{"id":486117,"date":"2010-03-29T19:50:41","date_gmt":"2010-03-29T23:50:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blandinonbroadband.org\/?p=3219"},"modified":"2010-03-29T19:50:41","modified_gmt":"2010-03-29T23:50:41","slug":"mirc-partner-intro-mnrem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/486117","title":{"rendered":"MIRC Partner Intro: MNREM"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Blandin Foundation<\/a> doesn\u2019t have much experience as a grant applicant; we are more often on the other side of the grant making equation. But today we are savoring the news of our successful BTOP grant<\/a>\u00a0and the opportunity\u00a0to bring a network of resources and support to rural Minnesota through an initiative we have dubbed \u201cMIRC\u201d \u2013 Minnesota Intelligent Rural Communities<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With this glad news in hand,\u00a0Friday afternoon Blandin Foundation project staff Ann Treacy, Bill Coleman and I met with Teresa Kittridge, Executive Director of Minnesota Renewable Energy Marketplace. MNREM <\/a>is one of MIRC\u2019s 19 project partners. MNREM’s focus on the retention, creation, and attraction of an educated and skilled workforce to its 36 county region of South Central, Southwest and West Central Minnesota is well aligned with MIRC’s goal of helping create technologically and economically vital rural communities through sustainable broadband adoption.<\/p>\n

Like many entrepreneurial organizations today, MNREM is a \u201cvirtual\u201d operation. Teresa explained that while MNREM\u2019s official address is in Marshall, she lives in \u201csuburban Waconia\u201d and spends much of her time on the road. \u201cI basically office out of my car,\u201d she said with a smile.<\/p>\n

Before today\u2019s visit, my communication with Teresa had been strictly virtual as well; we had never met face-to-face. So it was really a treat to have the time for a leisurely real-time conversation over coffee about our aspirations for this shared work.<\/p>\n

Teresa has a background in both the public and private sectors, including as an officer of the Minnesota House of Representatives, president of two publishing companies, and chair of her local school board. She has rural roots and loves the rural region she serves. I liked her right away.<\/p>\n

Teresa explained that with the help of a soon-to-expire US Department of Labor grant, MNREM is supporting projects <\/a>in a wide range of renewable energy fields including wind, biomass, biofuels, ethanol, solar, advanced manufacturing, energy-efficient mechanical systems, bioscience and mechatronics<\/a>. \u201cWhat\u2019s mechatronics?\u201d I wondered, and later visited their website to find out. At www.mnrem.org<\/a> I also learned that Minnesota\u2019s renewable energy sector today includes over 22,500 firms employing over 310,000 people in MNREM\u2019s region alone.<\/p>\n

Funding through MIRC will help strengthen MNREM\u2019s capacity to transform its primarily agriculture-dependent region to a knowledge and innovation-based economy that capitalizes on the potential of renewable energy for a sustainable and prosperous future. Under Teresa\u2019s leadership, MNREM\u2019s role in our MIRC coalition will include outreach, assessment, technical assistance and training for renewable energy businesses.<\/p>\n

Next week Bill and Ann and University of Crookston\u2019s Jack Geller (who will help with MIRC evaluation and monitoring) and I will be meeting with other new MIRC partners to continue our getting-to-know-you better tour. The first major step in our project launch will be an initial partners\u2019 meeting in Grand Rapids on May 11-12.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blandin Foundation doesn\u2019t have much experience as a grant applicant; we are more often on the other side of the grant making equation. But today we are savoring the news of our successful BTOP grant\u00a0and the opportunity\u00a0to bring a network of resources and support to rural Minnesota through an initiative we have dubbed \u201cMIRC\u201d \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6437,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-486117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6437"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486117\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}