Greetings to All!
MARL Class X officially kicked off last Thursday in Willmar and with it came Winter for most of Minnesota. The day began with registration, individual photos, and a delicious lunch prepared by Representative Dave Baker’s staff at the Oaks at Eagle Creek. During lunch we heard from Jim Sieben of Class VI talk about his involvement in the local community and how he brought Nova-Tech Engineering and the Midwest Technology Campus onto the international scene.
Following lunch each member of Class X gave their 90 second spiel on themselves and their family, which was very humbling and about the time I confirmed that I was out of my league with all the talent in the room. We all learned what we can expect from MARL, what is expected of us, and what was to come in the rest of the Willmar session.
After a quick break we were right back at it, absorbing knowledge from Eriks and Christy about the Frameworks for Leadership, and how everyone lead differently and viewed the world from many different angles. The exercise had us divide ourselves throughout the room based on our leadership styles and how we viewed and would handle different scenarios that were presented.
Next we heard from Ellen Wolter and Dr. Kent Olson discussing Minnesota’s demographics and the Ag & Rural Economy. I was very surprised by Ellen’s presentation and how the states demographics were shifting to a more diverse racial structure, at a fairly constant rate along with how the age trend will be shifting in coming years. Dr. Olson’s presentation showed promise for younger farmers taking a bit larger ROA than their father’s generation; with the looming economic times it was a small ray of sunshine.
While they set up for the banquet we switched rooms and broke off into groups to do a SOAR analysis of Minnesota’s current rural setting. SOAR analysis is a bit like a SWOT analysis that leverages the strength and opportunities while adding aspirations and results. It encourages taking your weaknesses and threats and reframing them into a positive way of thinking.
Lastly we closed out with my favorite part, the social and the banquet. After day 2 I had an intimate understanding of why I enjoy this part of the night so much, but I’ll let Austen tell you about that in the next blog post! We were lucky enough to have Glenn Leitch as our Keynote Speaker; Glen is the Executive VP of Supply Chain at Hormel Foods. His presentation was very informative and with over 35 years in the industry his experiences and past predictions were quite surprising.
After hearing Glen’s predictions I decided to make one of my own. I believe the next 17 months will be the most enlightening months of my life up to this point and I’m looking forward to growing and learning with the rest of MARL Class X. I hope everyone has a safe holiday season filled with countless blessings and even more calories.
Steven “Scott” Schwartz
MARL Class X
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