Northern Wisconsin in January - whose idea was this!?!?! Despite the -16 degree temperatures, our latest seminar was a blast! Read all about it below.

I've created a web site to archive all issues of this journal. You can find the entire series, along with photographs (and probably some documents before we're done) at http://www.dennisdeery.com/wrlp.

You're receiving this email because I've taken the liberty of signing you up for this journal. You can expect to receive emails about every other month, following each of our 11 seminars over two years. If you wish to stop receiving these emails, please hit Reply, type remove and send the message - you will be automatically removed from the list. If you choose to keep receiving the email, and would like more detail on any topics covered, please don't hesitate to drop me an email. I look forward to any feedback you might care to offer!

Dennis Deery
dennis@irose.com
 

We began our seminar a little early on Tuesday evening with a shared dinner so everyone could arrive at the retreat center before dark - we were really out in the sticks! After dinner we were given the history of the Marvin M. Schwan Retreat Center, the location for this seminar. The retreat center sits on 700 acres of land along the Namekagon River. It was built about 3 years ago by Bethany Lutheran College of Mankato, Minnesota using money donated by the Schwan family (of home-delivered food fame, yes, the little yellow trucks). The accommodations and scenery were absolutely beautiful, though the dusting of snow on the ground wasn't enough to put my new cross-country skis to use. We would spend the week in cabins and meet in one of the two lodges on site, and there was always a fireplace handy - thankfully, as the week would bring constant sub-zero temperatures.

After a brief orientation to the seminar, we held a discussion of the core values that we as Americans and Wisconsinites share. Each of us posted a list of three or four values on the walls of the meeting room. There was, not surprisingly, a wide range of values listed. Certainly some were repeated, but for a list of values that we all share there was considerable variety. This led to a good discussion of the difficulties involved in decision-making and policy-setting when a group of people don't necessarily share the same values. After this, it was off to the cabins to relax and catch up with everyone.

We began the day Wednesday with a role-playing exercise, with members of our group playing community members in a public-hearing on shore land zoning. Various group members played the stereotypes we're all familiar with, from the lifetime community resident to the environmental preservationist to the wealthy weekender. This generated a discussion of the role that self-interest plays in policy discussions and the difficulties involved in developing policy when self-interests collide.

Next we broke up into small groups to discuss our community issues. Each of us had to bring an issue of individual vs. community for discussion by the group. In our small groups, we each laid out our issues, then selected one for presentation to the larger group. I brought the issue of an ethanol plant under discussion in the Menomonie area. Most of the issues brought to the table were property rights issues, and we decided our small group would go with an issue that focused on education. Without going into too much detail, our group would discuss the question of how best to educate special-needs populations in a school district while still providing a good education to the population at large.

Wednesday afternoon, we got some time to reflect and talk amongst ourselves. Even with the temperature hovering in the single digits, many of us headed out to get in a hike on the Schawn Center trails. As we would see throughout the week, the discussion seemed to keep turning to the looming war with Iraq. While members of the group were on all sides of the issue, we did manage some very passionate discussions without getting out of hand - a nice change from what we call national discourse these days.

After our break, we settled in for a discussion of some of the philosophical underpinnings of the individual vs. community debate. I found this really interesting as I've tried to do a lot of reading on this kind of thing lately, but have kind of struggled - it's pretty heavy stuff. Our seminar chairs were able to present a lot of this material in a really engaging and understandable way.

After dinner, it was movie time. We broke into two groups and watched part of the movie Chocolat. The beginning of the movie showed a young woman moving to a small French village with her daughter. She immediately opened a shop, and began to act differently than the community expected of her. After watching some of the movie, we had a discussion of the idea of community norms, and how communities develop and enforce these norms.

While waiting to watch Chocolat, our group ended up in a heavy discussion of the Iraq issue, and our government foreign policy in general. Like the rest of the country, we all agreed that war was going to happen, and didn't come to any great resolution on things. Once both small groups had finished their discussion of Chocolat, the entire group huddled around the TV to finish watching the movie. Then it was off to the cabins for a Trivial Pursuit championship and some card games.

Thursday began with some more classroom discussion of the philosophy behind individual vs. community decision-making. Our seminar chairs were again full of great sources and other readings that make this issue more understandable. During all of our classroom presentation, we had a lot more free discussion than in previous seminars. It was clear that this was a topic that stirred very deep passion in nearly everyone in the group, and it was fascinating to be part of such a passionate but respectful exploration of some really hard issues.

Thursday afternoon we worked on our small group presentations. Each group had to fully discuss the issue we had selected, and try to learn as much about the issue as we could. Our task for Friday was merely to present all facets of the issue to the whole group, and recommend some possible solutions if we could. Our group really covered a lot of ground, trying to discover what was involved in a recent discussion of placement of homeless children in the Madison school district.

Next it was off to the Longbranch Saloon (really) for a great dinner. This was a typical small-town northern Wisconsin tavern, looking like it had been there for a hundred years or more. After dinner, several of us stopped at Pappy's Leathernecks Tavern on the way back to the retreat center. I know you just had an image of this bar pop into your head - I certainly did when I heard the name. When we walked in, it seemed like just another north woods bar - full of regulars for the Thursday-evening pool league. We got our drinks then began looking around the back room, and soon discovered a bunch of Marine Corps memorabilia on the walls, including some photographs of the Marine One helicopter landing on the White House lawn. We were soon joined by Pappy, the owner of the bar since he had retired from the Marines just over two years ago. He shared a few stories of his career with us, and we learned that he had spent time as Sergeant Major of Marine One, and Sergeant Major in charge of personnel for the entire Marine Corps, one of the top enlisted positions in the Marine Corps. The whole evening seemed like a perfect snapshot of the WRLP experience, taking us to places and helping us to meet people we wouldn't normally.

Friday morning it was time for our small group presentations. We had four small groups that each presented an issue with an individual vs. community dilemma. Once again, the presentation styles used were as much an education as the issues presented. We have a number of very talented presenters in our group, and it's been helpful to learn many different ways of laying out an issue in ways that keep people interested. A panel of WRLP alumni and board members helped us out by critiquing our presentations and peppering us with questions.

Our next seminar is March 15-21 in Washington, DC. The topic of the seminar is energy, a rather timely issue. We'll have a chance to see how the federal government works in the context of energy issues. Some of the events on tap will be meeting with our representative, interviewing protest groups, and observing committee hearings on Capitol Hill.

Further down the road, our anticipation for the international trip increased when we were informed that our destination is to be Australia. Our Washington trip will give us a chance to meet with the Australian ambassador in preparation for our trip down-under in March/April, 2004.

For more information about the Wisconsin Rural Leadership Program, check out their web site at http://www.uwex.edu/ces/wrlp/.