Northwest Rural Development Council Regional Summit

Convening of regional partners within WA, OR, and ID

Dates: June 15-16, 2016
Location: Boise, ID
This is an invitational event.
​Your input is welcome.
Contact Lisa Wellman for more information.     
Made possible with funding support from:
USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer and lender.
Overall Intent
The Idaho Rural Partnership, Oregon Rural Development Council and Partners for Rural Washington are holding this one-time event for our council members to:
  • Share best practices among the Northwest State Rural Development Councils and learn from some of our counterparts from across the country;
  • Identify common issues and opportunities across state lines;
  • Prioritize cross-state activities that will strengthen our organizations and the rural communities we serve; and
  • Contribute to the formation of an ongoing collaboration among the three Northwest State Rural Development Councils.

Proposed Targeted Outcomes
Where are we today?
  1. Review status of each rural development council 
    1. To include structure, programs, successes, challenges, and strategic plans
  2. Seek understanding of the most significant local, national, and global factors, emerging trends, and opportunities impacting or likely to impact rural communities in the region going forward.
    1. Will include, e.g., micro- and macro-economic, financing/investment, natural resources, technological, social/cultural, demographic, governmental, etc.

Where do we need to go?
  • Identify the impact(s) we seek to have as individual state councils and as a regional collaboration
    • to include measuring the change we seek
  • Increase the sustainability of the three individual councils and of the tri-state collaboration 
    • Funding
    • Partnerships/building support/leveraging resources
      • This is where the conversation about urban and rural relationships would happen
  • Marketing/visibility/branding
    • To include the individual councils, the tri-state collaboration, and Partners for Rural America

How do we get there?
  • Establish a vision and action plan for the three state councils to work together as a region.
    • Be clear about the change we seek regionally and about how we will measure this change.
    • To include collaboration logistics (e.g. marketing, information sharing, policy and program analysis, program development, etc.)