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Monday Mailing

Year 20 • Issue 20 03 February 2014 1. Top Ten Tips for Inclusive Engagement 2. 5 Lessons for Engaging the Hard to Reach from Colorado’s North Fork Valley 3. Influential Lawmaker Predicts "Oregon is Done" with Columbia River Crossing 4. Toolkits Available for Community Projects 5. Drought Provides Window to Old West 6. Building Leadership for the Long Haul – Free Webinar 7. Beer Drone Can Buzz The Skies No More, FAA Says 8. Meth in London? Heroin in Zagreb? Sewage Pinpoints Drug Use in Communities 9. Free Federal and State Tax Returns for AmeriCorps Members 10. Forming Regional Food System Organizations – Webinar 11. Rural Crime School: To Catch a Cattle Thief 1. Top Ten Tips for Inclusive Engagement So, why is inclusive engagement so important to our Heart & Soul Community process?

Quote of the Week: The bigger the challenge the bigger the success! ~Matthew Klebes Oregon Fast Fact: Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the United States.

It was formed more than 6,500 years ago. Its crystalblue waters are world d

Broad—and deep—engagement with community members is a fundament building block of a successful Heart & Soul Community Planning project. We’ve worked hard to advance authentic engagement because it makes all the difference to building stronger communities; it is a means to an end in our work, and it is also an end in itself for the trust it builds, the ideas it sparks, and the new connections it creates.

Here’s why it’s important.

Local wisdom: Local people know their town best. When you get their insights it can transform a project. Local knowledge deepens and gives context to your quantitative data, from wildlife to walkability.

Community ownership: Residents need to own the final recommendations of a planning process so that they can be upheld.

They need to share in the decisions leading up to the results.

Many minds, better results: Research shows that many minds working on a project lead to better results. The greater the diversity of people contributing to solving a problem, the more creative and effective the solutions.

New leadership: The next generation of community leaders are cultivated through civic processes. Involve the people who the decisions will effect, and look for leadership in new places. In long range planning, involve the young people who will inherit your decisions.

To access the full story, click here.

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2. 5 Lessons for Engaging the Hard to Reach from Colorado’s North Fork Valley Despite its small-town feel, affiliations with local industries sharply divide social life in Colorado’s North Fork Valley. Coal miners feel their jobs are under attack by national and local shifts in energy policy. “Hippies” (environmentalists, artists, and newcomers, in the vernacular) and miners sometimes disagree when it comes to local mines. Artists are rarely recognized as contributors to the local economy. People have a hard time just getting along, and they aren’t afraid to say it.

Given the underlying tensions, it’s no surprise that residents of the three valley towns, Crawford, Hotchkiss and Paonia, rarely see eye-to-eye when it comes to decisions about the future of their region. Times of economic instability make consensus more difficult to achieve, as the need to protect livelihoods eclipses other issues. In fact, many people in the North Fork Valley abstain from formal civic engagement altogether. Perhaps they doubt their voice will be heard. Maybe they’re skeptical of how decisions are made, or how community power is distributed. No matter the reasons, they are hard to reach.

To build community across such divides and engage hard-to-reach folks in community engagement and visioning, the Heart & Soul team initiated three storytelling projects. Keep reading to learn more about the projects, along with five lessons we’ve distilled from their efforts to help you engage the hard to reach in your own city or town.

To access the full story, click here.

3. Influential Lawmaker Predicts "Oregon is Done" with Columbia River Crossing A key backer in the Oregon Legislature has voiced skepticism about the future of the Columbia River Crossing.

Sen. Lee Beyer, D-Springfield, said in a candid email to a Washington counterpart "it is my belief that Oregon is done with the bridge issue... My guess is the bridge issue is dead in our state for the next decade or two..."

The email was first obtained by The Columbian newspaper in Vancouver. It reflects a growing unease among Oregon lawmakers about the $2.8 billion project since Washington backed out as an equal funding partner. Gov. John Kitzhaber has since proposed a slightly downsized version of the bridge/freeway expansion with Oregon alone leading the way and assuming the financial risk.

When reached for comment, Beyer said he remains a staunch supporter of the project. His email was more a reflection of his "frustration" with the politics of the CRC and a difficult exchange with Washington State Sen. Ann Rivers, R-LaCenter, an ardent CRC opponent.

To access the full story, click here.

4. Toolkits Available for Community Projects Have an idea for a service project – like getting a group together to volunteer each week at a homeless shelter, or reading to kids at your local library? Learn how to turn your volunteer idea into a successful service project using our do-it-yourself toolkits. Includes projects such as community gardens, Audit Your Home, How to Support Military Families, etc.

To access the toolkits, click here.

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5. Drought Provides Window to Old West A severe drought plaguing much of the West is also bringing bits of its past back to life, as longsubmerged historic artifacts and natural features are exposed by receding lake levels.

Near this Sacramento suburb, man-made Folsom Lake has receded to less than one-fifth of its capacity amid bone-dry conditions in California, recently revealing outskirts of a ghost town called Mormon Island founded during the mid-19th century gold rush. On an unseasonably warm winter day recently, throngs of visitors descended on the cracked mud flats of the reservoir to inspect handforged nails, rusted hinges and other vestiges of frontier life that were inundated when the lake was created in 1955.

"A piece of history from that long ago just blows me away," said Kari McCoy, a 50-year-old local real-estate agent, after inspecting the stone foundation of an old milking barn.

California is entering its third year of drought, while much of the West has been abnormally dry for more than a decade. In recent days, both California Gov. Jerry Brown and the federal government have declared drought emergencies. State and federal officials are calling for some drastic measures to address the California drought.

To access the full story, click here.

6. Building Leadership for the Long Haul – Free Webinar What’s the difference between a plan that’s put into place and one that’s put on a shelf? People. If you want something to show for your hard work, you need to build strong local leadership and grassroots support. This webinar will focus on how to grow effective local leaders who can nurture volunteers, corral resources and build the public support that can move community design or planning work from paper to practice.

Join Milan Wall from the Heartland Center for Leadership Development to learn about their research on keys to thriving communities and effective leadership. Milan will describe characteristics of effective local leaders, roles and responsibilities to guide community action, and tips for recruiting new leaders in a changing world.

Event Date: Thursday, February 13, 2014 - 3:00 pm - 4:15 pm – Eastern Related Blog Post: What It Takes to Be an Effective Community Leader Speaker: Milan Wall, Co-Director of the Heartland Center for Leadership Development To register for this webinar, click here.

7. Beer Drone Can Buzz The Skies No More, FAA Says Lakemaid Beer is brewed in Stevens Point, Wis., and distributed to several states in the region. But it was a very local delivery that put the company out of favor with the Federal Aviation Administration.

The Minnesota-based company is receiving a flood of support and condolences after the FAA ruled that its beer delivery drone, which had only recently taken flight, had to be shut down.

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Lakemaid calls itself the fishermen's lager. It had hoped to use drones to deliver its beer to anglers in thousands of ice shacks, from the frozen northern lakes' combination bait and beer shops. But the government says the brewer's next test — which Lakemaid managing partner Jack Supple says was tentatively set for Minnesota's Lake Mille Lacs and the Twin Pines resort — cannot proceed.

"We were a little surprised at the FAA interest in this since we thought we were operating under the 400-foot limit," Supple says via email. He adds that the beer-makers "figured a vast frozen lake was a lot safer place than [what] Amazon was showing on 60 Minutes."

The brewery's test flight created a stir after it was posted on YouTube last week, capturing imaginations and, in some cases, leading people to say they a future in which the sky buzzes with drones.

To access the full story, click here.

8. Meth in London? Heroin in Zagreb? Sewage Pinpoints Drug Use in Communities Dan Burgard, an associate chemistry professor, knew students tried to get an edge. But he didn’t know about the “study drug.”

“I was walking with a student,” Burgard said, “and they bemoaned that it wasn’t students cheating nowadays to get ahead, but that they were taking Adderall,” a potent amphetamine used to treat attention disorders.

Burgard had an idea: Let’s test the campus sewage. What he and his students at University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Wash., found confirmed their suspicions.

“The amphetamine levels go through the roof during finals,” Burgard said.

Scientists, increasingly able to detect minuscule amounts of compounds, have begun to test sewage to gauge communities’ use of illegal drugs. When people take drugs, they are either unchanged or the body turns them into metabolites before they’re excreted.

“It amazes me it wasn’t really until 2005 that anyone had really done this or thought about doing this, now articles are constantly coming out about testing wastewater for drugs,” Burgard said.

“With the technological advancements, this field is just going nuts.”

Though nascent, such research could help tackle the drug problem across America, said Caleb Banta-Green, an assistant professor of public health at the University of Washington.

To access the full story, click here.

9. Free Federal and State Tax Returns for AmeriCorps Members You don’t need to pay money to get help with your taxes. AmeriCorps Alums is partnering with the Beehive.org and H&R Block. Available during the fourth week of January, you can file your tax returns free online with H&R Block and the Beehive. Who is the beehive.org? Who is H&R Block?

Am I eligible?

To prepare taxes for free on the Beehive, you’ll need: • • •

An email address To have an Adjusted Gross Income of $54,000 or less.

A valid Social Security Number or Individual Tax Payer Identification (ITIN) Number Page 4 of 6

Also, Maddie recommended checking out MyFreeTaxes. The MyFreeTaxes Partnership provides free state and federal tax preparation and filing assistance for qualified individuals. It’s easy, safe, secure and 100 percent free. Powered by the Walmart Foundation — in cooperation with Goodwill Industries International, National Disability Institute, and United Way — the MyFreeTaxes Partnership’s online and in-person tax preparation and filing services have helped millions of families claim nearly $8 billion in tax credits and refunds since 2009. Tax filing software is provided through MyFreeTaxes.com and powered by H&R Block. After taking a look this looks like another solid resource.

10. Forming Regional Food System Organizations – Webinar Interested in learning about how regional food system councils and/or coalitions are organized?

Want to know more about the difference between the two, perhaps to understand which organizational structure is better for your community/region? Or if you simply want to learn more about a thriving food system organization in Oregon's North Coast, a coalition forming in NE Oregon, and a statewide Food System Advisory Council in Colorado, than join us for what’s bound to be a highly informative webinar!

Forming a Regional Food System Organization – Council or Coalition?

Wednesday February 5th 10:30am-11:45am PST Attend the webinar via GoToMeeting To call in toll-free, dial 1-213-289-0010 and use the passcode 191-077-117.

(This is a FREE webinar and there is no need to pre-register. Just follow this link, or call in, at the date/time of the webinar.)

This webinar will feature 4 presentations followed by ample time for questions from attendees: -

Oregon Food Bank’s Sharon Thornberry will present on the difference between councils and coalitions, and the pros and cons of each organizational structure.

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Kristin Frost-Albrecht will share information about the history, organizational structure and future goals of the North Coast Food Web, which was established 4 years ago.

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Sara Miller, from NE Oregon Economic Development District will discuss the challenges, considerations, and goals of a group of food system advocates currently organizing in Wallowa County.

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And finally, Wendy Peters Moschetti, staff of the Colorado Food System Advisory Council, and Ron Carleton, council chair and Deputy Commissioner for the Colorado Department of Agriculture, will talk about the organizational structure of a statewide food system council in Colorado.

This webinar is part of a quarterly webinar series for Oregon Food Bank’s FEAST Leadership Network. FEAST (Food Education Agriculture Solutions Together) is Oregon Food Bank’s award winning community organizing process that allows participants to engage in an informed and facilitated discussion about food, education and agriculture in their community and begin to work toward solutions together to help build a healthier, more equitable and more resilient local food system. If you’d like to receiving information about future webinars, please send an email to smasterson@oregonfoodbank.org and we’ll add you to the FEAST Leadership Network list.

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11. Rural Crime School: To Catch a Cattle Thief With bright overhead lights, rows of tables dotted with paper name signs, and a massive tank of black coffee arranged on a back counter, this could be any conference. There’s a screen flickering with slideshows upfront, and attendees are dutifully taking notes in massive, identical spiral-bound workbooks. But the audience is distinct, without the business casual wear trotted out for many industry functions. Here, baseball hats and jeans are the order of the day. And when an organizer announces an upcoming outing, he warns "Don’t wear anything you don’t want to get cow poop on."

Welcome to Rural Crime School.

Rural crime can stymie the most adept law enforcement officer: there are addicts stripping farms of every brass fixture they can get their hands on and selling it for scrap metal. There are tractor heists, walnut thefts and cattle rustling. And that’s just the beginning.

So how do you get officers up to speed on country crime? In California, where agriculture is a nearly $36.6 billion industry and agricultural crime is a chronic problem, you go to Rural Crime School. Put on annually by the California Rural Crime Prevention Task Force, the weeklong school is a mix of speakers, hands-on workshops and networking. The most recent took place in September 2013, in the Tulare County district attorney’s office in California’s agriculture-rich Central Valley.

To access the full story, click here.

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