the statewide approach, although last year the task force did get an overview from Leadership Iowa. It might be nice to hear from program participants – what did they learn, what might they change, how did it benefit, etc.
      3. Lt. Gov:  Needs to challenge the members to be thinking about what they want rural leaders to know – regardless of who presents.
      4. Sandy:  Also need to hear about the training programs for the public arena – city clerks, mayors, etc. 
      5. Rand: This is most undefined task force initiative.  Individual leadership is important but at meetings last fall he was also hearing about the preparedness on the planning of communities.  How does a community get itself leadership ready? 
      6. James:  Is this to be a new leadership program or complementing an existing program, or either, based on effectiveness?
      7. Lt. Gov:  The latter.  Wants this to be something tangible so we can look back and see what was accomplished and quantify participants, both individuals and communities.
      8. Jenae: How do we determine what we want leaders to know? 
      9. Lt. Gov:  Maybe ask members to give it some thought for input at the next or future meetings.
      10. Liesl will reach out to James and Jenae.
  3. Connect
    1. Task force meeting to be held from 3:00 – 5:00 PM
    2. “This is Iowa” campaign overview
    3. Rural Innovation Grant Program update
    4. A representative from OCIO will give an update on the broadband grant program and how it has changed, as well as how they plan to roll out the next round of applications.
    5. Panel presentation on broadband use in agriculture since the meeting will be at the Fair. Plans for similar panels at upcoming meetings to discuss broadband in other fields as well. To-date, panelists include Emily Schmitt, Billi Hunt with the Cultivation Corridor, and Nathan Katzer with Iowa Farm Bureau.
    6. Input from task force:
      1. Lt. Governor:  He challenged members to think about what they can individually do to put this in the public arena, such as op-ed’s radio interview, etc.
      2. Dave:  Agrees and starting with an ag panel and showcasing new technology will hopefully garner a lot of interest for media. 
      3. Sandy: Any ideas on a company to highlight precision ag? 
      4. Lt. Gov:  Potentially Rantizo in Iowa City that does spraying application with drones.
      5. Sandy:  Nathan also works with up-and-coming companies in ag so could have some ideas as well. 
  4. Discussion of Upcoming Task Force Meeting Locations
    1.           Lt. Gov:  His goal is to have dates set by the August meeting. He was interested in hearing feedback on the joint meeting with the IRDC in Mount Ayr, was it useful?
      1. James:  Yes on all accounts.
      2. Emily:  Was glad to visit Mount Ayr and enjoyed outreach in the community. Felt that the exhibitor networking session had a 1:1 ratio of exhibitors to attendees so it was difficult to meet with all, and maybe better identification of who the exhibitors were would have helped.
      3. Dave: Bringing ERI members to see the work of the IRDC was great, but not necessary to do on a regular basis – maybe once a year?
      4. Sandy:  The host community did most of the planning, which will also be true at the next roadshow meeting so if we do a future joint session that would need to be taken into consideration.
      5. Dave:  At the Stanton task force meeting last fall, they thought about doing an outreach session with Montgomery County Hospital, to have some community involvement.
      6. Lt. Gov:  Likes that idea, we should be intentional about where we meet so we can highlight initiatives like telehealth, etc.
      7. Liesl:  If members have any thoughts on potential communities/locations for upcoming meetings, send her an email.
      8. Chris:  We hear a lot of ideas at meetings, how to best share with other members? Is there a website or bulletin board thoughts can be shared?
      9. Lt. Gov:  Liesl is go-to for now. Need to consider potential violation of open meeting rules.
      10. Sandy:  Start with Liesl for public posting, and potentially in the future items that would be general to all rural could go on IRDC website.
  5. Miscellaneous Updates - none
  6. Questions and Comments from Executive Committee
    1. Dave:  Are we planning on holding task force meetings each month? 
    2. Lt. Gov:  Yes, with potentially one being a conference call. Ideally would like to have a joint meeting, but December calendar is challenging so not sure. The final meeting might have to be late November, but to early to know yet.
  7. Adjourn:  A motion to adjourn was made by Sandy Ehrig, seconded by Emily Schmitt and unanimously passed.

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