Benchmarking boomtowns

Strom Center webinar series evaluates similar boom c ycles to provide insight into western Nor th Dakota’s future

BY DEBORA DRAGSETH

Businesses use benchmarking to improve performance by identifying and applying best demonstrated practices Communities can do the same thing By analyzing the successes, failures and lessons learned by other energy-impacted communities, perhaps western North Dakota can more effectively and successfully navigate the challenges and opportunities it faces today as well as those it will undoubtedly face in the future.

The Western North Dakota Energy Project's Boomtown Series is a webinar series that focuses on answering questions and offering solutions

The series is hosted by the Strom Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation at Dickinson State University; project partners include DLN Consulting Inc and the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship The series is made possible with financial support from the Bush Foundation.

Don Macke, the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship’s director of entrepreneurial communities, notes that he began working with western North Dakota when he was asked over a decade ago to research and speak on the challenging issue of depopulation of western North Dakota at Dickinson State University’s Population Summit Today, western North Dakota has changed in a way that very few people could have expected, creating immense challenges and immense opportunities for the region

The project’s goal is to bring information to leaders in the impacted communities by looking at benchmark regions both nationally and globally that have dealt with similar situations in a positive way Macke calls these “solution models” models that can provide insight into short-term management and ensuring long-term prosperity

The first step in developing the webinar series was to undertake research to locate areas that had experiences with boom cycles The next step was to decide how to make these solution models widely accessible Webinar technology was selected as the communication method

The webinars, all available electronically to anyone inter- ested in bettering their communities, address topics such as other areas ’ experiences in energy policy, taxation and positioning for long-term development For example, the Marcellus Shale development in Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania legislature’s experience in creating policies and programs via state government are offered as insight The Sublette County Wyoming Case is discussed as an example of the Boomtown Syndrome by a Cornell University faculty member who has intensively studied the boomtown literature. The Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board experience is shared by that program ’ s director More discussion on the IRRRB model and how it might be adapted into western North Dakota is featured on the just-released webinar, “Western North Dakota Regional Legacy Trust ”

The project is open to public feedback. Comments are sought on what type of information or research local, state and national leaders feel is essential as western North Dakota moves through what researcher Jeffrey Jacquet calls the Boomtown Process.

The boomtown process

The team believes that western North Dakota is currently moving from “crisis” to the “adaptation” phase Crisis is the phase in which the boomtown struggles to catch up in areas where it is overwhelmed. Adaptation is catching up and even getting ahead of the development

One of the areas the team is particularly interested is in post-boom prosperity issues. The “crowding out effect” means that the total focus on energy can begin to divert attention away from other things the region needs to ensure its long-term prosperity. The region, according to Macke, wants to avoid a postboom economy that is weaker than it was prior to the boom.

Debora Dragseth Professor of Business Dickinson State University dr dragseth@gmail com