Armour, SD

7 p.m.
Tuesday, April 15
Armour Fire Hall

Please attend to participate in a planning session for Lake Alcazar for 2008. Plan to share your ideas, suggestions and comments.

Branding Your Community A Workshop for South Dakota Horizons– Milan Wall, Co-Director and a founder of the Heartland Center for Leadership Development was in Armour on Tusday, March 25^th. About 40 people from the Armour, Wagner, Artesian, Letcher, Woonsocket and Tyndall attended a presentation on Branding Your Community. I was very impressed by the fact that 18 people from Armour attended. We learned the importance of Branding. For example, can you think of facial tissue or gelatin without thinking of Kleenex or Jell-O? It is important to be clear about the difference between a brand and an image. A brand is carefully constructed and managed. An image, however, is much more fluid and in many cases, not controlled or created at all but simply evolved over time. Every community projects a certain image, positive or negative. A community image is really made up from the accumulated perceptions of residents and visitors over time. Every time people visit your town, they take away a community image as part of their experience. How do outsiders see your community? What do they recall after a visit? What do they say about their time in your community?

A community brand can be used to promote a town event, to create consumer loyalty and encourage folks to shop locally, or attract new businesses and families. The best use of a community brand is to make connections by representing the community values and special features.

We were split into groups where we had to opportunity to talk about our community. In doing this we discussed several questions. What do we want to be know for? What are our community’s key unique assets? How is our image connected to our key assets? Who are our customers? How can we get their attention? How can we move them from attention to action? We also discussed Tips for Branding, keep it simple, build recognition and exceed your promise.

This is just another tool that can be used to help fulfill our hopes and dreams for our community.

Market Your Area — A Horizons Regional Seminar
Tuesday, March 25
Armour Blue Moon
5:30 p.m. — Dinner
7-9:15 p.m. — Seminar

The Heartland Center in Lincoln, NE, helps local leaders respond to current and future challenges in their community by bringing people together to learn how to become better decision makers.

Milan Wall, Co-Director of the Heartland Center for Leadership Development, is a management and communications expert with more than 30 years experience in dealing with the critical issues facing American society and culture. Milan will work with SD communities to discover strategies useful for marketing their areas to future residents and businesses.

This event is free and open to the public. Please call Donna Brenner at 724-2818 by Monday, March 24, if you plan to attend so we have an accurate count for the meal. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend this seminar!

An organizational meeting for a having and Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) class in Armour will be held at 6 p.m. at the Fire Hall. I think the plan is to gather in Armour and then drive to Corsica or Stickney to meet with the instructor. Armour’s EMT service is staffed solely by volunteers. There are only a few EMTs to provide coverage 24-hours a day. New EMTs are desperately needed, so anyone interested in taking the course should try to attend tonight’s meeting.

Speaking of economic development, tomorrow is the 2008 Launch conference on the campus of Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell, South Dakota. This conference is bringing together more than 300 people who are interested in issues such entrepreneurship and economic development. As I wrote in an earlier blog, I attended last year and this conference provided a fantastic networking opportunity for little money. I am going again this year, and I hope to see some of you there.

I don’t know if the noon lunch  is full, but I there may still be room for you at the conference. Unless you are a student, I would encourage you to sign up for the “educator’s track.” (This must mean that you’re going to get educated, I guess, not that you need to be an educator!). That is what they told me to sign up for.

Here is a sample of some of the people I met at last year’s conference: new and experienced economic development people from around the state; entrepreneurs, or people who want to be but don’t know where to begin; resource people; successful businessmen and women who have advice to share; and youth who are excited about possibly coming back to South Dakota to establish businesses after they graduate. This is just a sampling!

 For more information, here is the Web site http://www.dwu.edu/sdlaunchconference/index.htm and the FMI number on Web site contact:

Questions: Call 605.996.1140 or 800.487.1740 (toll free)

Well we had another meeting tonight and it was a good one again. It is great to see our attendance increasing. Thank you to all who come and give your input. We discussed the Laptop Initiative tonight. Does Armour School have the resources and drive to put in the work of the application and if accepted the initiative to go with computers in our high school? Yes, we do. We have a lot of support and Capital Outlay Money is what can be used for funding. We can get up to speed on technology and our kids will be learning in a more efficient manner. We already have computers only in some of the classes taught but this would open up many other opportunities for our students. I never realized the difference between Capital Outlay Money and General Fund but I have a clearer understanding after tonights meeting and that is why I am supportive of this venture along with many other parents and teachers. Please talk to your congressman about House Bill 1087 and tell him we support the approval of this money for schools. Our next meeting will be in March with the date to be announced. Thank you again for your support! Nicole

This is Lea. She’s a Horizons participant, blogger and Armour business owner. I asked her what changes she’s seen in the way leadership is carried out in Armour since the start of Horizons …

Are you looking for a networking opportunity that could benefit your community? Last year, I attended Launch ‘07 at the DWU campus in Mitchell. It was an excellent way to spend the day and network. The registration was cheap–something like $40–and even included lunch. There were some great speakers such as the student from Plankinton who invented both a child drowning alert system and a car seat safety system (for those of you who are boys’ basketball fans, I noticed he was a starter on the BB team the other night when we were playing them! What a talented young man). Another favorite speaker was Brian Klock, who own Klockworks custom cycles in Mitchell and has been featured on the Discovery Channel’s Biker Build Off among other TV shows. There was also a lot of opportunity for networking, which was the best part. I came home with a lot of ideas and a lot of business cards! I know I brought a lot of ideas back to our Horizons Circle Groups.

This year, it looks like Launch will not feature the same tracks as last year. Last year, there was a track devoted to community entrepreneurship. I am not sure which track I would register for this year–it might be a good idea to call or e-mail for more information to get some advice if you are thinking of attending.

Here is the information from the web:

Launch ’08 will be held on Thursday, Feb. 28 at Dakota Wesleyan University.

Launch ’08 is a one-day event advancing entrepreneurship education in South Dakota. The 2008 annual conference features two tracks. The educator track is geared towards those who are interested in integrating innovative and creative thinking within their respective disciplines. The student track is geared toward inspiring and supporting students who are entrepreneurial. The conference will also feature networking opportunities and relevant resources for entrepreneurs.

This 2008 event marks the third annual conference which has included some of the most respected state and national leaders in entrepreneurship education. This year’s conference features internationally renowned speakers: Ed Sobey, Ph.D., global evangelist for creative learning and founding director of the Northwest Invention Center, the National Inventors Hall of Fame and the National Toy Hall of Fame; Kathleen R. Allen, Ph.D., a nationally recognized and respected leader, consultant, speaker and author of numerous books on entrepreneurship as well as the director of the University of Southern California Marshall Center for Technology Commercialization; and Timothy M. Stearns, Ph.D., holder of the Coleman Foundation Chair in Entrepreneurial Studies and the executive director of the Lyles Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at California State University-Fresno.

The conference is a collaborative project of the Enterprise Institute, the Kelley Center for Entrepreneurship/Dakota Wesleyan University, South Dakota State University Entrepreneurship Program, EQUIP, South Dakota EPSCoR, South Dakota Small Business Development Center, and the South Dakota Governor’s Office of Economic Development.

A special program sponsored through South Dakota EPSCoR which offers $1,000 faculty stipends and/or faculty and student conference scholarships is available. For more information visit www.sdepscor.org.

For registration information, visit www.dwu.edu/sdlaunchconference, call 605-996-1140, or 800-487-1740.

WOW! What a wonderful infomative meeting we had tonight. I cannot believe all the information we received in such a short time. My awareness has definately been raised about how and what our kids are doing on the computer/internet. We all have to keep a close check on what is going on with our kids especially when they have access to the computer. We have good kids in this town but it is easy to be lured into somthing criminal and dangerous without even knowing it. There are billions of web sites out there that anyone and everyone has access to and without knowing it your kids can be on some harmful sites. We had two wonderful speakers from the Department of Criminal Investigation, Troy Boone and Todd Rodig. They are only two of the few people in South Dakota that work on catching these computer criminals. Did you know that even though you delete something from your computer it is always still there and they can take it apart bit by bit and check everything you and your kids and their friends have been looking at or saying on the computer. If you have any questions about the sites your kids are using please get in contact with a person that can check your computer or if you can please go to the following sites to check for unsafe information: netsmartz.org, cybertipline.com, sdcybersafe.com. These are also posted on the school website under the PTT area. Many kids use the MYSpace site and once you are on there your information can go to millions of other people and this can lead to very dangerous situations. We all want our kids to be safe so lets keep track of what they are doing. We also received information on other file share programs that can be very dangerous. Even downloading music off of your computer and trading it with other people can actually be a crime. I cannot say often enough that we need to keep monitoring our children’s activities at home and away from home. Talk to your kids! Let them know that anything they see or read that is suspicious should be reported to you or a teacher or anyone they feel they can talk to. The Department of Health is looking into getting some of this information out also through different programs. One of the suggestions was the DARE program. Thank you very much for attending the meeting tonight. Attendance was 13 parents and 13 teachers. We appreciate all input you have and we hope everyone continues to attend. Our next meeting will be February 6. Please attend. Nicole Neugebauer

First of all, sorry it took so long to get this posted but this is a busy time of year. Well, the cabin committee met last week with the Armour City Council and it was a very positive discussion. We have the city behind us 100 percent, which is good. A couple of Horizons representatives also met with the Armour Lions and after a lot of questions that need to be answered they are in favor of the idea as well. Some of the questions were concerning liability, rental amounts, monthly expenses, cleaning and other small things that need to be worked out. There will be more questions that need to answered in the future I’m sure. The good thing is it is positive and were still moving forward.

Another view of the type of cabin we want to build from the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks Web site. This shows a cabin in a campground setting.