NARFI - NARFI News

How To Contact NARFI

NARFI Admin — Tue, 28 Oct 2003 16:17:35 -0500

[ Web Site and E-mail Contact ] [ Office Location ]

Web Site and E-mail Contact

The North American Rural Futures Institute is currently open 24/7/365 on the Internet at https://narfi.org.

NARFI is a Montana State University-Northern agenda currently on hiatus. For further information on any of the content on this website, you can contact past Director, Timlynn Babitsky. You can reach her at babitsky@narfi.org.

Office Location

The North American Rural Futures Institute was strategically located in The Heritage Center in downtown Havre, Montana from 2003-2004. At that time the historic Heritage Center building was home to the H. Earl Clack Museum, a community art center, a dance studio, and a number of small businesses that rented office space.

The North American Rural Futures Institute is currently located in virtual space on the Internet.

One step forward, three back

Timlynn Babitsky — Sun, 23 Nov 2003 11:29:00 -0500

DETROIT, Nov. 21 - Diesel cars roamed American highways over 25 years ago, then largely disappeared. To lure them back, the Energy Bill now before the US Senate offers a new round of tax credits and tax breaks for a newer, cleaner, gentler version of diesel autos - the so called advanced diesels. Environmental groups say that advanced diesels are still too dirty but that the Bill's support of hybrids and hydrogen fuel cells is a step in the right direction. Yet despite claims by supporters of the Energy Bill that the point is to lessen American dependence on foreign fuels, environmental groups say that overall the Bill will increase American automotive oil consumption. Read more.

Sponsors and Partners of NARFI

NARFI Admin — Tue, 28 Oct 2003 15:23:35 -0500

[ Montana State University - Northern ] [ Sohodojo ]

Montana State University - Northern

Montana State University-Northern (MSU-N) is the most rurally located four-year university in the lower 48 United States. This makes MSU-N an ideal sponsoring host of the North American Rural Futures Institute.

The faculty of MSU-N's College of Education, College of Technology, and College of Arts and Sciences will create teams to develop an interdisciplinary 21st Century context in which to consider the challenges and opportunities of rural life.

Sohodojo

Sohodojo is a 501(C)(3) non-profit applied R&D lab with an education and research agenda dedicated to the exploration and development of innovative "Small Is Good" business models and their associated software technologies supporting solo and family-based entrepreneurs in rural and distressed urban communities seeking sustainable futures.

Sohodojo enjoys a unique partnership in Havre, Montana, working with the North American Rural Futures Institute at Montana State University Northern. Together, Sohodojo and NARFI are developing education programs to support rural economic and community development with a futures-oriented perspective.

NARFI Communities of Practice

NARFI Admin — Tue, 28 Oct 2003 15:16:00 -0500

Topical Communities of Practice help rural residents to share their knowledge and experience...

NARFI Projects and Collaborations

NARFI Admin — Tue, 28 Oct 2003 14:44:00 -0500

Learn more about the strategic projects and collaborations being undertaken by the North American Rural Futures Institute...

NARFI Web Site Update

Jim Salmons — Tue, 21 Oct 2003 00:09:00 -0400

The NARFI web site has been updated and now resides on a full-featured Content Management System. The CMS selected was the Open Source Drupal platform.

NARFI Program Update Now On-Line

NARFI Admin — Tue, 29 Jul 2003 00:27:00 -0400

The NARFI Program Update is now on-line in HTML and PDF formats. This is the most current and comprehensive document to date describing the NARFI mission, strategies, and tactics. NARFI-led projects as well as NARFI collaborations are detailed.

Babitsky And Salmons Accept North American Rural Futures Institute Appointments At MSU-N

NARFI Admin — Mon, 20 Jan 2003 17:46:00 -0500

Timlynn Babitsky and Jim Salmons, founders of Sohodojo, accept North American Rural Futures Institute appointments at Montana State University Northern. Timlynn and Jim join NARFI to launch the institute's education, outreach and applied research programs. These appointments strengthen the NARFI and Sohodojo applied research and education partnership.

NARFI Receives Federal Appropriation

NARFI Admin — Sat, 18 Jan 2003 11:00:00 -0500

Montana's Senator Max Baucus and Senator Conrad Burns were instrumental in getting a $250,000 Federal education appropriation to further develop the North American Rural Futures Institute.

About the North American Rural Futures Institute

NARFI Admin — Sun, 05 Jan 2003 10:28:01 -0500

[ The Rural Futures Context ] [ NARFI Mission ] [ NARFI Strategies and Tactics ] [ NARFI and Sohodojo ] [ Our Current Program Concentrations ]

The Rural Futures Context

The North Amercian Rural Futures Institute - NARFI - is an applied futures institute designed to connect rural citizens, community leaders, researchers and futurists throughout Montana, North America and around the world who are working on innovative visions to enhance the sustainability of rural regions.

To truly have an impact on rural futures in North America, NARFI must follow a clear path - determining where rural citizens are currently focused, helping them to widen their view of the issues and problems they will need to face over the next 10 - 50 years, and providing opportunities for them to gain the skills they will need to make wise choices and sustainable plans for themselves, their families, and their communities as they strive to preserve and improve rural life in the 21st century.

The NARFI Program Update for 2003-2005 (~225K in HTML format, 626K in PDF format) starts at the beginning of this path and lays solid groundwork for rural Montana to become a leader in rural futures planning. There are eight NARFI-led projects and five collaboration agendas underway for 2003-2005. You will find links to these projects and collaborations in the section, Our Current Program Concentrations, below.

The NARFI Program Update for 2003-2005 has purposely been designed to use the Congressional Award to seed various projects and to support start-up only activities. All of the NARFI projects and the continuance of NARFI itself will depend on developing networks of collaboration, and partners for grant supported funding.

Understanding the importance of "ties" – the Network Society and the Network Economy as the framework for sustainable 21st century rural life – is the cornerstone of NARFI's rural futures mission.

NARFI Mission

The North American Rural Futures Institute (NARFI) mission is to provide the most important information relevant to decisions that must be made over the next five decades by rural citizens across North America; and to provide opportunities for those citizens to acquire the skills necessary to evoke and evaluate change and innovation for rural sustainability.

NARFI has four key roles to its overall mission:

LENS - to be the eyes and ears for rural sustainability in North America.
CATALYST - to evoke change and innovation among rural leaders and to develop a rich network of collaborators to engage in rural futures research, experimentation and thinking.
EDUCATOR - to assist educators to develop a rural futures focus within their existing programs and to help students plan for a sustainable rural way of life.
REPOSITORY - to become an information and education resource for all of Montana, North America and interested others across the globe.

NARFI Strategies and Tactics

New concepts are needed in order to survive and thrive in this new era of interconnectedness and instability. Rural places and rural people can either sit by and be overwhelmed by changes as they land in their backyards, or they can create 21st century learning communities which do not depend on outmoded ways of thinking and acting.

The thrust of activities in the NARFI program for 2003-2005 is on the step-wise progression to move MSU-Northern and rural Montana, from where they are now to where potential lies for Montana as a leader in rural futures innovation and education.

The NARFI program includes the following overall strategies and tactics:

Assist MSU-N faculty with professional development specific to emerging trends in their respective fields.
Help Northern faculty gain skills in the methodologies of futures planning, (e.g., environmental scanning, scenario building and assessment, and forecasting).
Develop interest among local and regional community citizens to explore current issues, emerging trends, and innovations related to all aspects of rural sustainability.
Develop grass-roots interest among local and regional community leaders to consider innovative alternatives in their planning for the future.
Help local and regional decision makers to develop basic skills in the methodologies of futures planning.
Develop in the next generation of rural citizens interest in, and awareness of, the need to become skilled in the methodologies for futures planning.
Help rural educators to develop a rural futures focus in their middle and high school curricula.
Develop networks of local, regional, and national futures thinkers focused on rural futures issues.
Seek collaborations on state, national and global projects to develop and test new models and innovations for rural economic sustainability.

NARFI's overall objective is to connect educators, rural citizens, community leaders, researchers and futurists throughout Montana, North America and around the world who are working on innovative visions to enhance the sustainability of rural regions.

NARFI and Sohodojo

Sohodojo enjoys a unique partnership in Havre, Montana, working with the North American Rural Futures Institute at Montana State University Northern. Together, Sohodojo and NARFI are developing education programs to support rural entrepreneurism and community development with a futures-oriented perspective.

For example, NARFI and Sohodojo are collaborating on the launch and development of Big Sky Chandlers, a microenterprise network project of NARFI's newly-formed Rural Entrepreneurism Community of Practice.

Our Current Program Concentrations

To create an example of what may be done in rural areas and to create an action research laboratory for what possibilities may lie ahead for rural people and communities, NARFI proposes a number of activities specifically designed for rural transformation. Please visit the following links to learn more about the focus of our initial programs: