Greetings from the "best kept secret" in the "Last Best Place"--Southeastern
Montana. My name is Marvin Quinlan, Jr., and I am 1 of 3 folks coming to the
conference from Forsyth, Montana through the generosity of the Montana
Community Foundation and MSU Extension.
Like many of you in small, rural communities, I wear many hats. I am a
recovering attorney at law, former prosecutor and civil trial lawyer, now
rancher, who also invests time as a community activist/organizer, grant writer,
facilitator, mediator and leadership trainer through my private consulting
work.
With the recent death of my father, I am also managing the family's all-natural
black angus cow-calf operation located on the high plains of SE MT just north
of the beautiful Yellowstone River. I am currently consulting with Montana's
Attorney General on agricultural antitrust and multi-national corporate
consolidation of the ag industry, and with Montana's Commissioner of Insurance
& Securities to insure rural concerns are addressed in implementing the new
healthcare reform law. Last summer, I co-chaired the platform committee on ag
and rural development issues for the Montana Democrats. A progressive
Democrat, I have actively engaged our local central committee in the "politics
of service" concept.
I am representing the F.A.I.R. Community Foundation, which serves northern
Rosebud County and the small, rural (frontier) communities of Forsyth,
Angela, Ingomar & Rosebud, at this conference. FAIR CF is a young, but rapidly
growing, membership driven local community foundation, aggressively building
our permanent endowment, managing two "good granting" programs, and providing
a leadership role for other nonprofits in the area. We recently completed a
successful Census 2010 leadership project, and were awarded an LCF leadership
planning grant, utilizing our VISTA volunteer, to go into our 4 communities and
conduct "community conversations" about making those communities more
sustainable, and thrive, not just survive. FAIR CF has offered estate
planning, leadership and community development webinars, and is developing an
active planned giving legacy society in an attempt to keep a portion of the
current intergenerational wealth transfer from being drained from our
communities, like our "best and brightest" youth.
Land use planning is of great importance to us, as Rosebud County, Montana is
the "Saudi Arabia" of Montana coal. We, only now, are developing a county
growth plan. Rosebud County, the 4th largest in the state (bigger than
Delaware and Rhode Island combined), currently contains 5 coal-fired power
plants, 3 surface coal mines, and the Northern Cheyenne Indian reservation,
and all those resulting challenges. The power plant/coal mine/railroad
infrastructure boom occurred in the 1970's. Now, we must deal with the Otter
Creek coal tracts, which, for the most part lie outside the county, but will
greatly impact the county and our communities. Arch Coal recently paid $85
million for the right to mine thousands of acres of state-owned coal, and the
mining could generate $7 billion for the state over the next 30 years, while we
must deal with the resulting infrastructure, environmental, socio-economic,
and cultural impacts of another "boom".
Lack of a growth plan has hampered the efforts of another group I chair, United
Citizens,Inc., which serves as the county housing task force. Our current
priority project, in addition to affordable workforce housing, is the
conversion and re-purposeing of a former 1970's "coal boom" era school building
into a multi-unit quality, affordable assisted living cottage, utilizing the
proven, cutting-edge Eden Alternative and Green House model concepts. As
designed, the recycled building will be a LEED Platinum certified
environmentally friendly, energy effcient demonstration model, with half of the
units dedicated to low and moderate income elderly and disabled, and that,
hopefully, can be replicated elsewhere in rural America, where the population
is both rapidly aging and decreasing as the "rural brain drain" takes many of
our youth.
I also serve on the Steering Committee of the Northwest Area Foundation
sponsored Horizon poverty reduction Project in Forsyth, and as a study circles
faciliator and LeadershipPlenty trainer. We struggle to convert that project
into a sustainable, long-term community development effort.
As such, I am eager to attend my first Community Matters, learn proven
practices I can take home, add to my "tool box" and meet the wonderful array of
folks attending this conference Ihave already gotten to know through this
e-democracy site.
Marvin Quinlan, Jr.
99 Cartersville Road
P.O. Box 578
Forsyth, MT 59327
1-406-356-2481
<email obscured>