NOTES FROM THE VAGABOND JOURNAL A VISIT TO WEST POINT, NEBRASKA APRIL 30, 2003 - (14)

April 30, 2003
I was treated to a real Nebraska thunderstorm last evening. When I went out to get a sandwich about 8:00 p.m., the parking lots and streets were running with thick sheets of water, the sky was constantly being lit by bright spiderwebs of lightning, yeah, I got a little wet. The farmers could use the rain, they have been about two inches short, so it was worth the little inconvenience.

*

At 9:00 a.m. today, as scheduled, I met Staci Jensen at her Chamber of Commerce office for an interview. Staci is originally from northeastern South Dakota, up in the Redfield area, from a small town called Groton east of Aberdeen. "We competed with Redfield in everything so we know the Redfield Pheasants real well," she said.

Staci attended the University of South Dakota in Vermillion and got married. Her husband farmed but gave that up about ten years ago, having concluded that the prospects in farming were dim. He was recruited to work for Cenex in the West Point area.

"We came down to check out the community," Staci remembered. "Was this the place we wanted to move to? We came through on Highway 275 and I thought 'You know, this is pretty good business for a community this size," but it was a little odd there didn't seem to be a whole lot of retail. Then we found Main Street. Good Lord - it was unbelievable. In Groton we'd never had a business district like this. That pretty much sold us."

In South Dakota, Staci had worked as a social-worker in health care. Here, she started working as a social worker again, at Norfolk, Nebraska, which is thirty-eight miles northwest of West Point. "Then I wanted a change," Staci said, "but I wanted to stay with the company so I got into sales and marketing. And then I was tapped to be a Norfolk Ambassador for their Chamber of Commerce. And I thought, you know, it would be neat to get paid to do this.... And then the position in West Point opened up."

Getting into her position with West Point's Chamber of Commerce, she said, "was a case of being in the right place at the right time for once."

"My son came to work with me one day here at the Chamber," Staci remembered. "He was nine. He said 'Mom, you're still a social worker. You're just doing it for businesses now instead of for people.' I looked at him - 'Yeah, you're right. I'm listening, I'm finding out what it is that the businesses need, and I'm hooking them up with the right resources.' How is that different from what I used to do?"

The mission of the Chamber of Commerce in West Point? "The overall mission is to create a strong economy, a strong community for the betterment of the whole area," Staci said.

"Before I started with the Chamber," Staci said, "the position had been a part-time one, for a secretary who followed the instructions of the board after every monthly meeting. When I came on board, they'd decided they wanted a full-time position for someone who would lead the effort. And they wanted my efforts to include economic development."

Admittedly it took Staci a few days to find her sea legs in the new position - to start creating her job. "And create it we did," Staci said. "I went out to each Chamber member, I had three questions I wanted to ask each of them. Why did they belong and what did they expect from the Chamber? What did they expect of me as the new Director? What did they expect from the Chamber in the way of economic development?"

"This was very good experience for me," Staci said. "People will tell you what the issues are. They'll give you what they think. I went to one business, the manager I was talking to was very cordial, he was writing at his desk, he didn't look up much, finally he looked at me and said 'I'll be honest with you, Staci. We'll always write a check to the Chamber, we'll always be a member, but the Chamber really doesn't do anything for our business.' 'Oh, my,' I thought. But I had one more question, I wasn't leaving til I asked all three. Like I say, he was very cordial. So a month later, we're going to start 'Leadership Cuming County,' which was new to this area, for Business and Industry Day. He was the only person I'd met from industry to that point, so I called him to ask whom he'd recommend to handle the Industry portion of it. That's all I was asking, but he said, 'Oh, I'll do it.' I shudder when people do that because you don't know if they have a passion for it. Well, he did have a passion for it. He took over the day for Industry on leadership, he did the whole day, it was great. And actually he has become the champion for workforce development here. That was one of his primary issues, because he could not hire enough people to keep the plant working fast enough to fill the orders...."

To be continued....