Vice President and Dean of College of Agriculture, Food Systems and Natural Resources, Patricia A. Jensen, welcomed us. We were then given a presentation from Rick Killion, editor of Prairie Business Magazine, on marketing and resources for getting our projects publicity.

Melvin D. Nelson, President and CEO of Executive Management Systems, Inc., gave a presentation on Project Management. We then traveled to the Pracs Institute where we attended a meeting of the Entrepreneur Society. Some of the students also received a tour of the Pracs Institute.

Dinner that evening was held at the Green Mill restaurant. Cher Hersrud, Director of the Resource Center/ ND Community Foundation, was the featured speaker. Cher gave us wonderful advice on how to access funding for our projects. The rest of the evening was spent networking at the hotel with the other students in the program.

Friday morning started off with a tour of the Northern Crops Institute located on the NDSU campus.  We then traveled to the Alumni Center for a presentation by Rachelle Vetter, Leadership/Volunteer Development Specialist for the NDSU Extension Service. Her presentation was on working with Volunteers, Advisory Groups and Boards.

Lunch was held at the Alumni Center where David K. Martin, Public Relations Director for the Fargo/ Moorhead Chamber of Commerce, was the speaker. He explained the Chamber activities and how they could be beneficial to our communities

Next we were treated to a talk from Dennis Anderson and Mike Brandenburg on the benefits of wind energy. They also spoke on the current wind farm being developed near Edgeley. We then traveled to the Agri ImaGIS where the employees gave us a tour of the business. We were also able to connect via videoconference with Lanny Faleide, President of the company.

The evening was spent at a banquet held at the Holiday Inn, where all the students of the Rural Leadership Program gave presentations to the group on a project they are currently working with in their communities. More networking with each other followed.

Saturday we traveled back to the NDSU campus. We met in Minard Hall to discuss the RLND class mission, finalized plans for getting together in the summer, and also discussed plans for our Washington, D.C. trip. We then traveled to the Group Decision Center where Steve Venette, Director, and Linda Charlton, Administrative Assistant, led us through a seminar on group decision-making.

The Seminar Five �Managing Projects� program was concluded by each of the students sharing their thoughts and reflecting on what they had learned in the first year of the RLND program. Our home assignment until we get together in November is to continue working on our projects in our communities.

Submitted by Susan Goplen