This past year has been one for the books. As indicated in the letters from the Chair and me, we’ve done a pretty good job of positioning ourselves, not only to weather the storm, but to complete some meaningful, and important, things.

Before we talk about what we see on the horizon, I’m going to give you an assessment of how we did on the goals we set for ourselves this past year.  Last year on this page we talked about raising the bar on our economic and community development programs by setting some clear goals. We also talked about nurturing new staff leadership.

On the first goal I’d give us a B.  While we’ve undertaken some of the priorities we’ve talked about in the office (taking advantage of the change in energy prices and the renewed concerns about climate change, the opportunity to build “green” initiatives from our assets, repositioning specific communities to address new economy concerns, and the need to become a talent magnet), we’ve done this in a way that is slightly less intentional than I might have hoped for.  I also think we’re still missing some community development opportunities because of that lack of intentionality. Maybe I should focus on the results and less on the process of how we got there – I’ll think about that for next year.

On the second goal, I think we deserve a B+.  We can almost see on a monthly basis the growth in our new staff. While they still have much growth potential (I would hope we all do!) the potential is shining through. Now it’s about discipline and hard work.

I am not convinced the legacy leaders in the office (including me), have done as good a job as I’d like in the mentor role. While the professional growth of the new staff is very good, we as mentors get sidetracked by the challenges presented by the existing economic conditions, and the size of our workload. It’s too easy to use this as an excuse, so I won’t. I know we can be better in this role.

Finally, we’re going to work hard at being one team instead of just a bunch of all-stars.  The main accelerator for growth is our ability to function as a team, not just our ability to grow individually.

What’s in store this coming fiscal year?  I think we can frame 2010 by these three themes

• Harvesting the fruits of our labors.  The past twelve months have felt like a time to plant new seeds, and nurture new efforts. To keep consistent with this metaphor, the next twelve months will be about the harvest. We’ve got 3-4 new housing initiatives, a couple really interesting new economic development efforts, a bold new strategic management initiative with Beltrami County, the transition between planning and implementation in a project called Shared Vision (a Bemidji community effort to bridge racial bias and racial disparity) and the beginnings of conversations about “Version 2.0” of the Center for Community Stewardship (CCS). Each of these should “be ripe” within the next fiscal year. We’ll report next year on the results of each.
• Staying the course on professional development.  Growing the next generation of leadership is not something we can declare victory on after just twelve months. Our mentorship/professional development efforts are showing pay-off, but our effort is more important than ever. We’re going to stay the course.
• Acting as one team.  Working together is not only a better way to make lasting change, it is the only way. We’ll be finding a way to improve the way we function as a team.
• Being disciplined, and intentional. This suggests our approach, and complements the three themes above.  Our work and our internal efforts have potential for big pay-offs, but also come with more than a little risk.  If we’re going to capture the promise, and avoid the pitfalls of each, we’re going to have to be just a little bit obsessive.  For those of you that know us well, being obsessive is no problem for us!

This is going to be an interesting year – we hope you will also find our future work equally worthwhile.