8/19/03

**[August 19 NRDCC Consultation Notes]{.underline}**

**[Participants]{.underline}**

[Federal Agencies]{.underline}

-   **US Department of Agriculture-Rural Development (USDA-RD):** Stone
    Workman, Jenna Delatibodier, Dave Douglas & Byron Ross

    -   **National Rural Development Partnership-National Partnership
        Office (NRDP-NPO):** Dave Sears, Ella Ennis, Dave Barr & Conley
        Chaney

    -   **Office of Community Development (OCD):** Luis Luna, Barbara
        Nelson, Rick Wetherill & Vivian Velasco

    -   **Forest Service (FS):** Larry Payne

    -   **Economic Research Service (ERS):** Eileen Stommes

-   **Environmental Protection Agency-Brownfields Partnership:** Ben
    Hamm

-   **Department of Health & Human Services (HHS):** Dianne McSwain

-   **Department of Veterans Affairs (VA):** Gloria Royce-Bennett

-   **Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD):** Luis Reyes &
    Steve Rhodeside

-   **Department of Labor-Office of National Programs (DOL-ONP):**
    Rachel Hutchinson, Robert Lunz

-   **Department of the Interior-Bureau of Land Management (DOI-BLM):**
    Paul Politzer

-   **Department of Commerce-Economic Development Administration
    (DOC-EDA):** Sandy Baruah & Dennis Alvord

-   **Department of Treasury-Community Development Finance Institutions
    Fund (DOTreas-CDFI):** Linda Davenport

-   **Small Business Administration (SBA):** Matt Becker & Mick Ringsak

-   **Department of Transportation (DOT):** Jenna Musselman

-   **Department of Defense-Army Core of Engineers (DOD-ACOE):** Beverly
    Getzen

-   **US Postal Service (USPS):** Marshall Brown

-   **Americorps: Volunteers In Service To America (VISTA):** Matt
    Schlink

-   **Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago:** Harry Pestine

-   **Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia:** Vera Bowders

[Congress]{.underline}

-   **General Accounting Office (GAO):** Chuck Adams

[State Rural Development Councils]{.underline}

-   Sara Braasch, **Idaho**

-   Paul Galligos, **Illinois**

-   Wendy Dant Chesser, **Indiana** (former)

-   Steve McHenry, **Maryland**

-   Marcie McLaughlin, **Minnesota**

-   Chris Marko & Megan Smith, **Oregon**

-   Cheryl Hinckley, **Texas**

-   Scott Truman, **Utah**

-   Paul Costello, **Vermont**

-   Mary Randolph, **Wyoming**

[Universities]{.underline}

-   **Regional Rural Development Centers:** Cornelia Flora

[National Organizations & Non-Profits]{.underline}

-   **National Council of State Governments (NCSG):** Carolyn Orr &
    Marge Kilkelly

-   **National Association of Development Organizations (NADO):** Matt
    Chase

-   **National Association of Regional Councils (NARC):** Bev Nykwest

-   **National Rural Funders Collaborative (NRFC):** Jim Richardson

-   **National Council of State Legislatures (NCSL):** Nick Steidel

-   **Rural Community Assistance Program (RCAP):** Tom Goldsmith

-   **Partners for Rural America (PRA):** Joe Dudick

[The Private Sector]{.underline}

-   **Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA):** Richard Gupton

-   **Ohio Bankers League:** Bill Morgan

**[Summary]{.underline}**

**NRDP History:** David Sears (NPO Director)

-   Started in 1990

-   Currently approximately 40 Councils

-   Key Components:

    -   NRDC

    -   SRDCs

    -   NPO

    -   PRA

**Rural Bill:** Luis Luna (Deputy Administrator, OCD)

-   Section 6021 of 2002 Farm Security & Rural Investment Act

    -   Authorizes NRDP

    -   Establishes a National Rural Development Coordinating Committee
        (NRDCC)

-   Members of NRDCC will include senior-level representatives of:

    -   Federal Agencies

    -   National Associations of government agencies and organizations

    -   National Public Interest Groups

    -   Other National Non-profits

    -   The Private Sector

-   Duties of NRDCC

    -   Support the work of the State Rural Development Councils (SRDCs)

    -   Facilitate coordination of rural development policies, programs,
        and activities among all NRDCC member categories

    -   Review and comment on policies, regulations, and proposed
        legislation that affect or will affect rural areas

    -   Develop and facilitate strategies to reduce or eliminate
        administrative and regulatory impediments

-   Other Potential Roles of NRDCC

    -   Develop and implement a national rural strategy

    -   Act as a national network of senior-level decision makers

-   Benefits of Active Participation on NRDCC:

    -   Deliver your programs more effectively to rural America

    -   Work with others in developing a comprehensive national rural
        strategy

    -   Gather quick, wide-ranging, grassroots input into your key rural
        policy issues and programs

    -   Broaden understanding of your programs to other Federal agencies
        and national organizations

    -   Increase outreach to your customers through an established
        nationwide network or State Rural Development Councils

    -   Stretch your program dollars

    -   Help implement the President's Management Agenda

    -   Partner with others to improve the quality of life in rural
        America

-   NRDCC Member Responsibilities

    -   Provide senior-level representatives to participate on NRDCC

    -   Provide other staff to serve on committees and working groups

    -   Provide other resources to support NRDCC:

        -   Support staff

        -   Funding

        -   In-kind support

-   NRDP & NRDCC are [not]{.underline} a USDA program, but a
    [Partnership]{.underline}

**Questions and Comments:**

1.  **What institutions should be represented on NRDCC?**

    a.  NRDCC needs to think very carefully about organizations outside
        of government that need to be at the table. NGOs are included in
        policy decisions (growing trends). NGOs should be fully
        represented.

    b.  NRDCC should coordinate more with the Congressional Rural Caucus
        both during and after formation, since CRC is working on setting
        up a national rural policy.

    c.  There are senior policy advisors on rural affairs for each
        cabinet position. Will the membership of the NRDCC just be these
        agencies? Should the White House be involved in these
        implementation meetings?

        i.  Answer: We should work now with the people at the table. We
            shouldn't worry too much about people who aren't at the
            table now. NRDCC will gain a larger and broader membership
            after gaining some success.

    d.  Legislators should be engaged: the Congressional Rural Caucus &
        State Legislative Rural Caucuses in several states would be good
        potential members.

    e.  NRDCC membership should be as broad as possible.

    f.  There should be an increased involvement from Tribal-related
        agencies and organizations on the NRDCC. DOI has more
        representatives that could be engaged (BIA, etc.).

    g.  Policy analysis groups might be another useful member as they
        would be a strategic way to have things unfold (involve experts
        in policy analysis).

    h.  Local lenders and local bankers should be engaged on the NRDCC.

2.  **What major initiatives should NRDCC handle?**

    a.  NRDCC should be a forum to disseminate rural perspectives for
        all members' programs and initiatives

    b.  Water resources and energy issues are two areas that NRDCC
        should focus attention on.

    c.  NRDCC's main role should be informing legislators of the
        relationship between agencies' programs and rural communities
        and to garner increased support for programs that work.
        Examining state policy initiatives might be a good starting
        point for NRDCC's work.

    d.  NRDCC should only choose a few issues to tackle initially and
        achieve some success and showcase in order to build more support
        for the NRDP.

    e.  One initiative for NRDCC could be to identify databases
        available for analysis of rural issues and combine them all into
        a useful one-stop tool.

    f.  The NRDCC needs to be focused with specific action items in
        order for members to know what to do (action oriented agenda).

    g.  NRDCC should examine the different reporting systems and
        measurements for rural programs and develop a standard system
        for all programs. This would allow current programs to establish
        a useful coherent data set for analysis of program
        effectiveness.

    h.  Another element for NRDCC to tackle might be to examine current
        performance measures in rural communities and projects and see
        how to establish "rural" criteria to give rural communities a
        fair evaluation of progress.

    i.  NRDCC must establish a new baseline for measuring rural data in
        order to examine fairness and the differences between urban and
        rural measurements.

    j.  NRDCC should act as the direct conduit back to DC for SRDC
        reporting about program effectiveness.

    k.  NRDCC should work on access to capital and fair and equal access
        to credit issues.

    l.  Access to capital is a critical issue for rural America and
        should be part of NRDCC's work. NRDCC should have different
        banking categories and organizations (Community, Federal, SBA,
        Credit Unions, CDFIs, etc.) as members. NRDCC needs to create a
        continuum of access to capital resources and can act to connect
        different networks.

    m.  If NRDCC is organized correctly with a good communication flow
        between partners, then it will be a really excellent vehicle to
        develop a comprehensive, coordinated rural agenda for the
        federal government.

    n.  NRDCC can be a forum where collaboration can occur naturally and
        efficiently---establishing routine channels of communication to
        ensure federal agencies know what's going on and that there is
        clear quick information flow to the SRDCs about what's going on
        nationally.

    o.  The communication piece of NRDCC that is most important is that
        "Rural is not small urban," and that the NRDCC should work to
        create rural solutions tailored to specific problems/areas.

    p.  NRDCC initiatives should focus on getting involved in creating
        and implementing a National Rural Strategy (working with CRC),
        and differentiate it from Ag policy.

    q.  NRDCC can serve as forum to allow for identification and
        promotion of already existing rural initiatives and resources
        available in the federal government and elsewhere.

    r.  The NRDCC should act as a vehicle to provide and receive
        information to legislators (including non-federal) about program
        effectiveness.

3.  **How willing is your organization to contribute to the operations
    of NRDCC?**

    a.  HHS will continue to remain an active partner in the NRDP

    b.  In the legislation, NRDP and NRDCC are provided with the
        authority for providing for collaboration & coordination,
        including detailing of staff to assist in the operations of the
        Partnership. For NRDCC to function effectively, it will take
        more staff than currently exists.

    c.  The National Rural Funders Collaborative is interested in
        participating and willing to do its part. Working with NRDCC
        could expand NRFC's work and increase public/private
        communication and collaboration.

    d.  RCAP is committed to work actively with NRDP and NRDCC.

    e.  The Independent Bankers Association would like to participate on
        NRDCC and can survey its membership to get issues &
        participation scores on programs. IBA can also educate members
        on currently available programs and bring a different
        perspective on policy development issues.

    f.  CDFI does not have much staff, but is developing a major data
        collection system for all CDFIs (700 certified), which will
        collect an enormous amount of information about activities going
        on around the county and determine levels of development. This
        system could provide data for NRDCC about program impact.

    g.  Council of State Governments has made significant commitment in
        terms of rural.

    h.  The Regional Rural Development Centers would be happy to help
        mobilize partners.

    i.  HUD wants to participate, and can get involved in communication,
        education & getting word out.

4.  **Do you have any suggestions for operating guidelines/structure for
    NRDCC?**

    a.  The key item is well organized staffing for NRDCC that meets on
        a regular basis to develop issues and items for the senior-level
        membership on NRDCC. NRDCC needs to hit the ground running and
        needs a structure in place for new idea creation.

    b.  There needs to be a clearly identified structure for issues
        developed in Washington and coordinated with the states.

    c.  It is critically important that NRDCC listen to state and lower
        levels of government and partners.

    d.  It is really important to tie systematic connection about
        knowledge about rural generated at Land Grant Universities to
        affect policy.

5.  **Other Questions & Comments**

    a.  Implementation staff needs to clarify what "rural
        responsibilities" means, because several organizations could
        fall under that broad category.

    b.  What will be the role of non-federal organizations in NRDCC?

**Conclusion:**

Next Consultation is September 30 at 2 p.m. Eastern at OCD as well as a
conference call.