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Friday, January 30, 2015
[Minnesota Rising Dispatch] January 2015
Thursday, January 29, 2015
[Recommended reading] MN Next: Thinking differently about diversity
Minnesota Rising friend, Alfonso Wenker, was recently featured on the MPR for MN Next: Thinking differently about diversity. He highlights recent findings from the "Our Minnesota" Cascading Conversations Tour and reflects on the implications of our state's diversifying demographics. Give it a listen and enjoy some laughs along the way!
MN Next: Thinking differently about diversity
January 15, 2015
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
[Recommended reading] Minnesota's Energy Future
In the last weeks of my current term as Citizens League Board Chair, I'm excited to share a new video about electrical energy reform produced by TPT. As the 2015 legislative session begins, the League is helping put a spotlight on the inefficiency of Minnesota's electrical energy system and suggesting regulatory reform. Visit the website for more details and take 2 minutes and 26 seconds to learn more in the video below!
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Minnesota Rising Imagine Lab: Portrayed in pictures and prose
The Minnesota Rising Imagine Lab: New Paradigms, New Possibilities took place on Sunday, September 28, 2014 at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in the temporary pilot Hothouse co-working venue. The brainchild of MIA Entrepreneur in Residence, Sarah Lutman, the Hothouse space ensured that the Imagine Lab was set among natural light, high ceilings, and plenty of artistic inspiration!
The event kicked off with energizing participant introductions, featuring an active verb and corresponding action to share a bit about each of the creative and talented folks in the room. Attendees then settled in to hear from two compelling co-presenters: Jenny Hegland of the University of Minnesota, Rochester, and Maja Radulovic, of the Mayo Clinic, who posited that imagination is a technology of the future. Emboldened by the power of imagination to create new worlds and quite possibly save the current world, participants rotated among Imagination Stations in small groups, playing with Play-Doh, engaging in improv, and putting into word and pictures their visions of what might be. The afternoon concluded in triads sharing and listening deeply about the times at which participants have felt most creative and imaginative in their lives.
Between a beautiful setting at Hothouse, open-hearted engagement in inspiring conversations, and plenty of fun tools for making and expressing art, the afternoon left a powerful imprint on each attendee. During our closing circle, participants reflected on their takeaways, including:
- Don't put people in boxes.
- Tiny time constraints were helpful; I want to do it more often.
- Because you don't have rules, you're not afraid to fail. Imagination has its own rules: It has no rules. It's empowering. Anything can happen.
- Getting out of my comfort zone was powerful. More play-doh!
- To feel more imaginative, you need to be in a safe space. You need to be and have a shared vulnerability. We put up walls in the real world to survive.
- I look at it this way: Wherever I am, I bring value to them. And they bring value to me. If they don't see it, it's not my problem.
- There is a privilege of this space. Overcoming obstacles and power are needed to do it for social transformation.
- As a VISTA, I'm supposed to be a fresh set of eyes, but isn't it just about being yourself?
- The people we are around impact us. It's important to stay around people who help us to be imaginative.
- It's so cool to know 17 others are trying to think about and do this work. If we each interact with 10 people, that's 180 people total. And it would be amazing especially given the caliber and quality of the people in this room.
- We need to seek out stories and people. Every person that walks by is a potential friend, story, etc.
- Creative people love to be around their kind, in order to be ever more creative.
- It's so nice to allow ourselves the freedom to be silly and goofy!
- It's amazing how a small event can have such a profound effect.
Monday, January 26, 2015
Today
Live in today."
-Louise L. Hay
|| Join us at the Minnesota Rising Story Lab - Our Story, Our Future: Recognizing and Valuing Diversity at Hamline University Minneapolis on Thursday, Feburary 5, 2015 from 9:00am - 12:00pm. ||
|| Join us at the Minnesota Rising Story Lab - Our Story, Our Future: Recognizing and Valuing Diversity at Hamline University Minneapolis on Thursday, Feburary 5, 2015 from 9:00am - 12:00pm. ||
Friday, January 23, 2015
[Blog Buddies] Hello to Good-bye (A Treatise on Transitions)
Thanks to YNPN Twin Cities for the opportunity to ruminate on marking time and making room in a recent blog post. Check out "Hello to Good-bye (A Treatise on Transitions)" below and in the words of that new Disney hymnal, "Let it go!"
Thursday, January 8, 2015 at 8:00PM
Hello to Good-bye (A Treatise on Transitions)
Thursday, January 8, 2015 at 8:00PM
By Diane Tran
“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” ― Lao Tzu
Emergence as evolution
As the founder of Minnesota Rising, a generationally-based group, I’m often asked about the point at which our Millennial generation will no longer be referred to as, “emerging,” but could be considered “emerged.” While there will be a point in time at which, as individuals and as a cohort, we could be said to have moved on from the “emerging leader” moniker, that is not to refute that our journey and learning is lifelong and thus we will always be emerging into the next experience. For this reason, it will be increasingly valuable to have a sustaining generational cohort to help us mark, grieve, and celebrate transitions, and with whom we will be able to note our progress as individuals and as a group.
The start of a new year provides a timely opportunity to re-evaluate and intentionally choose which roles and practices we bring into the new year. That which we leave behind in 2014 is just as important as what we decide to bring along and to life in 2015. In fact, the practice of letting go is an essential part of our ability to make space for and embrace the other things we aspire to moving forward. The ability to relinquish long-held assumptions, practices, and roles helps us to keep an open mind about and to make use of that which arises. More importantly, it keeps us from holding too tightly to specific positions, ways things are done, or limited interpretations of what “should” be as we navigate and shape the emerging future.
Organizing as origin
When I was a child, my family lived in a cul-de-sac in which I loved to organize neighborhood baseball games, hide-and-go-seek-tag, and a faux radio station. My parents told me that whenever we left a McDonald's playplace, they'd always have to wait for me to say good-bye to a new friend I'd made before we could go. From an early age, it was apparent that I was an organizer and that meaningful relationships were very important to me.
I was first elected to the Student Council in 6th grade and subsequently found other opportunities throughout my adolescent years to serve as a youth organizer and spokesperson for Target Market, Healthy Communities Healthy Youth National Panel, National Youth Leadership Council, Youth Leadership Institute, Student Campaign for Child Survival, Youth Teaching Youth, and Leaders of Today and Tomorrow, among other youth-led groups. Becoming deeply involved with numerous peer-to-peer youth leadership organizations, I began to identify strongly with the role of youth activist and leader. I discovered a profound sense of purpose in making sure that the voices and perspectives of youth were heard and represented in conversations about policy, community health, and equity. As a young leader, speaking out and taking action allowed me to be the change I wished to see in the world.
As the years progressed, however, this time-bound aspect of my identity was annually challenged as I aged. When I hit age 18 and became a legal adult. When I turned 20 and was no longer a teenager. When I turned 21 and was able to purchase alcohol legally in the United States (never mind that I was living in Namibia at the time). When I turned 23, 25, and 28, respectively, and aged out of eligibility for key youth leadership opportunities. And finally, when I turned 30 this past year and was no longer a “twenty-something.” As I so identified as a youth activist and leader, each subsequent age meant I was being made to move away from and have less direct access to something I cared about deeply. Since I could not play those roles myself any longer, it felt as though I was losing connection with the work that had energized me for so many years and the roles that had initially helped shape my sense of purpose.
As I reflected on entering a new decade, however, it struck me that even if I, myself, was starting to age out of the youth category, that didn’t mean that the work I had been doing to provide young people at-large the opportunities to engage, lead, and share their voices needed to end. Instead, I could find new ways to support young people (as many of the adults who supported and mentored me had done) as an adult. Rather than having to stop engaging on a topic I hold dear, I now merely have a different point of entry from which to continue supporting youth leaders. What I value is ensuring that young people are invited and equipped to live and lead in this world, and I can do that regardless of my age.
Sustaining values, revolving roles
As Minnesota Rising works to help our generation become “built to adapt,” we must focus first on identifying our core values and a shared vision. Having a foundational understanding and common agreement provides us a unifying agenda, for which our individual expressions of and contributions to can vary over time as we each grow and develop. In this way, we can more readily release our holds on specific roles or responsibilities, recognizing that through partnering in this larger effort, we each have the freedom and opportunity to evolve our specific involvement. We can shed our practices and assumptions more easily as we transition into the next thing, and those who come after us can have opportunities to take those seats or to create entirely new seating arrangements more relevant to their needs and desires.
We can begin practicing this key competency of letting go by recognizing what Minnesota Rising means for our generation—a space where we can ask, “Why wait?” and work collectively—while simultaneously letting go of whether it needs to mean anything to subsequent generations. Forsaking the idea, early and often, that the things we create or that matter to us must live on in perpetuity, we can become increasingly comfortable with the impermanence of institutions and instead invest in the endurance of our shared values over time.
Those born between the early 1980s to the early 2000s in the United States will always be Millennials. How we express that in the roles we take on as well as the roles that we let go of will allow us to gracefully transition, share power, and look forward to the future as another opportunity to learn. As a new year dawns, what roles and practices might you let go of? In what new ways might you express and live out your core values? And how could letting go of who you are help you to become who you might be?
Thursday, January 22, 2015
You're Invited: SMBMSP #74 - Video and Social Media
A picture is worth a thousand words, so there's no telling how much information videos convey. Join SMBMSP#74 to consider the impact of video on community, how you might implement video as part of your social media strategy, and a few tips and tricks for DIY video!
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Jeff Achen
Chuck Olsen
Greg Swan
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Wednesday, January 21, 2015
You're Invited | Policy Forum Series: Zip Code Matters...Where we play
What does your zip code say about you? The Minneapolis Public Health Association's 2014-2015 Policy Forum Series will give you some insights, focusing particularly on where we work, play, learn, and eat. Join them for the next installment in their exploration of the intersection between geography and public health!
The Minnesota Public Health Association 2014-2015 Policy Forum Series will explore the intersection between geography and public health.
The series is entitled Zip Code Matters! and explores how zip code affects where we work, play, learn and eat.
…where we play-- Friday, January 23rd, 2015From topics related to green space, recreational opportunities and community planning, our forum panelists and participants will focus their discussion on how zip code affects our opportunities for play.
Panelists:
Judy McDowell from Three Rivers Park DistrictRaintry Salk from Metro Council
Hilary Reeves from Transit for Livable Communities
Moderator: Dave Golden, Director, Public Health and Communications, Boynton Health Service,University of Minnesota and MPHA Past-President
All 2015 forums will be held at:New Brighton Community Center, 400 10th St. NW, New BrightonBreakfast and registration begin at 7:00am.Each forum begins promptly at 7:30am and concludes at 9:00am.
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
You're Invited: MPR Conversations on the Creative Economy Series
Minnesota Public Radio is kicking off the new year with a new event series entitled, "Conversations on the Creative Economy." Highlighting a slew of stellar speakers over the next five months, January's session features Doug Baker of Ecolab. The event will be recorded for possible future broadcast on MPR News, so get your ticket today to be "in" the newsroom!
Conversations on the Creative Economy
UBS Forum
January 28, 2015 7:30 AM
New Series! “Conversations on the Creative Economy”
Creativity and innovation are critical for corporations to thrive in the hypercompetitive global economy. What drives creativity in an organization? How can management nurture innovative thinking? Join journalist Chris Farrell for breakfast and an engaging, deep discussion about these issues with Doug Baker, CEO of Ecolab, Inc. Founded and headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota, Ecolab is a Minnesota corporate success story with global impact. This program will be taped for possible future broadcast on MPR News.
Cost: $15 (includes breakfast). MPR Members receive a $3.00 discount.
Doors open at 7:00 a.m., program begins promptly at 7:30 a.m. There will be no late seating as this event is being recorded for broadcast. Please arrive no later than 7:15am.
Chris Farrell: Senior economics contributor at APM's Marketplace and economics commentator for Minnesota Public Radio. Columnist for Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Next Avenue and the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Author of "Unretirement: How Baby Boomers Are Changing the Way We Think About Work, Community and the Good Life."
Doug Baker: Doug Baker is chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Ecolab Inc. Baker joined Ecolab in 1989, following seven years in brand management at Procter & Gamble. Baker has received numerous awards and recognition throughout his career. Most recently, he was named 2014 Responsible CEO of the Year by Corporate Responsibility Magazine.
Conversations on the Creative Economy
UBS Forum
January 28, 2015 7:30 AM
New Series! “Conversations on the Creative Economy”
Creativity and innovation are critical for corporations to thrive in the hypercompetitive global economy. What drives creativity in an organization? How can management nurture innovative thinking? Join journalist Chris Farrell for breakfast and an engaging, deep discussion about these issues with Doug Baker, CEO of Ecolab, Inc. Founded and headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota, Ecolab is a Minnesota corporate success story with global impact. This program will be taped for possible future broadcast on MPR News.
Cost: $15 (includes breakfast). MPR Members receive a $3.00 discount.
Doors open at 7:00 a.m., program begins promptly at 7:30 a.m. There will be no late seating as this event is being recorded for broadcast. Please arrive no later than 7:15am.
Chris Farrell: Senior economics contributor at APM's Marketplace and economics commentator for Minnesota Public Radio. Columnist for Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Next Avenue and the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Author of "Unretirement: How Baby Boomers Are Changing the Way We Think About Work, Community and the Good Life."
Doug Baker: Doug Baker is chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Ecolab Inc. Baker joined Ecolab in 1989, following seven years in brand management at Procter & Gamble. Baker has received numerous awards and recognition throughout his career. Most recently, he was named 2014 Responsible CEO of the Year by Corporate Responsibility Magazine.
Monday, January 19, 2015
The world that awaits you
Where your thoughts never think to wander
This beginning has been quietly forming
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.
For a long time it has watched your desire
Feeling the emptiness grow inside you
Noticing how you willed yourself on
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.
It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the grey promises that sameness whispered
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent
Wondered would you always live like this.
Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream
A path of plenitude opening before you.
Though your destination is not clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is one with your life's desire.
Awaken your spirit to adventure
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.
-John O'Donohue
(via Inward/Outward)
|| Join us at the Minnesota Rising Story Lab - Our Story, Our Future: Recognizing and Valuing Diversity at Hamline University Minneapolis on Thursday, Feburary 5, 2015 from 9:00am - 12:00pm. ||
(via Inward/Outward)
|| Join us at the Minnesota Rising Story Lab - Our Story, Our Future: Recognizing and Valuing Diversity at Hamline University Minneapolis on Thursday, Feburary 5, 2015 from 9:00am - 12:00pm. ||
Friday, January 16, 2015
You're Invited | Our Story, Our Future: Recognizing and Valuing Diversity
Minnesota Rising is thrilled to be presenting our #mnrising Story Lab: Our Story, Our Future, in partnership with Hamline University School of Business! Join us in the half-day session for insight into the importance and practice of recognizing and valuing diversity. See below for more details, and register by the January 30 deadline to reserve your spot!
Insights & Trends
This premier seminar series brings the leading voices in public administration to public service professionals for a concentrated half-day seminar to share their expertise on issues of key importance. The timely and relevant topics of the seminar series will address issues impacting our cities and counties.*
Location: All seminars at Hamline University Minneapolis
Time: Thursdays, 9 a.m. - noon, registration and continental breakfast open at 8:30 a.m.
Cost: $50 per session
Time: Thursdays, 9 a.m. - noon, registration and continental breakfast open at 8:30 a.m.
Cost: $50 per session
SESSION II: OUR STORY, OUR FUTURE: RECOGNIZING AND VALUING DIVERSITY
February 5, 2015 (Register by January 30)
Minnesota’s story is as long-established and as multifaceted as the communities that have called this place home. The voices and approaches that represent and shape our state will continue to diversify in the coming years as demographics shift and can provide rich assets and insights that inform how we develop and serve vibrant and inclusive communities. This interactive Story Lab aims to emphasize the importance of welcoming a multitude of perspectives and will provide an opportunity for leaders to cultivate a shared sense of identity, commonly-held values and a collective narrative through deep listening and story-telling.
Presenter: Diane Tran
Minnesota Rising
Minnesota’s story is as long-established and as multifaceted as the communities that have called this place home. The voices and approaches that represent and shape our state will continue to diversify in the coming years as demographics shift and can provide rich assets and insights that inform how we develop and serve vibrant and inclusive communities. This interactive Story Lab aims to emphasize the importance of welcoming a multitude of perspectives and will provide an opportunity for leaders to cultivate a shared sense of identity, commonly-held values and a collective narrative through deep listening and story-telling.
Presenter: Diane Tran
Minnesota Rising
Thursday, January 15, 2015
Accepting Applications: Elect Her-Campus Women Win
Whether or not the country is ready for its first female president, certainly lots of student governments are! Elect Her-Campus Women Win organizers are seeking participants interested in or considering running for student government to participate in a leadership training next month. The deadline is fast approaching, so don't delay nominating yourself or another college woman for an opportunity to step into greater growth and leadership!
Elect Her-Campus Women Win is a 4.5 hour training that is held on campuses and that teaches college women how to run for and win student government positions at their institutions such as the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. The training covers skills such as how to mobilize a constituency, how to craft a message, and how to speak confidently and present oneself as a candidate. Outside experts and current and former student government officials speak to participants about their experiences and what they have learned from running for office.
In addition to leadership training through Elect Her-Campus Women Win, we want to provide more college women the valuable experience of running for and serving on student government because there is a clear connection between service in student government and future political service.
Sponsored by AAUW and Running Start, the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities is one of 50 sites on college campuses across the country to host this training this year. In conjunction with its partners, the Women’s Center is pleased to have the opportunity to bring this training again to the University of Minnesota.
Women’s political leadership is a hot conversation topic, especially since speculation about whether the country is ready for a female president is rampant. One thing is for sure: The pipeline of qualified women candidates is building, and it’s starting at the college level thanks to Elect Her. The number of Elect Her participants who have gone on to run for student government president is the largest it’s ever been: last year, women ran for the top seat at 15 of the 38 sites!
Our previous trainings have been a success; still, there is much work to be done. We look forward to taking our success even further!
Elect Her-Campus Women Win Training: February 2015
Elect Her-Campus Women Win will be held on Saturday, February 7, 2015 from 9:30 am - 2:30 pm in Coffman Memorial Union. All participants are asked to stay for the entire training.
Participants in this training are women who are interested or have considered running for student government. It is NOT expected that participants have prior political experience; that is what the training is for. We strongly encourage women of all identities and backgrounds to apply. We recognize that women have many other identities in addition to their gender. It is important that women step into leadership roles to not only provide a voice for other women, but also for the other identities they might hold such as their race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, ability status, religion, age and more. This training is open to BOTH undergraduate and graduate/professional students who are interested in running for: Minnesota Student Association (MSA), Graduate and Professional Student Assembly (GAPSA), Student Senate, or other opportunities.
Want to learn about the experiences of women in student government? Read these profiles over at our blog!
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
You're Invited: Policy and a Pint on Buses, Bikes and Beyond
Transportation is the talk of the town lately, and the Citizens League invites you in on the conversation. Join them at Amsterdam Bar and Hall for the next Policy and a Pint: Buses, Bikes, and Beyond! See below for event details and to save your seat on the topic bandwagon!
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Join us for the first Policy and a Pint of 2015, where we'll talk transportation with panelists Charlie Zelle, Commissioner at Minnesota Department of Transportation, Rita Albrecht, mayor of Bemidji, and John Doan, Director – Housing, Community Works and Transit at Hennepin County. Join us and 89.3 The Current for another lively discussion at the Amsterdam Bar & Hall.
Tickets Still Available Online
Amsterdam Bar and Hall 6 West 6th Street, Saint Paul 55102 (map) General admission: $10 | Students (w/valid student ID): $5 This Thursday, January 15, 2015 Doors: 5:30 p.m. | Program: 6:00 p.m.
The Current's Steve Seel will host a discussion about how our region is adapting to the changing needs and desires of residents in both urban and rural areas with regards to mass transit, ride share, biking culture and that mainstay of American transportation: the mighty car. Click here for more info and to buy tickets now.
Funded by Target, Policy and a Pint® is an event series cosponsored by the Citizens League and 89.3 The Current that engages people in important conversations about public policy in Minnesota. | |
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