Our April seminar, housed in the CanadInn in Grand Forks kicked off against a backdrop of beautiful weather and congested traffic. We were meeting in Grand Forks at the same time as the North Dakota Democratic-NPL convention (which was housed in the adjoining Alerus Center) and just prior to the world Men's Curling Championship.

Hal Gershman, President of the Grand Forks City council was kind enough to welcome us to Grand Forks. He discussed a number of economic growth engines that are currently benefiting Grand Forks. After Hal's welcome, our afternoon was filled by Mel Nelson of Executive Management Systems, Inc., who returned to discuss project management with our group. We explored some of the challenges of communicating across "DiSC Styles", the importance of team-building, and effective strategies for project success.

Thursday evening we car-pooled down to the Fireside Bar and Grill in Thompson. Marcy Douglas, the City Administrator of Northwood gave a presentation on crisis management, and shared with us the devastation and rebirth of the community of Northwood in the wake of their 2007 tornado.

We started our Friday was with a tour of the UND Center for Innovation. Bruce Gjovig and Amy Indridason showed us their facilities, explained the role of the Center, and discussed entrepreneurship in North Dakota. Bruce explained that he felt roughly half of all economic development should come from local sources, and that's why the Center is important. The Center for Innovation takes local ideas and incubates them into economic opportunities benefiting local communities throughout the state. Amy also discussed the role of Dakota Venture Group, an opportunity for students to gain "experiential learning" about investment and entrepreneurship. Among the many ideas Bruce left with us about investment and rural leadership, he said "Money will follow leadership".  

We returned back to the hotel for a session with Rachelle Vettern to learn about working with Boards, Councils and Committees. Rachelle is the Leadership and Volunteer Development Specialist for the NDSU Extension Service, and gave us many useful tips for recruiting and retaining volunteers.

Our afternoon consisted of many tours in the Grand Forks area. Steve Johnson of the Grand Forks Airport authority discussed the challenges of growing an airport and its relationship to the local economy. We then toured LM Glasfiber, a company that manufactures blades for windmills. After our factory tour we headed downtown for a tour of the Grand Forks County Extension Office lead by Margaret Tweten. From there we didn't have far to travel to get to the Greenway where Grand Forks City Engineer, Al Grasser, gave us an overview of the steps the city has taken to update their flood protection system after the flood of 1997. Just a block from the river was the Toasted Frog, our choice for supper and socialization Friday evening.

Saturday morning had us on the road to tour Marvin Window's Grafton factory. After our tour in Grafton we continued heading north to Hoople where Warren, TJ, and Kevin Hall lead tours of their family farm. The seminar, and the year, concluded at the Hoople Cafe where everyone reflected on the events of RLND class 3 so far, and said goodbye before we went our separate ways for the summer.

by Kevin Hall