Author: Tenneson Woolf

From the opening circle on the second of two days working together in El Paso, Texas. Our overarching purpose was retaining medical talent. Using 8×11 photos, we asked participants to speak to what they feel we are really up too. These are a few of the words I caught.

Oh, that’s what we are up to.
Me, you.
What we do.

This rat race of asphalt jungle —
we’re talking people out of it,
down from it,
to a new quality of life.
To an invitation to remember quality of life.

In our different efforts, fragmented,
we are remembering that we can do much together,
even with the constraints of time.
We are asking each other what is possible when
we extend our relationship in continuity.

In these mountains, when poppies bloom,
we are inviting the beauty of landscape and people.
And like we do in greenhouses,
we are starting seedlings.
We love to care.

In hospital settings, providing comfort.
In the commonality of human need,
urgent in our commitment together
and our commitment to the diverse gods that inspire us
to compassion and kindness.

Oh, that’s what we are up to.
Me, you.
What we do.

Supporting those that we love,
reaching out like a mom on the phone,
to advance what we do —
and I’m on the phone
with the president’s office.

These pyramids,
these structures
big and small, short and tall
engage more people
in seeing the whole picture.

This relay team reminds me
that medals are in sight.
Working as teams, it seams,
can free us
to the next places of the future.

Make time to nurture, to be together.
Like skydiving, when we do it together
we can do a lot. It’s hot
to hold hands, legs and other things
that help us feel a wholeness.

Oh, that’s what we are up to.
Me, you.
What we do.

This picture is dialectic.
We are starting to see the whole body,
excavating memories of what we can be.
To construct, yes.
To maintain, yes, that too.

In two sides of a mirror
El Paso can see itself with clarity
that leads to attraction,
love, and a bit of tingling.
Date-a-Doc!

Like the Golden Gate Bridge,
what we are building here
has big potential
and risk.
Yet, we walk together in the scary places.

In this chaos
there is extreme order.
Like at the market
the fruits and vegetables
are where they need to be.

Oh, that’s what we are up to.
Me, you.
What we do.

From the Open Space part of the Rural Futures Conference: Connecting Innovation that Teresa Posakony and I hosted. In a morning there were 33 meetings called over two sessions. There were about 200 people participating with the umbrella question below. I caught a few words from each of the group leaders sharing. You can read below. And / or listen here on you tube.

What could we contribute to a Rural Futures Institute
that rocks you, Nebraska, the Great Plains, and beyond?

A Wildly Successful Rural Futures Institute

A wildly successful rural futures institute
plural ideas or rural success
not mildly but wildly.

When it rocks it knocks off your socks
removes the blocks
and makes you talk.

Is it massively ambitious?
These are not times for the passively curious,
but rather for the first next steps.

Bold. Not old.
Out of the mold.
Simple, but bold.

Recommendations in these
stations of germination
of the RFI.

Friends, colleagues, an invitation.
Thirty-three groups, troops
of contributing thinkers.

Going first from Table 1,
Empowering Our Future Stakeholders
the young, the ones from K-college
to expand the vistas of knowledge.

We need houses for our youth,
and partnering with architects, to detect
interest in these populations of Nebraska,
self-promoting, opening to strangers,
interns, and in-learns.

It’s our turn in rural Lancaster.
How could we measure desired outcomes?
Challenge assumptions and presumptions.
Self-determination is our recommendation.

How do we insure diverse voices at the table?
For sure.
Invite, invite, invite.
Include, include, include.

Technology and it’s role —
broadband throughout the land.
Encouraging all of us as leaders
beyond blow ins and blow outs
regional connecting, including in the CAVES.

Focus on natural resources,
our course is, of course is,
core regional groups
collaborating, not just duplicating.

We want solid partners where
rural means rural and
rural includes rural.
It’s different because we talked about it.

Entertaining with youth,
community coaching, and approaching
others who sustain and incentivize
health and health care.

In the gaps
we explored education for every child —
high tech to high touch.

And across three generations of leaders,
we call for unstoppable civic engagement.
Unstoppable building relations.
Unstoppable listening.
Unstoppable learning in next ideas.

Attracting entrepreneurs,
quirky harvesting of ideas
for the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

What happens after the conversation?
We want to start with simple steps.
Rural futures begin
with vibrant rural communities.

What about youth?
We can’t have a future
without building one.
Impact can be fun!

What about the role of scholars?
a web of exchange for learning, advocacy, and policy.
Helping to reach to others in the country.

We are reframing the game of leaders.
From the status quo to status go.
Embrace the leader in each of us,
the all of us, here to contribute.

What about Extention and the institute?
Tie it to other campus locations,
linked in our success,
as a must, a trust.

How much repopulating?
Wait, what IS rural?
Let the stakeholders decide on this ride.
Poll it to role with it.

Support climate change impact.
Add to what is happening
to feed global leaders.

I’m Haley. I’m Melissa.
Engage us by inviting our responsibility.
We want to connect.
We know how!

What is the role of agriculture?
It’s a role, an outcome.
Not to be undone.
Essential to credential.

Multi-modal transportation?
We don’t have a department,
but we need part of that pie.

High in corn growing,
in this association, we lack the red tape.
We can involve more.
We can evolve mere.

Empower through your own stories,
motivating communities to do from vision,
action from vision, that’s our mission;
good to add what’s missing.

Innovating — connecting the edges.
Integrating imagination and the offerings of possibility.
Big dreams start with people in relationship.

From one of those periods that has felt like in a blink a day turns into a week.

• Meeting here on the US Mexico border in El Paso. With healthcare leaders to focus on community health issues. http://yfrog.com/es37uanij
• Mothers Day breakfast on the deck with Teresa, Patrick, Kate. Sunny Seattle is nice! http://yfrog.com/ocxjubuj
• Back at the Secret Garden with much blooming. http://yfrog.com/esgg6hrj
• Big need and suggestion for RFI – a community engagement and continuous learning strategy. #rfc2012
• Alternative to “outsourcing” = “ruralsourcing” #rfc2012
• Matthew Rezac – “I take it as a given that we live in a highly networked world, which requires relationships and welcome.” Spot on. #rfc2012
• Sam Cordes asking witnessing and reflection questions to close the conference. Hopes. Challenges. #rfc2012
• Innovation comes from the meetings at the edge – people in relationship. Integrating imagination. Welcoming many answers. #rfc2012
• Open Space Conversations underway. 1 of 2 rounds. 17 topics. 200 people engaging & learning together. http://yfrog.com/ny779jsj #rfc2012
• Inspiring scale of vision for rural futures institute for Nebraska, The Great Plains. Bold to invite 400 people to its birth. #rfc2012
• With world population expected to be at 9.5 billion in 50 years, where will food and energy come from? Rural communities. #rfc2012
• Nebraska Gov Heineman opening Rural Futures Conference #rural_futures. Inviting innovation and integration of effort. Glad to host here.
• For World Cafe hosts, here’s a set of guidelines from my son’s first grade Reading Comprehension corner. Enjoy. http://yfrog.com/o0adkwej
• Just arrived in Seattle. Meeting Teresa, Chris, and Sono to work with NW tribal leaders and EPA.

OK, you know how you sometimes need a pause to catch your breath? This is one of those moments. One of those posts. In a blink, a month has passed. I’ve been in very full and focussed time. Important work. Important friendships. And seven different beds to sleep in.

A few of the stopping points include:

Tribal Leaders Summit — Co-hosting with my friends Sono, Chris, and Teresa an EPA Region 10 Summit in Grand Ronde, Oregon. It was hosting an Open Space part of the meeting for one day. 200 people. To explore needed collaboration on several key issues like (water, waste, air, climate change, salmon, trust relations). It was an invited intersection of traditional knowledge and western science. I took point on a harvest process and document for this one.
Rural Futures Conference — Co-hosting with Teresa a collaborative effort across four universities in Nebraska to birth a Rural Futures Institute. Again, we hosted an Open Space part of the meeting for 200 people. It was impressive to see the university system invite partnership and collaboration in their community. To look into the future of food and energy from a plains perspective. To have so much support across the region.
El Paso, Texas Community Conversation — This one had particular focus on retaining medical talent in the area. We used the Art of Hosting pattern to address the overall trend, particularly for family practice physicians of increased community need, yet with decreased availability (and retirement) of physicians. Teresa Posakony and I held this one together with a local calling team. In addition to hosting,  I offered a landscape map on whiteboards.

Grateful for good learnings with good people in these three efforts.