President's Message

Wow, it’s hard to believe that it is already Spring! We had a very mild winter in Iowa with only about a month of bitterly cold temperatures and snow, so winter seemed to fly by. I enjoyed the short winter but others in my house were disappointed with the lack of ice fishing, ice skating and sledding. Spring resembles reawakening, being inspired and starting fresh. I love to see the increased activity, people out and about and excitement in our communities this time of year; as well as our environment coming back to life with planting season, green grass and flowers blooming. 

Speaking of Spring and new ideas, your NREDA board is ready to spring into action and grow the organization following our strategic planning session that was held last month. Carrie Barnes with Georgia EMC was a rockstar for facilitating our group and keeping us on task. We can’t thank her and the Georgia EMC group enough for dedicating the time to our organization. We will see the full plan in the next few weeks, but some of the items that were covered included: expanding and diversifying membership, exploring our brand, adding more tools for our membership, enhancing our mentorship program and broadening our alliance partnerships. Most of these goals will be assigned to the committees so, join a committee if you haven’t done so to get involved in the future of NREDA.

Make sure to renew your membership if you haven’t done so yet, you don’t want to miss out on lots of exciting webinars and upcoming meetings. The regional summit is being held April 30and May 1 in Republic, MO. See more information in the newsletter and on the website. It looks to be an awesome event and agenda, so get signed up! Remember to grow yourself by getting involved in NREDA. We are the only rural economic development organization committed to help you and your organization blossom through our learning opportunities and network.