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Northern Great Plains Regional Development Commission Narrative

2007-11-04

When we began this endeavor in February 1995 it would have been difficult to predict the outcome. The members of the Commission represented many different perspectives about what kind of future the Region could have and what roles the marketplace and governments should serve in determining the economic future of the Region. However, each Commissioner was personally committed to working together to produce a strategy for the future that would, in the end, make a difference.

We were determined to develop a plan that would be a strategy for action. It would be a plan that involved many people from all walks of life in the Region. It would describe a dynamic vision for the Region that could adjust to changing economic conditions and advancing technologies over its ten-year life and yet maintain a core set of values and goals. And it would outline actions that would build a future for a Region thriving in the 21st century.

In the course of our work we discovered that outlining a ten-year plan for the economic future of the Region meant much more than recommending a series of action steps that the marketplace, governments, and non-profits in the Region could take. It meant describing a vision for the Region that would significantly impact how each of us would view the core elements of our economy, our communities, and our social fabric. It also meant that we would need to provide a view of the future that is driven more by the possibilities of what is to come, than reliance on what has past.

As the Region approaches the 21st century, it is essential that each of us recognize and accept many changes taking place in the world and find new opportunities for the Region within these shifts in global economic trading structures, advancing agricultural production technologies, emerging global identities among young people, and highly interactive communications technologies. We must position ourselves now to take advantage of existing and emerging opportunities that can build a strong, stable Regional economy, dependent more upon our own personal dreams and initiative than upon a reliance on governments.

The preparation of this report has truly been a collaborative effort. The ideas expressed here came from within the Region. They represent an upward flow of input from the grassroots throughout the Region into a strategy that can make a difference. They also represent hopes and dreams for a strong future for the Region, the realities of today, and the possibilities for tomorrow. This plan is one that can change how we direct our economic relationships, how agricultural policy will be delivered in the Region, how we all can connect with each other with advanced telecommunications technologies, and how the Region can both be a home for young families and a place where they can pursue their dreams - dreams that are different than those of past generations, that are tied less to the land and more to success in today's marketplace, dreams that link them to the world.

Many of the ideas expressed within this report may be controversial. They are suggestions that will require many of the Region's institutions to change how they do business and deliver services. These are changes from the way things have been done for the past sixty years, especially in how we view agriculture, education, communications, and community and family. They are changes that will strengthen the Region, make our rural communities more attractive to young families, and provide opportunities for young and old to live, work and thrive together in the coming century.

We trust that this plan will be a living document, that it is the first chapter in a story about how a rural Region moved strongly forward to take control of its own destiny during a time of rapid global change. We also trust that this first chapter will begin an on-going effort among all the people within the Region to listen to each other, to learn together, to share new ideas and opportunities with each other, and most importantly, to work together towards the common goal of sharing in the economic and human prosperity of a thriving rural Region.