Annual Meeting Comments - 2001

 

          Rural Nelson is a classic grass roots organization and its strength, and ultimate influence, is entirely dependent on our ability to mobilize the public to support our vision.  This is both our strength, and our most significant challenge.

          Let me talk first about our strengths.  For starters, and most importantly, it is you folks and the hundreds of others, who have made what we do possible.  Without your concern, attendance at meetings, and financial support, there could be no Rural Nelson.  We are part of something larger than all of us, but, at the same time, very close to our hearts and lives.  Just like a family, that thrives when its members care for each other, Rural Nelson will prosper as you continue to care for this our home.

          You have on your table the 2001 Annual Report.  This was a productive year for Rural Nelson and your vision for our future has been our marching order.  Yet, we know that it takes sweat, energy and work to bring flesh to a vision.  We are blessed with an abundance.

          Amelia Williams, dealing with stiff family and job pressures, did two newsletters for us.

          Serelda Elliot, did our most recent newsletter and the wonderful brochures and rack cards we now have.  She and Amelia have helped to make us look like a "real" organization.

          Conny Roussos, our web maven, has put together a world class web-site, responsive to changes, and used by people everywhere.  In this cyber age, our web site helps give us vital credibility.

          Mike Tapager, our landlord and stalwart observer of county meetings and politics.  His insights and advice are without peer.

          Uri Levi, recovering tonight from surgery last week, for supervising Jessie Smart, our first intern and pulling together with her the slide show we will use as we get our message out.

          Joyce Burton, our treasurer, balancing the construction of a new home and now our books.

          Mary Buford Hitz, another made absent tonight by surgery, for always getting the minutes right, and on time, and for the "Member Profiles" in our newsletters.

          For the remainder of your Board of Directors, David Cole, Foxie Morgan, Charlie Wineberg, Denise Lair, Conny Rousso (also our Vice President), Mike Tapager, Uri Levi, and, formerly, Barbara Strauss.  They meet, advise, carp and generally keep me from my worst instincts  -- we need every one of them.

          It is these strengths that we now will need to meet our greatest challenge: how do we take our vision from this small group and involve a much broader portion of the public?

          Rural preservation is, to a small degree, an effort to keep land open.  But, the Alaskan tundra is open, and most of us would not want to live there.  Rural preservation is really about a way of life.  A life that for some of us is all that we know, yet for many others, is one deliberately chosen.

          Rural preservation is about a life that balances social justice for the least of us and encourages those of us most blessed to pay our share.

          Rural preservation is not just about pretty white fence rows, but about viable farming that pays decent wages and gives our youth the promise of a future of opportunity here.

          Rural preservation is about keeping a home for our children, who can be encouraged to leave the nest and grow, yet know there is a place here for them to provide the same nurturing life for their children.

          Rural preservation welcomes newcomers to help us defend their new homes, but on the terms of the community of which they have become part.

          Rural preservation is a valuing of the intrinsic talents and natural resources found in this community and finding ways to harness these for general prosperity.  The Final report of the recently convened Rural Prosperity Commission notes:

…each community needs to define for itself what prosperity means and to assume primary responsibility for taking positive steps to achieve its goals.  Even if it were possible to define prosperity for all communities, prosperity could not be achieved with out grassroots efforts. Hence, the most appropriate strategy…is to empower community leaders to enhance economic activity and achieve prosperity in their own way."

 

                   Rural preservation, in the end, is finding the common language that will unite us all in keeping Nelson County the place we want it to be; controlling our own destiny, confident in our own future and aware that we are part of a larger mission to secure the potential to choose a rural future for coming generations.

          Most of you will by now have noticed that I have not done a complete job up here tonight.  I want, however, any applause that you might feel due to me directed properly.  I want you to recognize the woman who is most essential in our efforts to do what we wish in this small corner of Rural America.  I want you to rise and thank Kim Cash, our loyal field officer, for all she has done to help us do what we have set out to accomplish.

 

Al Weed

President