I can't tell you how much I enjoyed attending the Elk Konnected update on Tuesday night in Severy. I work in and around lots of small communities, and I've never seen a more dedicated, determined group of citizens than the ones with whom I mingled Tuesday night.
Their vision statement says it all, and makes me want to involve myself even more with Elk Konnected:
Strong Families • Solid Education • Superior Lifestyle
"Stay With Us As We Grow!"
Elk County has some amazing people living and working there. Yes, the challenges are daunting, but the level of energy, intellect and expertise of those same people will result in a better tomorrow for all who are fortunate enough to be Elk Countians.
Mr. Taylor...
What is Elk Konnected? And, who is heading it up? I am not familiar with this entity.
Catwoman
Catwoman if you look under general announcement\events and coffee shop for elk connected and elk konnected you will find many of the people you know from the forum are part of this great community organization.
David
Rudy - THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for being there last night. For those of you who haven't been to an Elk Konnected meeting you are missing an incredible experience. Catwoman - a little history and a review for other forum friends. The Elk Konnected process started about 1 1/2 years ago. Terry Woodbury, a facilitator with Ks Communities (www.kscomm.net) met with the various citizens of Elk County and Severy 4 times before a Steering Committee was formed. The original steering committee was Richard Fish, Andrea Arbuckle, David Brace, Larry Galvan, Liz Hendricks, Dave Whetstone, Vic Donahey, Dave Sanchez, Chris Haag. The process is developed around the public square - which is Business, Health & Human Services, Education, and Govt. Of course we are talking Elk County, but we also felt it important to incorporate Severy b/c of our unique school system - hence the name Elk Konnected. The committee then raised 3K seed money from over 74 donors. Interviews were done by the steering committee and Terry W., surveys were handed out. The info gathered was then presented at a community conversation last Oct in Longton - 126 people with representation from all 6 communities and all of the public square... the info was refined... how can we improve on the assets we have and strengthen each community while making the whole stronger. People were then nominated - again representing the public square to a vision retreat. The retreat was held in Jan. with 50 people from the public square attending an 8hr retreat. Here the info was refined again. A vision statement developed and the information prioritized and refined into 5 action teams.
We just held the Community Update which gave everyone a briefing of what the action teams had done, where they are struggling, and where they need to go next. Terry has a great way of getting and keeping citizens engaged. The action teams are: Physical Image, Wellness Center, youth Development, Communication, & Community standards. Over 50 volunteers are meeting atleast monthly to work on these teams... and things are happening...
Again thanks to the many forum family for attending last night. Terry is very impressed with how well we have engaged citizens from such a complex structure. Terry is currently at various stages of this process in 14 other communities including Greensburg and Coffeyville.
David - thanks for your encouragement.
Remember three words
Drive By MowingThe better your yard the cooler your sign....
Maybe we can turn the mowed weeds into itty-bitty pellets that can be burned in wood stoves.
OK. Bad idea.
Drive-by mowing, indeed!
Rudy; it was so good to see you again and to have you attend the meeting! As fun as this forum is, I think it's always nice to be able to see people in person and converse like "normal" people! 'Cause you can tell we're not all normal all the time on here! ;D
The next question for you and for all on here... how can we get more people to attend and to know what Elk Konnected is? Catwoman; since you didn't know about it... can you fill us in on where you live and what types of communication you use (newspaper, websites, etc) so we can figure out how to reach more people in the future?
Tobina, i am interested in what this Elk konnected is. I was born and raised in Severy but live in Missouri now. It is good to think about people tryin to do somthing with Severy again. I am interested in what you all are trying to do, could you give me info?
One little explanation, in case nobody else has given one: I'm sure everyone knows that Severy is not located in Elk County, but since it is a part of the West Elk school district, everyone thought it was a good idea to connect with the Severy community.
By the way, Tuesday night was my first opportunity to visit the Severy school. Very impressive.
I live in Wichita and get my news about Elk County off of the Forum. I also have some very good friends (still! After all of these years! :D) who call me if there's something interesting going on...which means that I get regular phone calls...lol!
Elk Konnected is what was missing when I was Economic Development Director for Elk County. To see what I mean, please check out this link:
http://www.agecon.ksu.edu/ddarling/Sustaining%20Progress%20Checklist.pdf (http://www.agecon.ksu.edu/ddarling/Sustaining%20Progress%20Checklist.pdf)
How many of those questions could be answered yes just two or three years ago?
While I was director, I turned a few from no to yes, but it takes a strong, "one area, one community" attitude to really start turning those red lights to green. My many congratulations on the progress so far, and my prayers that the hard work continues and pays off in many positive changes to the area.
Well, heck. It looks like we missed out on working together with Elk Konnected and a great Economic Development director by just a few years! Hopefully a position like that will become available again soon, so if you're looking to move back, keep your ears open (and we'll keep you in mind!).
A lot of these questions are very similar to the initial survey that Terry and the Steering committee conducted at the beginning of this program. I'd be very interested to see the results of the same survey in about a year... (hint to Steering Comm members).
Tobina, I'm sure you all have already done this, but I have to ask....Have you all looked into grant money from all sources? Ag. Dept. for rural funding or "in- kind- services" such as engineering? R.C. and D. money? I still am concerned about your water situation out there.
I have many thoughts and comments on "grants". But as this is tangental to the original topic here, I will make only one point.
Most (but not all) grant or other funding programs have a "local matching funds" catch. The people with the money (whether its a gov't entity, foundation, or even an individual) want to get the most bang for their buck, so they will only fund projects that have local "match" money. Sometimes the local match can be as low as 10% and it can be "earned" through volunteer hours. Other times it can be as high as 75% and has to be cold hard cash.
That's my one point.
If you want more points, or wish to comment on this post, please start a new topic on it, and I will expand on the subject.
As Tobina has made clear in other threads, we posters often tend to get off track, or miss the point, or both. Elk Konnected is doing very important work for the area, and I don't want to muddy the waters of this specific thread.
I've lived in a few other communities (I won't claim I'm an expert, though, as many of you have lived many different places), but I always like to look around and find what works in OTHER communities. Why re-create the wheel?
I took Terry's advice from the meeting Tuesday and went and looked at the website kscomm.net. On it were all the other communities that Terry has worked with, along with some of their other action teams and their focuses. They haven't been updated in a while, but the articles are also an excellent way to get some ideas!
One VERY interesting idea... one community has their elderly, retired adults be "greeters" at the high school! Kids are greeted with smiling faces and even hugs as they walk into the school! Just think how much better your day would go if you were personally greeted at the door each morning... and just think how much better you would act if you knew someone like your grandma/grandpa could find out what you were doing at school! Ha!
Sorry, I just wondered if Elk Connected had looked into funding as part of the great job they are doing. I was just looking for a yes or no. I'll go hide now.
Diane - the funding for Elk Konnected (Konnected is spelled this way b/c of the EK on license plates) has all come from private donations. The $3k seed money was raised from 74 donors and the $7500 was raised from another 40 some donors. This last 7500 will be matched by Ks Dept of Commerce and Ks Health Foundation. The Elk Co Community & Education Foundation also raised $2000 from their tablesetting last spring to be used for any of the action teams. To date, none of the action teams have needed to use much of this. Most of the work has been from volunteers. The Youth Development Action team did receive approval to use some money out of the Elk Co Parks & Rec Fund (which comes from the sale of alcoholic beverages). The Wellness Action team will probably need to look into alternative fundings when they get further down the planning road.
Thank you. ;) :laugh:
Thanks, Liz! I was hoping someone would step in on that question from Diane, as I don't know much. I know there are funds out there, but it takes a lot of work and a strong "plan" before applying. Like Liz said, there will be a time for that. Right now, we are still in the planning and research stages of WHAT needs to be done. We also need to make sure the communities are IN IT... for the long haul. We could get an anonymous donation or win "extreme makeover" and get a rec center built, but if the communities won't support it and keep it going... it will quickly fail. If everyone has their input... and 'SKIN in the game'... then it will be more likely to thrive. That goes for any/all EK projects.
Quote from: Flintauqua on August 15, 2008, 11:12:32 AM
If you want more points, or wish to comment on this post, please start a new topic on it, and I will expand on the subject.
As Tobina has made clear in other threads, we posters often tend to get off track, or miss the point, or both. Elk Konnected is doing very important work for the area, and I don't want to muddy the waters of this specific thread.
Quote from: Diane Amberg on August 15, 2008, 05:52:30 PM
I'll go hide now.
Sorry if I came off harsh. All I meant was "
I" didn't want to inject this particular thread with "
my" pollution on grants.
This thread is recommended reading for people interested in what the hullabaloo is about.
Quote from: Wilma on June 13, 2011, 06:58:22 PM
This thread is recommended reading for people interested in what the hullabaloo is about.
So is the thread with the current unanswered questions & over 9000 posts on the subject:
http://www.cascity.com/howard/forum/index.php/topic,11780.0.html (http://www.cascity.com/howard/forum/index.php/topic,11780.0.html)
Quote from: Patriot on June 13, 2011, 08:31:13 PM
So is the thread with the current unanswered questions & over 9000 posts on the subject:
http://www.cascity.com/howard/forum/index.php/topic,11780.0.html (http://www.cascity.com/howard/forum/index.php/topic,11780.0.html)
Yep, that would be the thread with the questions that haven't been answered the way you and Ross want them to be answered, if you want answers at all. After all, under-achieving zealots can't continue a fervent witch-hunt without a myriad of unanswered questions.
Quote from: flintauqua on June 13, 2011, 08:44:24 PM
Yep, that would be the thread with the questions that haven't been answered the way you and Ross want them to be answered....
Answered factually, truthfully and in plain sight? I'm for letting people make up their own minds.
Quote from: Patriot on June 13, 2011, 08:55:18 PM
Answered factually, truthfully and in plain sight? I'm for letting people make up their own minds.
And you won't be happy until they agree with your mind!