LIGHTLY EDITED FILE Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Outdoor Recreation Task Force Via WebEx/Remote CART April 28, 2020 9:00 - 11:50 a.m. * * * * * DISCLAIMER This text is being provided in a lightly edited draft format. Any reproduction, publication, or other use of this CART file without the express written consent of the captioner is strictly prohibited. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility, and this lightly edited CART file may not be a totally verbatim record of the meeting. Due to the live nature of the meeting, some names and/or terms may be misspelled. This text may also contain phonetic attempts at sounds and words that were spoken, and environmental sounds that occurred during the meeting. * * * * * CART PROVIDED BY: Angie Sundell, RDR, CRR, CBC, CCP, AE Paradigm Reporting & Captioning Inc. a Veritext Company 612.339.0545 Captioning-paradigm@veritext.com >> Gratia: Yeah, I ended up having to register with my personal email and get in that way. But I think for now we're in. And maybe I'll just run through and make sure that all of our task force members can hear and have access to their mic. I'm going to just run through the list, there's kind of an echo so if you're not currently speaking, would you mind muting your mic? That would be helpful. Thank you. So, Breanne, can you hear me? Maybe having some issues with Breanne. Elliot, can you hear me? >> Elliot: Yes, I can hear you. >> Gratia: Awesome, thank you. What about Greg? >> Greg: Yup, I can hear you. >> Gratia: Great, thanks, Greg. We already heard from JR. What about Joe Henry? John Edman, can you hear? >> John: Yes, I can. >> Gratia: Good news. >> John: A little bit of an echo but I can hear you. >> Gratia: Okay. Katy, can you hear me? >> Yes, I can hear you. Can you hear me? >> Gratia: Yes, I can. Leann. >> Leann: Hi. >> Gratia: Hi. John is showing up three different times on the grid. I just want to make sure that that's accurate. >> Gratia: I see that as well. I think as long as we can hear him, we'll be okay. Thank you. Mary Bauer, can you hear me? >> Mary: This is Mary, I can hear you. >> Gratia: Great. We can hear you. Megan? >> Megan: I can hear you. >> Gratia: Great, thank you. Molli. Molli, we're having some trouble hearing you. What about Perry? Randolph, can you hear me? >> Randolph: Yup, I can hear you. >> Gratia: All righty, thank you. Who is next? Sarah? >> Sarah: Yup, I can hear ya, good morning. >> Gratia: Good morning. And then Commissioner Strommen. >> Commissioner Strommen: Yes, I can hear you. Thank you. >> Gratia: Great, thank you. Erika, I'm not sure, did I get to you? I can't remember. >> Perry: Hello, this is Perry May, did you hear me? >> Gratia: Oh, yes, Perry, thank you. >> Perry: Thank you. >> Gratia: All right, everyone. Okay. >> I think Asha might still be listed as an attendee. >> Gratia: Oh, she is? It wasn't letting me transition her to a host for whatever -- or a panelist, for whatever reason. So let me double-check. It must be somehow -- Asha, I don't know if you can hear me, but it's not letting me transition you from an attendee to a panelist. Same with Aaron. So you may want to try -- I'm not sure if it has to do with how you're connected to the meeting. Same as Mark. It looks like we have Aaron, Asha and Mark as our last members who are unable to transition to panelist. Alicia, do you have any sense of why that would be? >> Alicia: I do not. >> Gratia: Okay. >> Alicia: You selected in the attendee list and then escalated to panelist? >> Gratia: Yeah, it's just not even an option there. >> Alicia: She's been not yet connected solidly. >> Gratia: Okay. We do have live captioning as an option for today's meeting. So I'm just going to give you all that link really quick. Alicia, do you have any suggestions on what we should do about those three task force members who are not fully connected to the audio? >> Alicia: All I can say is that they should maybe get out and try to come back in again. And drop off other applications that they might be running right now. >> Gratia: Okay. So if those members can hear, try signing out and then coming back in as a way to reconnect. I can manage my email, see if I'm getting any messages from them. >> Alicia: I'll confirm on the testing of the captioning, I am seeing it. >> Gratia: You are seeing it. >> Alicia: Yes. >> Gratia: All righty. Well, we'll get started and we'll just keep managing the participant list and see if those folks are able to get in. And if not, we'll troubleshoot for there, if that works for everyone. I'm super sorry for the technical difficulties and the glitches. Let's see. I'm just double-checking. Looks like Asha signed off so maybe she'll come back in. Okay. In the meantime, -- all right. Can everyone see -- well, I'm sharing a PowerPoint. So I'm sorry, everyone, for these slight difficulties. You know, with this kind of new way of operating and business, there's a steep learning curve that I'm definitely experiencing right now. So I appreciate everyone's patience with that. I'm really excited to get started. And, yeah, we'll just probably have to troubleshoot more issues as they come up. So, yeah, again, really appreciative of everybody's patience. We're running quite a bit behind schedule, so I do want to get started and we'll just have to, if some members aren't in yet, we'll just have to kind of work with it as we go. So just a reminder to please keep your mics muted unless you're speaking. Same with your cameras. You can have them on if you want, but there will be an opportunity when we do introductions of task force members. And, so, you can turn your camera on for that portion as well. Hello, everyone. Welcome to the first Minnesota Outdoor Recreation Task Force meeting. We're really excited to kick this off. I want to take a moment to introduce myself. My name is Gratia Joice and I'm a planner with DNR Parks and Trails. I'm doing project management and administrative support for the task force process, and I talked to many of you already, but those who I have yet to formally meet, I'm really excited to get to know you and working with you throughout this process. Arielle Courtney, who many of you chatted with, gave birth to her daughter at the end of March, so she is out on parental leave through the summer, which is why she's not here today. Before we get into it, I want to thank everyone for being here virtually. I know, ideally, we would all be able to meet in person, but given the times, that's not currently possible. I also want to recognize -- this is part of my plan to share anyway -- but there will be technical difficulties and glitches, as we try and navigate this new way of conducting these types of meetings. We do have technical support onhand, so please use the chat function should you experience any issues, and we will try to resolve them as soon as we can. So let's get going and go over the plan for today. We have a couple of objectives for today's meeting. One is to start to get to know each other the best we can, given the format of the meeting. We will also be sharing background information with you and get you all talking through your hopes, fears and expectations as it relates to this process. Here's the agenda we have planned today. As you can see, we are running a bit behind, due to the technical difficulties. But we'll do our best to cover as much as we can today. Ending at noon. So we will start with some housekeeping and then we'll have a formal welcome and go through some introductions with task force members and agency staff. Then we'll share some background information related to why we are here and what we hope to achieve through this process, followed by some additional process details. We'll then open it up to you all to ask some questions and share your reactions to what you've heard so far. And then we'll take a short break so everybody can stretch their legs, refill their coffee, let out your antsy dog, et cetera, before gathering back to discuss your expectations for the process and share some of your hopes and fears with one another. This is a public meeting, so we do have participants from the public here with us today. We will have time towards the end of the meeting for their questions and comments. And, so, -- and then, lastly, we'll follow up with some next steps and final details in anticipation of the next task force meeting, which is May 18. So here's some housekeeping. I did add in the multimedia viewer the link to the live captioning if that's something you would like. Or else you can visit the hyperlink on the screen. It's not actually a live link, so you would have to type it out into your browser. A couple notes for task force members. Please use the WebEx chat function if you have questions or comments or technical difficulties throughout today. As I mentioned, we do have I.T. support standing by. That's Alicia Matthews, so if you have any issues, you can directly message her via the chat. You can also use this function to raise your hand during discussions to get in line to comment or respond. When we do have discussion, please state your name before you speak and indicate when you are done so we can avoid long silences or speaking over one another. And to save bandwidth and improve connection, please turn off your camera except during your personal introductions or when you're sharing and mute your mic when you're not speaking. A note to the public, there is a Q & A function, so please submit your questions and comments using that throughout the meeting and we will do our best to answer as many as we can during the dedicated public Q & A portion of the agenda. With that, I would love to turn it over to DNR Commissioner Sarah Strommen and director of Explore Minnesota John Edman to do a formal welcome for today's meeting. >> Commissioner Strommen: Well, thank you so much, Gratia, and I guess I'm going to get started. This is Sarah Strommen, DNR Commissioner. And I just really want to welcome everyone here today. I'm really just thrilled to see this group gathered for the first meeting of the Outdoor Recreation Task Force. And I know some of you. I'm looking forward to getting to know all of you through this process. But for those of you that I have not had the pleasure of meeting yet, again, I'm Sarah Strommen, and I have the honor of serving the State of Minnesota in the role as Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. And as some of you know and the rest of you will probably come to learn, connecting all Minnesotans to the outdoors in ways that are relevant to them is a priority focus of mine and outdoor recreation is a key piece of that. Minnesota is a leader in this state, and I'm just really excited because I know that the contributions and ideas of this group, Minnesota will continue to be a leader in this space. I will just acknowledge, as Gratia has said, ideally we would all be gathered together, person to person, face to face, in, you know, ideally a natural and inviting space to discuss this really important discussion about outdoor recreation in Minnesota. Unfortunately, we're not able to do that. And, you know, I think, fortunately, what we're all learning is technology can sometimes be our friend, sometimes it's a little frustrating, but just as we are learning to innovate in a way that we communicate and interact with each other here, I think that's really what we're looking for this task force to help us do, is to help us think differently and help us think about how Minnesotans might interact with the outdoor recreation space in a new and innovative way. And I know, I will just acknowledge because I know that several of you are only partially able to connect, you're hearing the conversation and maybe not able to get your own audio and participate fully, and obviously we will continue to work on those things. We do value everybody's input here, and we'll talk about that a little bit later about how important that really is to the purpose of this group. So, you know, obviously we're committed to continuing to work on that. I just also want to thank our friends and partners at Explore Minnesota and I'm going to turn it over to my colleague, John Edman, in a moment. We just have a tremendous partnership and collaboration and we're looking forward to collaborating with this task force as well. And, of course, I want to thank all of you for offering -- you know, putting in your application to participate, for really filling those out in a way that let your skills and experience and knowledge shine and for offering to spend this time thinking about outdoor recreation and the future of outdoor recreation in Minnesota. I really do believe that this is a unique collaborative opportunity for all of us to bring a variety of perspectives to the table to kind of break down the silos and to create something new and bold for the future of Minnesota, not only for this generation but for future generations and to continue that very strong outdoor heritage we have here in our state. So, again, thank you, and with that, I will turn it over to my friend and colleague, John Edman. >> John: Great. Thank you, Sarah. Hopefully you can all hear me. Yes? >> We can hear you, John. >> John: Great. >> Yup. >> John: Last time I did one of these WebEx, I talked for about five minutes and I realized no one could hear me. So... Well, good, thank you, Sarah. I'll be relatively brief. I, too, just want to thank all of the participants on this task force, everyone for stepping up, willing to be a part. There are a lot of people that wanted to be a part of this task force, and we feel that we really have a great team of advisors from all across the state to help us throughout this process. I know many of you, a lot of you I don't know that well, but hopefully I'll get a chance to meet you, to interact a little bit more beyond through virtual means somewhere down the road. For those of you that don't know me, I've been travel director for, well, many years. I worked with a lot of different administrations, and we've had a lot of different, oh, issues that we've worked through, accomplishments, et cetera. But as director of Explore Minnesota, outdoors has just always been such a key part of Minnesota and how we attract people, not only residents but people throughout the globe. I'm going to talk a little bit more about that later. But, again, back to anyone that doesn't know me. Before I was state travel director, I worked at Carlson Companies, I was director of destination marketing, I worked with a lot of DMOs, destination marketing organizations, all throughout the globe. The reason I mention that is because I guess throughout my career I've done a lot of work with public/private partnerships. So I'm no stranger to working with groups like this, with stakeholders, advisory councils, et cetera. Even within Explore Minnesota we have a Governor's-appointed Explore Minnesota Tourism Council that's so incredibly helpful to us as an agency as we develop our plans and programs, strategies for the coming year. So now that we have this task force, and, again, later on I'll tell you a little bit more about some of my perspective of how it came about, but I just really value everybody on this call, all the time that you're spending, the thoughts you have, the experiences that you're bringing that is such a value to our efforts. And I think it's kind of interesting, the outdoors has always been important, but we all know during this crisis it's now more important than ever before. And while, you know, in some ways this may not be the most ideal time, because of the technology challenges for us that we're dealing with, on the other hand, maybe it is a really ideal time because it gives everybody such an incredible appreciation with outdoor recreation, telling people at our agencies to enjoy the outdoor recreation close to home right now, and people are just flock to go that. So it really puts an emphasis on what we have in the state, what outdoor recreation does for health, for our economy, for our well-being for our state, and how we want to move forward with that in the future. Again, I'll talk more about that later. But I just want to close before I turn it back over to you, Gratia, is, again, thank DNR, don't want to make this a love fest, but DNR has done so much of the work in pulling this task force together and promoting the outdoors and, Sarah, you and your team, I just want you to know how much we appreciate all your efforts. So, with that, I'll turn it back to you, Gratia. >> Gratia: Thank you, Sarah and John, for that welcome. Now I'd like to give task force members an opportunity to introduce themselves to one another. So task force members, please take a moment to share with everyone your name, your preferred pronouns, your title and organizational affiliation and please answer the question, why you're interested in being part of this task force. To make things easier since we're doing this virtually and not actually sitting around a table, I put up an order for us to follow. It's alphabetical by last name. So please remember where you are in line and when you do present, you can turn on your video camera and make sure to unmute yourself so we can hear you. And, so, with that, it looks like Ray Aponte is up first, followed by Mary Bauer. So, Ray, if you wouldn't mind introducing yourself. >> Ray: Good morning, can you hear me? >> Gratia: Yes, I can hear you. >> Ray: Hey, everyone, sorry it took me a second to figure this out. My name is Ray Aponte, I'm director of The Loppet Adventures with The Loppet Foundation currently. I've been doing that for a little over a year now. And my primary job is to engage with north side Minneapolis and I work with 14 schools and we get outside and, you know, and kind of promote green space and the benefits of green space, not only for your health but for your mental health as well. So prior to The Loppet Foundation, I was a South High principal for Minneapolis Public Schools for five years and another 20 something years as Minneapolis public school principal, and I called it quits last year to kind of pursue a little bit more about what I want to do and that's adventure programming because I work primarily with kids of color and I just think it's the X factor if you want kids to be healthy individuals and productive individuals. So that's kind of my passion and who I am. Thank you. >> Gratia: Thanks, Ray. Mary. >> Mary: Hi, my name is Mary Bauer, and I'm a registered nurse. I work at the V.A. Medical Center, I've done many nursing jobs over my long and varied career. I currently work with head, neck cancer patients. I'm a skier, Nordic and a little Alpine. I run, I bike, I canoe, and I think I would like to share my love of the outdoors with everyone and try to figure out what would bring them into the Minnesota outdoors. >> Gratia: Thanks, Mary. It looks like, JR, you're up. JR: Hey, there, I hope everybody can hear and see me. Well, first, thanks, everybody, for being on the call with us today. I'm JR Burke, I am director of state government affairs with Polaris Industries, a role that I've been in for about eight years altogether. I did have a brief hiatus where I went over to Target. You know, Polaris is a power sports company, the largest power sports company in the world. But, you know, really, one of the things that we've been focusing on a lot more so lately is really to build partnerships. And, so, I think this group has strong, varied constituencies, different stakeholders that come to the table, and Polaris is very much interested in hearing from multiple sectors in the -- [ audio echoing ] -- a little background there -- in the outdoor recreation space. I think just the other thing that I am interested in, too, and this is more just having been born and raised here in Minnesota and seeing a lot of faces on here and companies and organizations that I respect greatly is, you know, there are a number of states that have also created similar task forces, councils and things like that that are advising their Departments of Natural Resources, travel agencies and the like, and, to be honest with you, I just really want to see how we can make Minnesota more competitive for outdoor recreation. As I'm sure you have seen recently, there's a lot of economic impact that goes into outdoor recreation, a lot of consumer spending that comes into our state because of it, but we are surrounded by states who also have a lot of great opportunities and hopefully we can figure out ways to advise the DNR and Explore Minnesota to find ways to better compete with those who are also trying to take advantage of their outdoor economy. So I'll leave it at that and just, again, say thanks to the staff and colleagues on the task force. >> Gratia: Thanks, JR. Looks like Elliot, you're up next. >> Elliot: I hope everybody can see me. My name is Elliot Christensen. I am from Lower Sioux Indian Community, where I'm also an enrolled member. Up until recently, I was the tobacco person here for our tribe. I'm also a certified Mayo tobacco treatment specialist and while I was here, we used our traditions and cultures as prevention, so we did a lot of outdoor activities, traditional outdoor activities ranging from creator game lacrosse to canoeing to gathering, you know, foods and materials. Recently, I became our planning -- with our planning department and grants writing and currently we're using that to help develop some of our areas to create more outdoor activity access for our members and for visitors to our community. And I really am here to be able to, you know, help but also to share if I can ever help anybody, I'm always willing to help. Here in Minnesota the outdoors is everything. It was everything to my people for a long time. These prairies, these waters were our lifeline, was our highways, it was our grocery store, it was everything, it was where we lived. And I'm just glad to be part of that and part of this and helping being able to let others experience it. Thank you. >> Gratia: Thank you, Elliot. Megan. >> Megan: Hello. Megan Christianson. I am the director of Visit Grand Rapids. I also serve as the northeast region representative on Explore Minnesota Tourism Council. I also serve on the Mississippi River Parkway Commission. I'm just really passionate about outdoors and recreation. The area that I represent, Grand Rapids, Itasca County, has over 1,000 lakes and 2,000 miles of trails and a million acres of accessible forest land. And, so, I just felt very strongly that someone from our region needed to be represented on this outdoor task force. I'm really excited to be a part of it. I think that's all I have. So thank you. >> Gratia: Thanks, Megan. Katy? >> Katy: Hi, everyone, I'm Katy Friesz, I'm the senior manager of corporate responsibility at Winnebago Industries and also serve as the executive director of the Winnebago Industries Foundation. So Winnebago is an outdoor lifestyle company that has three R.V. brands, Winnebago, Grand Design and Newmar, as well as Marine company, Chris-Craft. We have a newer presence in Minnesota. Our company has a 60-plus-year history based out of Iowa, but in Minnesota we've had a presence for about three years. And we're really about enabling extraordinary outdoor experiences for our customers, their family and friends. And from a social impact standpoint, we're really thinking about how do we engage and enable transformative experiences for all people, underserved communities, everyone, to be able to appreciate and gain all of the full benefit from the experience that the outdoors gives us. We also are thinking a lot about how do we preserve places to explore, and the way that we really want to work together is through cross-sector collaboration and really being thoughtful about that. So really excited to meet all of you and be on the task force to put our heads together and come up with some great recommendations and solutions. And I forgot, my pronouns are she, her, hers. So thanks a lot. >> Gratia: Thank you so much, Katy. It looks like Matt is next, but he is, unfortunately, not on the call. So we'll just have to have him introduce himself another time. So we'll move on to Aaron. >> Aaron: Hey, this is Aaron Hautala. Can you hear me? >> Gratia: Yes, I can. Thanks, Aaron, I'm so glad we got you connected. >> Aaron: Amazing. I'm finally here with you. I might even be able to get the video going. Oh, I can, wow. My name is Aaron Hautala, past president of the Cuyuna Lakes Mountain Bike Crew. Pronouns he, him. In addition to mountain biking in central Minnesota and the renaissance we've seen through the economy here, also have been involved with Lake Mille Lacs and kind of their ongoing storytelling and repurposing of some of their tourism amenities and also have quite a -- growing up on the Mesabi Iron Range, what I knew of the Department in the beginning was minerals. So kind of a really wide span of different things that I'm pulling from. Honored to be a part of this team. Honored to serve. Honored to talk through issues and create a purposeful state. That would be my goal. And putting together not just a plan but seeing actions and seeing things come of it, that is my sincere goal. I am finished. >> Gratia: Thank you, Aaron. Breanne. >> Breanne: Hi. It's nice to virtually meet you all. I'm Breanne Hegg, the vice president of programs for Girl Scouts River Valleys. My pronouns are she, her, hers. Girl Scouts River Valleys serves 28,000 girls in Minnesota, primarily in the southern half, if you drew a line from St. Cloud across Twin Cities, Austin, Worthington, Rochester, those cities. We also serve 11,000 adults who help deliver our programs. The outdoors are obviously a big part of what we do, travel, adventure and camp, getting girls access to those transformational experiences. Prior to this I worked at Twin Cities in Motion, which is a company that does the Twin Cities marathon, so I have interest in that kind of perspective as well. And my goal for this group is, tremendous natural asset in the state of Minnesota that has great economic, social and health benefits and just increasing access and opportunities for all Minnesotans. Thank you. >> Gratia: Thank you, Breanne. Joe Henry. [ silence ] >> Joe: Hi, good morning, can you hear me, guys? >> Gratia: Yes, I can. Thanks, Joe. >> Joe: Perfect. I don't know if you're hearing through my phone or my computer, it doesn't matter, as long as you can hear me. Good morning, everybody, my name is Joe Henry, I'm the executive director of Lake of the Woods Tourism. As a longtime resident of Minnesota, I grew up here, had a privilege of moving away with other opportunities, I think by moving away and seeing how the outdoors is in other states, a lot of great opportunities, but, you know, it really makes you appreciate what we have here in Minnesota. I've always been very passionate about the outdoors. I hunt, I fish, I get outdoors in many respects, I'm a licensed charter captain, I fish walleye tournaments. With my jobs out of Lake of the Woods Tourism I'm very very involved with the fishing community in many aspects. I think that we have an opportunity, you know, when I read the purpose of this group, it talked about, you know, measured growth, which I like, that means that we're getting something done, we can actually see if we are. It talked about, you know, increased and equitable access and, you know, getting more youth involved in the outdoors, getting different groups of people involved, different demographics involved, I think all those are very very important, very passionate about that. It talked about, you know, higher quality of recreational opportunities for Minnesotans and visitors. You know, Minnesota is such a good state when it comes to outdoor recreational opportunities of all different types. And I still see a lot of opportunities. We have people that are crossing our state all the time going to other states to vacation or even going to Canada to vacation. You know, I just think that I envision this opportunity as almost like a tree, and if you look at a really good healthy tree with a really strong root system, really strong branches, I think it would be advantageous at some point in time to take a look at the state of Minnesota when it comes to outdoor recreation and take a look at the health of our tree and our roots and our branches. I think in some cases we're going to have branches that are absolutely strong, beautiful, full of leaves, and in some cases we might even have branch that is could be missing compared to other states and in some cases we might have branches that maybe they're there but they're a little sparse, and they could use some attention. So I'm excited, I'm very honored, privileged to work with all of you and to work on behalf of the state of Minnesota and certainly with recreation opportunities. I appreciate it. I'll turn it back to you. >> Gratia: Thank you, Joe. Hansi, you're up next. >> Hansi: All right. Can you guys hear me all right? >> Gratia: Yes. >> Hansi: Awesome. So, first off, I just want to say thanks to everyone that's spoken so far. Joe, I really liked the analogy, that was a pretty cool way to put it. So my name is Hansi Johnson. He, him, his. I work for the Minnesota Land Trust. I spent my youth working for Winona Canoe and started in the outdoor industry as the kid. [ audio cutting out ] And became a rep to different companies, including Patagonia and a bunch of other kind of major brands. At one point I realized I was more interested in selling the idea of going outside versus the idea of selling things. I really wanted to influence how people got outside and the positive aspects that it brought. So I ended up taking a job with the international mountain biking association -- bicycling association, for six years and then also from there was given the opportunity with the Minnesota Land Trust to work with the City of Duluth with all of our user groups and expand not just from off-road cycling to all types of activities. So the reason I got involved with this and why I'm interested in being part of the task force is because in the work that I've done, the experiences I've had in the outdoors, I've really seen the power of outdoor recreation to change people's lives in a positive way. And I really feel like to echo Joe's comments that Minnesota is a world-class destination for all types of outdoor experiences, and that too often the midwest is sort of given, you know, the short shrift as to a great place to come. But we have as much as any place out there. So I'm really excited to just be a part of the task force, I'm honored to be a part of the task force. And I want to also, I guess, as we talk about it also kind of inject the idea of conservation and the fact that we can also love places to death, and that there should be some sense of how we can not only promote these places but also protect them as well. So I'll leave it there. >> Gratia: Thank you, Hansi. Looks like, Greg, you're up next. >> Greg: Great, thank you, Gratia. My name's Greg Lais and pronouns he, his, him. And I'm the founder of Wilderness Inquiry and have worked there for now 42 years. And, you know, I echo everybody's sentiment here. I think we have a whole bunch of proud Minnesotans on this task force. And that's a great thing, you know, from all corners of the state. And I'm a huge fan, lifelong resident of Minnesota. And I agree with Hansi and what everybody else said about how, you know, this is really a world-class outdoor destination. Sometimes gets the short shrift, if you will. You know, I travel a lot, but whenever I come home, I always like it best here. And I think that, you know, what I'm looking forward to here is -- well, getting to know everybody. I see we have -- I have a bunch of friends on the panel now, but others I haven't met yet, looking forward to getting to know you better. Really, working collaboratively to bring the outdoors to all Minnesotans. For those of you who don't know, Wilderness Inquiry started working with people with disabilities as a way to bring folks with disabilities to the Boundary Waters canoe area, still do that, and we work with all kinds of folks from really all ages, backgrounds and abilities, is our little hallmark, to get them all outside to show the many benefits of public lands and the full range of outdoors. So, you know, I'll just leave it at that. But I'm really super excited about how we can work together as a team, you know, to bring the outdoors more broadly to all Minnesotans. Thank you. >> Gratia: Thank you, Greg. Perry May, you're up next. [ silence ] Perry, we're having some trouble hearing you. >> Perry: Hi, can you hear me now? >> Gratia: Oh, yes, that is better. >> Perry: Okay, very good. Well, first of all, I'm not going to share my video, I'm in a limited broadband area in a small town called Outing, Minnesota. And Outing was first named in the early 1900s as a way for people to get outdoors and go on an outing up into the beautiful lakes area. So I work in representing the All-Terrain Vehicle Association of Minnesota and also a lot of motorized sports. My previous work, I worked with General Mills for 31 years. I traveled the world, worked in six continents, and I learned about all the different approaches to recreation in different cultures and different countries. My parents were farmers, and I grew up loving the outdoors. Hunting, fishing, growing things, actually becoming self-sustaining and as previous people have mentioned, I get more enjoyment of watching young people or disabled adults or just about anybody really enjoying Minnesota outdoor sports, whether it be, you know, fishing, kayaking, biking, hiking, camping, skiing, whatever that may be the first time, it's really an enjoyment. So I'm really excited to be part of the task force to see how we can get more people, more diverse -- our diverse demographics in Minnesota enjoying the great outdoors. I think it does have wonderful health benefits for everybody and just looking forward to getting started. Thank you. >> Gratia: Thank you, Perry. Sarah, you're up next. >> Sarah: Good morning! Hi, everyone. I'm Sarah Milligan-Toffler, and I am the executive director of the Children and Nature Network. My pronouns are she, her, hers. And for those of you who aren't familiar with our organization, we actually are a national organization based here in Minnesota. We do three things. We foster belief that a connection to nature is critical to children's healthy development and we do that through collecting and sharing resources, we have the largest collection of scientific literature on human and nature connection in our research library, which you can find on our website. We really seek to impact core systems that impact children's daily connection to nature, so we work a lot with state and municipal government, school districts, et cetera. And then we're really looking to grow this movement, to have more people see the outdoors and connection to nature as relevant to their lives and their work. So I'm really excited to bring that evidence base and kind of the power of our national and actually international network to this work here in Minnesota. And I think that Minnesota is already leading in a lot of ways and, I think just being able to share kind of what folks from other states are doing is something that I'm excited to do. And then I'll just say, you know, one of the things -- several people have mentioned this, but I would say as this crisis goes on, we're really just seeing how clear the inequities are, right? And just as, you know, people most need nature, you know, folks with the least access, you know, aren't getting it at the time that they really need it most. So I think there's an opportunity here for us to think more holistically as we think about how we come out of this crisis and build communities. Can we work collaboratively with other groups and really think holistically about what children and families need around them to be healthy? And we know that nature is one of those things. Thank you. I look forward to working with everyone. >> Gratia: Thank you, Sarah. So next is Mark. Mark's having some trouble connecting as a panelist, but I think I can unmute him. So let's see if this works. Mark? >> Mark: Yes, can you hear me? >> Gratia: Yes. >> Mark: Okay, yeah, I don't see how to turn the camera on, but I am here. My name's Mark Norquist, and I'm the founder of Modern Carnivore, which is a digital platform to use storytelling and other digital media to break down barriers to entry for adults wanting to learn to hunt, fish, forage and those related activities in the outdoors. I was born and raised in Minnesota. So very active in all seasons, from hunting and fishing to many of the different silent sports. So I'm very passionate about the outdoors. I have done a lot of things professionally in terms of media and marketing, working internationally, participating in a lot of outdoor recreation in different countries, as somebody mentioned earlier. And coming back to Minnesota realizing that we've got such a wealth of resource opportunity here. And I guess relative to this task force, what I'm looking forward to and why I want to be on it, I think there's a real opportunity to connect diverse outdoor interests in a common vision around conservation, connection and really engagement. So I'm passionate about that and how to bring people into these spaces and especially when it comes to hunting and fishing. >> Gratia: Thank you, Mark. It does look like Matt Gruhn has joined. So same issue, I can't elevate you, Matt, but I'm going to unmute you to allow to you introduce yourself real quick. >> Matt: All right. Can you hear me? >> Gratia: Yes, I can. Thanks, Matt. >> Matt: Excellent. Thank you for the troubleshooting there on the back end, Alicia. My name is Matt Gruhn, I'm the president of the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas, I lead an organization, a nonprofit trade association for boat dealers. We serve much of North America, but have been based here in Minnesota for about the last decade. I'm really excited to be part of this to contribute to these efforts. I really am interested in helping get people outdoors and participate in everything that our great outdoors here in Minnesota offers. Like many of you guys, I'm a camper, boater, hiker, fisherman, do a lot of skiing and so forth. Spend a lot of time outdoors with my wife and our daughters, so I'm just looking -- I'm just excited to help collaborate here. So thanks for having me. >> Gratia: Thank you, Matt. All right. We'll get back to our normal order, and it looks like Stephen, you are up next. Stephen: Hey, guys, can you hear me? >> Gratia: Yes. Stephen: All right. I'm calling in from my port here in chilly Minneapolis, kind of a rainy day, a little bundled up. Thanks for organizing and psyched to get going on this. So I'm founder of GearJunkie. I'm a media and a journalist person and I built a newspaper column years ago in the "Star Tribune" and turned it into a small media company called GearJunkie, we're based here in Minneapolis and I have an office in Denver as well. Lifelong Minnesota boy, raised here and kind of turned into an outdoors junkie growing up, climber, skier, hiker, camper, biker, kind of everything. Now the father of five kids and trying to get them into the outdoors and just love everything about the outdoors and Minnesota. And kind of live and breathe it. I wrote down a couple bullets here that might be relevant to the group. I think a couple unique lenses that I can offer to the group are really a focus on content in journalism and maybe social media, kind of that whole world is where I exist in my day to day. And beyond just Minnesota I really am in tune with sort of the national scene of both the outdoor industry, the adventure space, and also tangentially through kind of covering this space for over five years have learned a lot about state outdoor offices in Utah, Colorado, Michigan, Washington, New Mexico, and I know a lot of the state directors, and I actually spent some time over the last couple weeks catching up with directors from Utah and Colorado, just to kind of get some context to what they would have done at this stage in the task force and had some notes on that and happy to share that with anybody that's interested, but I guess the one other thing I want to share is, there really is a successful template for state offices in I think about a dozen other states and there's a ton of best practices and learnings and there's something called the confluence of states, which is they kind of come in together and document and we can kind of start by piggybacking on five plus years of effort by all these other people around the country. So I know this is -- to me, this feels like we're inventing something kind of from scratch but really there's templates on how to do this. And I've kind of put my head around that, personally, to kind of get that national scope. Anyways, that's me. Thanks for listening. We'll catch you guys soon. >> Gratia: Thank you, Stephen. Molli, you're up next. [ silence ] Molli, can you hear me? >> Molli: Can you hear me through here? >> Gratia: Yes, there's a slight echo. Maybe because you're connected -- I think it looks like you're connected twice. >> Molli: Okay. My computer isn't working. Can you guys -- >> Gratia: Yeah. >> Molli: Okay, great. So my name is Molli Sajady, my preferred pronouns are she, her and hers. I am a pediatrician. I finished my pediatric training in 2017, and I signed on for an additional three-year training fellowship in developmental behavioral pediatrics. And I was able to do a lot of research during that time, mostly focused on how nature and the outdoors can be beneficial for the well-being of family and children, specifically with cognitive and social development, physical, emotional development, and I am just excited to join this task force because there's a lot of other like-minded individuals and it looks like we're all interested in collaborating to hopefully increase equitable access to the outdoors, specifically for kids with disabilities and families with fewer financial resources. I will be finishing up my fellowship this summer and I'll be transitioning to clinical position at Children's Minnesota, so I'll have a little bit of health care background at two different organizations to kind of bring forth to the table. So I'm excited to be here and work with you all. Thank you. >> Gratia: Thank you, Molli. So next would be Naomi Sam, who works for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, with DNR, doing cultural resources. Unfortunately, something came up for her last minute so she is unable to be with us today. So with that, we will move on to Asha. >> Asha: All right. Can you hear me? >> Gratia: Yes. >> Asha: Awesome. Okay. So, my name's Asha Shoffner, pronouns are she, her, hers, I'm founder of Fiwygin Outdoors, as well as the outdoor educational coordinator for St. Paul parks and rec and the LGBTQ liaison. Fiwygin, it's spelled really weird, stands for Fit In Where You Get In, it's a group that I started about four years ago to make sure that spending time outdoors can be meaningful, accessible, sustainable and empowering. [ can't hear her very well ] So why I'm interested in being part of this task force, is I think, you know, I come with a lot of different experiences and hear a lot from folks that I, like, engage with in outdoor stuff, so I want to help uplift voices that don't get heard. I want to figure out ways to make spending time outdoors more accessible to shift the landscape of it to make it more inclusive and more empowering. And I think that this task force is a good way to do that and to have conversations. And I was really excited to see the list of folks. I think we do really represent a wide variety of interests and locations and folks that we serve or check in with. So, yeah, I'm really pumped to be here. Yeah, I'm just excited to learn more. >> Gratia: Thank you, Asha. And, last, we've got Steven Voltz. >> Steven: Hello, everyone, can you hear me? >> Gratia: Yes, we can. >> Steven: All right, great. Thank you. My name's Steve Voltz, and I am the store manager of REI in Roseville, Minnesota, and I've been with REI for 30 years, actually, this year. I worked in a number of different markets, a number of different states, but back in Minnesota now. And I'm a native Minnesotan, and, of course, what REI does, you know, we help people get into the outdoors, help people enjoy the outdoors through our gear and knowledge and experiences and that's the reason why I really was interested in being on this task force is to help offer what I could to the group and work with the group to get more people in the outdoors. We talk a lot about that the outdoors is for all. So I'm really looking forward to how we can break down those barriers to people who are having a hard time getting outdoors and coming up with solutions for -- to ensure that more people can enjoy in all the benefits that I think everybody on this task force is in agreement of all the benefits of the outdoors. So looking forward to working with you all and thank you. >> Gratia: Thank you, Steve. And thanks to all the task force members for sharing those introductions. As many of you pointed out, we have such a great group of individuals here representing so many diverse outdoor recreation interests. So I'm really excited to see where this conversation goes throughout this task force process. Next I'd like to acknowledge that we do have a handful of agency staff from both DNR and Explore Minnesota on the call today. So I'm just going to quick run through this list and there may be others on the call too. Feel free to jump in. We have Randolph Briley, who's the special assistant to the DNR Commissioner, who is going to serve as co-chair of the task force along with John Edman from Explore Minnesota. We've got Leann Kispert, who's a senior brand manager with Explore Minnesota and a project advisor for the task force. We've got Andrew Korsberg, planning and policy supervisor at DNR Parks and Trails. Shannon Lotthammer, who's an assistant commissioner at the DNR. Madison McGovern, who is a conservation corps of Minnesota planning and development specialist with DNR parks and trails. Laura Preus, who's the statewide programs and planning manager at DNR parks and trails. Erika Rivers, director of Minnesota Parks and Trails at the DNR. And then anyone else? Just let me quick take a look to see if I'm missing anyone. And the folks that I've just shared their names, they may be involved at differing levels kind of throughout the process. But you'll likely see their names again. With that, I'm going to hand it back over to the Commissioner and John Edman to talk a little bit about why we convened the task force and what we are hoping to achieve through this process. So with that I'll hand it over. >> Commissioner Strommen: Okay, this is Sarah Strommen again. I think I'm going to keep this off. And then John is going to come in and fill in everything that I neglected to say. So thank you, John, for that. I appreciate the tag team here. You know, I really appreciated the opportunity to hear everybody's introductions and I think it just reinforces the diversity of perspectives and the wealth of experience and the passion that we have. So, you know, I'm just really thrilled, and I think I heard in everyone, you know, the sense that Minnesota is just one of the best states in the nation for outdoor recreation and, as you all know, we boast the diversity of opportunity in terms of the types of outdoor recreation that folks can experience here, we boast a very high quality in those opportunities, we attract people from all over the country to experience the quality opportunities we have here, and Minnesota also has such a history of collaboration and innovation and these public/private partnerships and private/private partnerships and just that collaboration and I really am excited to dive in with all of you. We also know that in addition to all of us here who have a passion for the outdoors, Minnesotans, generally, have a very strong passion for the outdoors. And, you know, in one recent survey nearly 70% of residents said that outdoor activities are very important part of their life. I think we see that. We see that in the actions that people take. If you look at the passage of our clean water land and legacy amendment, that passed at a time of economic downturn in the country when a lot of people weren't feeling in a place where they had discretionary income and, yet, Minnesotans overwhelmingly voted to raise sales tax in order to have funds that could protect and enhance natural resources for current and future generations. And I think we're also very clearly seeing that right now during this COVID-19 pandemic situation. People are really sort of returning to that very basic need to get outdoors and find, you know, some mental space and some solace and stress relief by getting outdoors and we're seeing people do that in huge numbers. I know my own neighborhood, when I get out every afternoon to walk my dog, my neighborhood is filled with people outdoors. Fortunately, we're still able to social distance but we're seeing that in our parks, experiencing very high visitorship. And, so, you know, I think obviously we have to manage through the challenges of this particular time, but, clearly, it's demonstrating the very strong passion that people have for the outdoors in Minnesota. We also know in Minnesota that the outdoor industry has a significant impact on our state's economy and also the economy of communities across the state, both large communities and small communities. And many of you talked about that. So for really all of these reasons, as well as many more, I think we thought that Minnesota is really well positioned to capitalize on the strengths that our state has and to think about charting a course for the future of outdoor recreation, again, to continue to be a leader in the nation, to continue to innovate. I'd also just like to acknowledge, because it was mentioned in the introduction, that, absolutely, we want to be aware of the work done in other states on outdoor recreation offices or outdoor recreation councils and we want to learn from those experiences. We certainly do not want to reinvent the wheel. I also just want to emphasize that in addition to that, we really want to put Minnesota's flavor on this. We do not want to take a cookie cutter approach. And, so, the formation of this task force, by design, was really to make sure that we were inclusive and collaborative and charted Minnesota's future with the benefit of full range of diverse perspectives. And, so, this task force really is designed to help chart that path and to work with the DNR and Explore Minnesota to do that. And I will say, we had some really difficult decisions in selecting members of this task force. We had 140 applicants and we had to select 20 individuals. So, one, I will say, you know, we were thrilled to see that kind of interest and, again, I think that speaks to how passionate Minnesotans are, but I will also say that, you know, we have full confidence that this group is the right group, the right collection of 20 individuals to help us do this thinking and do this work ahead of us. And I will add that in the selection of applications -- or in the review of applications and the selection of task force members, we really look at the variety of interests, you know, both directly and indirectly related to outdoor recreation. So we have folks that may come in their life, they have a passion for motorized recreation or maybe silent sports, maybe your passion for the outdoors is on equity and equitable access, or maybe it's about the health benefits of getting outdoors. And, so, really, we tried to get the whole variety of perspectives represented here so we can think about this as broad as possible and through the work that we do achieve maximum benefits for the state of Minnesota. And I think hopefully, as you all continue to work together, you will see that our intentions were pretty clear in the selection and in the way that we work. I think they will continue to become clear. What we really wanted was a task force that represented this diversity of perspectives and this diverse intersections of outdoor recreation. But we hope we will do is come together in a collaborative way to be a cross-sector voice for outdoor recreation interests in Minnesota. Again, representing, you know, economic, social, environmental values. And I have no doubt that all of you will be able to do that. I also wanted to spend a minute talking about the importance of not only the work of this task force but engaging people beyond the task force. And public engagement is something that is very important to me personally. It's another one of my passions is making sure that we are giving everyone a seat at the table and engaging as many voices as possible. And obviously with a 20-member task force, although we have a very diverse group of folks, you know, we can't get everybody's voices in this. And, so, part of the goal here, in addition to the task force, will be also to plan and facilitate some additional public engagement. And to be clear, you know, some of that will be facilitated by the DNR and Explore Minnesota, but we also really want you as members of the task force to do your own engagement between our meetings. We hope that you will discuss topics that the task force is wrestling with with others in your network or even your friends and family and bring those new perspectives that you may hear in those conversations to the table at task force meetings. We really want to make sure that we are expanding and multiplying and ensuring that everyone who has something to share about outdoor recreation in Minnesota has that opportunity. So we'll really be looking for those opportunities both formally and informally to bring more voices to the table. In terms of the specific purpose of the task force, and I know you all received this, but I think it's just worth mentioning, there are really two main purposes. And the first is to think about how to bring measured growth, increased equitable access and a higher quality of outdoor opportunities to Minnesotans and visitors. And then, secondly, how to organize and implement this collaborative work going forward. So the result of this thinking and considering and discussion should be a product that is a set of actionable recommendations that will go to the DNR and Explore Minnesota and ultimately some of which may be considered by the Governor, some may be considered by the legislature, but things that are actionable that we can move forward and implement. Our work also should be guided by the following set of values. And I think it's really just important to kind of highlight the values here as we start the work. So the first is quality of life. That's obviously an important value that all Minnesotans share. The idea is that outdoor recreation helps public health issues, such as obesity, chronic disease, mental illness, achievement gap and can help improve overall quality of life. We also have a value of equitable access, and as some folks have noted in their introduction, much of our natural resource management requires active participation in outdoor recreation through user fees, funding and policy, and we want to make sure that everyone has access to that, regardless of economic status, regardless of race, regardless of gender, regardless of ability or past experience. We want everyone to be able to access our outdoor recreation opportunities. Environmental stewardship is another value. And, you know, we hope the increase in participation in natural resource-based outdoor recreation leads to increased stewardship of our natural resources, resulting from a closer connection to nature. And this is something, again, that I'm really personally passionate about. I think, you know, the reality is that people develop a connection and want to help steward things that they have that personal experience with and, so, the more people we can get out experiencing nature in ways that are relevant to them helps our environmental stewardship and future generations. Economic development is one of our other values, and I mentioned this a little bit that many of our Minnesota home-grown industries are directly dependent on outdoor recreation, whether that's manufacturing or tourism. Others rely on outdoor recreation as a means for workforce development. I hear, as I travel around, I'm not traveling right now, but I did very heavily in my first year in this job, and I heard from communities all across the state the importance that, you know, quality lakes, quality fishing opportunities, quality parks, quality trails play in recruiting young families that provide workers to fuel local businesses. And, finally, I just -- you know, moving on from those values -- just want to talk about I think a couple things that while our focus is broad in this group, a couple things that the work here really doesn't include and things that we're trying to stay away from. And those are promoting any one outdoor recreation industry or organization over others. Again, this is really intended to be a collaborative and inclusive process and while folks come from all different perspectives, the idea isn't to promote one over the other. The idea is to find space for all of them to co-exist and enhance Minnesota's economy and the outdoor experiences in Minnesota. We also want to avoid getting into contentious policy initiatives or taking positions on policy initiatives that pits one constituency over another. Again, the goal is to be collaborative and to look at ways to promote and enhance outdoor recreation in Minnesota, some of those may be policy initiatives, but, again, the goal isn't to try to promote a specific agenda. And then, lastly, again, you know, we're really looking for actionable recommendations that are -- so we really encourage folks to, you know, ask each other if you're not really understanding someone's perspective, to ask each other why does the perspective or what experience that might be based on to understand why somebody might have a perspective and to put yourself in other people's shoes, to the extent possible, as well as, again, to represent your own perspectives and experiences in those that you might hear from others. So I think with that, again, I will just say how grateful I am to have this group of folks here together to think about outdoor recreation in Minnesota and to come up with those actionable items. I really do feel this is a unique collaborative opportunity that we have here and I'm really eager to continue to hear about your discussions, to participate in those discussions when I can and ultimately to see the work product and the recommendations you come up with. And with that, I will turn it over to John. >> John: Great. Great, thank you, Sarah. Well, I think, Sarah, you pretty much covered most of what I wanted to touch on in background, except I'm probably just going to bring up a little bit more from a tourism perspective. I want to talk about tourism and natural resources, a little bit about how this all came about. You know, first of all, when we promote Minnesota, one of the number one reasons why people come to the state that they know the state is our natural resources. It's our outdoors. It's our activities, for recreating, whether it's in large cities or small towns or all throughout the state. And that, in turn, fuels a huge tourism economy. It's a $16 billion industry. And it benefits from travelers, residents, people that live here, as well as people that come here all year long. The bulk of our season is spring/summer, but also in the winter and fall and people enjoy outdoor recreation activities all year long. And these travelers, they do spend dollars, and that helps the state. We generated over a billion dollars -- actually the last year we had these statistics -- two years ago in state taxes and over 175,000 jobs. It's kind of interesting, just as a side note, what's going on right now with COVID-19 and what's happening to our economy, the leisure and hospitality industry is being devastated in terms of the impact. And a lot of times we just take our industry for granted. It's a fun industry, everybody loves tourism, everybody loves to get out and recreate. But when something happens, fire, flood, or a pandemic like this, it impacts every community throughout the entire state and all those other industries upon which tourism depends. So outdoor recreation supports, you know, a huge part of our industry, about that $16 billion, and, you know, it's made up of a lot of the folks representing the people that are on this task force, representing boats, skis, hunting equipment, gear, but also it does benefit communities, communities large, communities small from all parts of the state. When we think about our state and oftentimes when I'm talking about the state of Minnesota, I talk about how diverse Minnesota is. It's a state of lakes and rivers and forests and prairies in urban as well as in rural settings. Actually, again, referring to this current crisis of being at home, Sarah and I have talked to a lot of folks and the Governor about there's incredible outdoor recreation experiences found just within miles of their home, no matter where they live. Sometimes people don't realize what they have here in their own backyard. So it's important during this time of social distancing, but it's also critical at other times throughout the year. When we do research, in fact, I think of some of the research we did years ago on this topic, we asked people, what's the number one thing that they know about Minnesota, of all the destinations in the world, why would you come to Minnesota? What is Minnesota known for? And tops on the list are the natural resources. That's what people think about in terms of Minnesota. And it does attract visitors from all throughout the globe. That's why this thing is so important. That's why collaboration with all of you is so important. So over a year ago when this whole idea first came up to Explore Minnesota, it was an idea to create an office of outdoor recreation, a person, basically, within Explore Minnesota. And we hadn't had a lot of discussion about that when it first came to us. And it did make a lot of sense, initially the idea of particularly when you think about, you know, what we do, we're an agency that spends a lot of dollars in terms of marketing the outdoors to residents and nonresidents alike. However, when we looked at the initial legislation to create an office of outdoor recreation, one person, and the list of things that was being proposed to do was incredibly long, it was like 11 different duties. And marketing was certainly in our area of responsibility, but it involved everything from grants and public relations and product development, preservation. And it was a pretty big fiscal note that we attached to that. We felt if you're going to do this, we need to really do it right. But we weren't really sure exactly what the focus was. And some of these areas were being done off in marketing in DNR as well, but many were in need of additional attention. So one of the things, Stephen, I think you talked about this with your experience with other states, we surveyed all of the other states to find out, what are other states doing, because this is obviously a bit of a national trend in creating an office of outdoor recreation, and there is a lot of different -- we found that there's really no one model and one that necessarily works. Sometimes it's an individual, sometimes it is part of a separate task force, sometimes it's restructuring of an organization. But there's really no one solution that we found that really fits exactly what we want to do. So what we -- I talked to Sarah about this at the time the legislation was being developed, and we thought instead of -- we support the idea of creating an office of outdoor recreation, but we need to first find out what exactly we want to accomplish and what success could we potentially have, what are the opportunities, what are the needs, what are the gaps, what is already being done. And we felt that we needed a plan. And the best way to do that is to convene a task force and to get thought from all of you. So Sarah talked a little bit about the purpose of this task force, but we want to determine where are the opportunities and where we can collaborate in different ways. And there's a lot of things that we could potentially accomplish, there's a lot on the plate. You all have a lot of different perspectives. But I think you have some great ideas. The other thing I guess I wanted to mention too is that early on in my introduction I talked about the work that I've done with public and private partnerships, et cetera. And I just want to emphasize that government can definitely be a strong player in this, but government isn't the only solution. There are opportunities for us to work together in unique ways in terms of public and private partnerships. And, so, that's, I think, what we can do with this group. We can work with you from the different private sector, from all the different groups that are represented here to really think about this in a new way, to get, as Sarah mentioned, results that are very tangible, things that we can actually accomplish, that it isn't just a report that gets filed away somewhere that someone looks at 20 years later. So we may not agree on everything that we come up with, but I think this group really can come up with concrete, actionable things that we can make a difference on. So I guess I just wanted to close real quickly by, again, expressing my appreciation to all of you for all of your efforts to be a part of this during this really unprecedented time. When we started this, we had no idea that we'd be doing a WebEx call like we are doing today. And we had no idea what COVID-19 is going to have on our society. But, you know, when we started we talked about how important outdoor recreation is to the state, and, if anything, this crisis has just emphasized, to me, how even more important it is than maybe some people realize. It is what's giving us access to our natural resources, our outdoors, our recreation, our health, our connections and things like that. So that's why I think it's just so important for us to collaborate, how we could even make this better for future generations, for current as well as future. I had earlier mentioned too that I worked with a number of -- well, I work with a number of different administrations. I remember something that former Governor Dayton had in his office, it was a sign that read, I probably got this wrong, but it was that none of us is as smart as all of us. And I think there's a lot to that in terms of what we're trying to do. We don't have all the answers, but together I think we can. And I know Governor Walz believes in these sentiments as well. So I look forward to working with all of you. I hope you find it worthwhile as well. In between meetings, too, if any of you want to reach out to me or to Sarah at any time with any additional thoughts or concerns, I encourage you to do that. And, again, I just want to thank you. And hope this process can be as rewarding for you as it is for the entire state for current as well as future generations to come. So that's about it. I guess I'll turn it back over to you. >> Gratia: Thank you, John, thank you, Sarah, so much for sharing that important background information. Because we got a little bit of a late start, we're going to change the agenda just a little bit. Next we were going to go over the draft charter, but we are going to skip that for now and we'll come back to it at the end of the meeting if there's time. If not, we'll be emailing that out to you and then we'll go over it in detail at the May meeting. So for now, we're going take a little pause, giving folks a chance to take care of any needs that they have, stretch their legs. And then we'll come back to further discuss, have a group discussion about expectations. So looking at my clock, it's 10:42 right now, why don't we get back -- 10:43 -- let's come back, we'll just say 10:50 to make it easy and then we'll get started. So, yeah, take care of your needs now and be back at 10:50 to continue the conversation. Thank you, everyone. [ break ] >> Gratia: All right, everyone, if we can all come back. So, thanks, everyone, for bearing with the shifting agenda. So now that we're all back, the next part of the agenda is talking about shared expectations. And, so, as you all recall, Arielle Courtney and I conducted brief phone calls with all of the task force members shortly after you were selected to serve. This call, of course, was to welcome to you the task force but also to hear your expectations, hopes and fears as it relates to this process. We understand that this task force is made up of a lot of different outdoor recreation interests and perhaps members have different ideas on how this process will go and what will be accomplished. We wanted to share this information with you all and hear your reactions as a way to proactively address expectations and concerns and work towards creating common goals and getting on the same page. I sent out this information to you all last week and asked you to reflect on this information. In the original agenda, we had some time for some question and answers and kind of reactions to what you had all heard so far this morning either from each other or from the Commissioner or Director Edman, and, so, I was thinking that since we kind of had to alter that, as you share your expectations and kind of what you found interesting when you reflected on what other people had to say, you can also consider things you've heard this morning as you share with others. So I thought it would be great if we could do a little bit of a round robin and give everybody a chance to share their reactions. I would really love to hear from everyone during this time. So please keep in mind as you share that, again, you can use the chat function to get in line if you want to respond to something somebody says. And know that, you know, we may not walk away from this conversation with a full resolution. Rather, it's just a starting point to begin towards further understanding each other and working towards common goals. We do have two task force members that aren't able to unmute themselves. So Matt and Mark, I was wondering if one of you would be willing to kick it off with sharing your reactions to the information that I had sent out last week. If you want to indicate in the chat, if you'd be willing to kick it off. [ pause ] I'm not seeing anything from the chat. So if there is another member who wouldn't mind kicking it off, kind of reacting to what you thought about when you read some of the reactions -- or some of the other expectations that fellow task force members had or anything you heard today you want to comment on. [ pause ] >> Greg: Gratia, this is Greg Lais. >> Gratia: Hi, Greg. >> Greg: Forgive me, I don't recall getting something from you with shared expectations. I just looked and I saw the emails for the surveys. But maybe that went in my spam filter. I don't know if anyone else got that or not. >> Katy: Hi, this is Katy Friesz with Winnebago Industries. I did see it. It was sent maybe last week with the meeting prep materials. I guess I'll just kick off with a couple of the things that I thought were interesting. Overall I think there's a lot of alignment, which is excellent. A couple of things that, you know, I think we have been -- have been addressed already is context will be really helpful, so not overanalyzing, right, or being paralyzed by analysis but having some really thoughtful context about what other states are doing or what each of our organizations might have some data that's pertinent, so I think sharing as we go through the process. I also liked the idea around making sure that we had a structured process but also inclusive. So I think those were a couple of the main things that I would just kick off in saying. Really glad to see a lot of alignment and also I guess I would echo the value of the public engagement and potentially looking at how we do go about some additional community listening. Thank you. >> Gratia: Thank you, Katy. Hold on, Matt, while I unmute you. >> Matt: Can you hear me okay? >> Gratia: Yes. >> Matt: Excellent. I think the big thing for me, I really liked to see the theme of collaboration in here. As you guys have noted several times, we've got a really diverse group of organizations and people here and that's an incredible accomplishment right there. I'm glad to see all the focus on collaboration. Want to contribute to that in any way. I don't know that I really have anything further to talk about as a group or add to the list or anything. I just think that's going to be the key to all of this. We've similarly seen how these programs work in other states and that collaboration is such an incredibly important part of the whole process. So looking forward to contributing to that. >> Gratia: Thank you, Matt. I think I see a note from JR, you can jump in when you're ready, JR. JR: Yes, sure, thanks, Gratia. You know, I would pick up where Matt just left off in terms of collaboration. Hearing folks talk about their backgrounds and what their objectives are for the task force's work, I'm just struck by, you know, clearly deep-felt ideas around collaboration, despite the significant diversity and varied interests that we bring to the table. So I just wanted to touch on that. And I think that's going to be one of the things that makes us strongest. You know, also interesting, and I think, you know, one of the things that I hope we can accentuate is that Minnesota is a very diverse outdoor recreation environment from, you know, the plains to range, you know, and everywhere in between, the bluff country in the southeast, so on and so forth, I think we bring a lot of very diverse communities are opportunities for us to work together and -- diverse opportunities for us to highlight what a great opportunity Minnesota is and what great opportunities we have. And finally, I think, Director Edman mentioned public/private/nonprofit partnerships. And clearly we all represent stakeholders in each of those three areas and I think looking for ways to maximize each of our own individual talents and experiences, not only just with the outdoors generally but even the organizations that we represent can be a lot of value and then, finally, hopefully giving the DNR staff and the folks from Explore Minnesota ideas on how to bring these experiences to life. You know, as I was listening, I was going through the Explore Minnesota website a little bit and they just do a tremendous job, I think, of laying out what Minnesota has to offer for outdoor recreation and we've got people on this call who are -- have backgrounds in marketing, social media, a myriad of different ways to reach people of diverse backgrounds and experiences and I just think we've got a great opportunity to bring our minds together and figure out good ways to advise those folks from the DNR and Explore Minnesota on how to do this at the highest level possible because, again, we do have opportunities to highlight Minnesota and to leverage these resources to make sure that people know everything that Minnesota has to offer. >> Gratia: Thank you, JR. We do have -- thanks, everybody, for submitting comments that you're ready to share. I'm just going to share the order because it looks like these chats, they're all private. So Mary Bauer, you're next, followed by Hansi, then Asha, Perry and then Sarah. So thank you. Oh, and then Breanne will be after Sarah. So, Mary, you have the floor next. >> Mary: Thank you. This is Mary. I am one of the only members of this task force not representing a company but more here kind of as an individual. And I love the idea of collaboration. I think we really have to consider the -- [ indiscernible ] considering long-term sustainability and also supporting our nature and natural resources. I think as a group we're a very diverse group. [ audio cutting out ] Shared goals, I really like that idea. And we need a structured starting point, and then I think the biggest thing I would like to see is breaking down the barriers to participation in outdoor recreation. And thank you again. I'm done. >> Gratia: Thank you, Mary. Hansi. >> Hansi: So, yeah, I think I'm going to probably echo a few of the points that were already made. But when I look at the list that you sent out, I feel really good about all the things that are on it. And I do feel that it was a great job that you all did in structuring the commission. It feels -- it does feel like there's a great diversity, both of people and of activities and interests and perspectives. I would actually echo also the need to just add to the list, maybe it's under concerns and outcomes, of that stewardship aspect, just the thought that one thing we are seeing from the COVID response is how many people are actually going outdoors and the capacity of the places of which they're going to and that we really need to figure out what stewardship looks like. The power of outdoor recreation is really powerful and power, as we know, both has positive things and negative things. And as a person that lives literally on the doorway of Jay Cooke State Park right now it's amazing to see the massive amount of people that descended upon Jay Cooke the last couple of weeks. As a local, it's a little scary to see that capacity and also to see that that amount of traffic is coming through the little town of Carlton that I live in. And there's really no way for the small community to access any benefit from that at this point, not only because of the virus but even if it were not the virus, there's no mechanism for them to kind of harness the power of that tourism. So how do we give the tools to these communities to both benefit but also protect themselves is something I'd love to see added to that. Thanks. >> Gratia: Thank you, Hansi. Asha. >> Asha: Yeah. Can you hear me? >> Gratia: Yes. >> Asha: Okay, great. So one of the things that I was really excited to see somebody had put on there was, like, creating the connections between the metro and greater Minnesota. I feel like, you know, there's a lot of folks doing a lot of really great work in the metro examine there's a lot of folks in the metro who are serving who haven't been outside of the metro. So really figuring out, like, you know, just opportunities and ways to really work together so that it can be, like, an exchange or it can be more fluid for more folks, right, because that will increase our environmental stewards. And then I guess I'll follow what Hansi said of adding another thing. Of just that recreation can look different to different people, right? So maybe it's, you know, mountain biking at Cuyuna is one thing and also like, you know, taking a walk around the neighborhood like Commissioner Strommen was talking about, right? Or maybe it's sitting outside, you know, under an oak tree and reading a book, like all of those things can be considered recreation, in my opinion. And, so, that is something that I would like, you know, our group to consider is that it doesn't always have to be, you know, what we maybe traditionally think as outdoor recreation because it could potentially reach a wider range of people by validating their experiences. Yeah. So I think, yeah, my biggest thing, though, is just being really excited by, yeah, the opportunity of thinking of how can the metro and greater Minnesota, how can we really work together and get folks more connected not only in their neighborhoods but outside of their neighborhoods too. Thank you. >> Gratia: Thank you for sharing. Perry, it looks like you're up next to share. >> Perry: Yeah. Thank you. Well I'd like to echo what Asha said. Again, understanding barriers, you know, you can be blind to what the barriers are for recreation. So I think that's important for our group to understand these barriers. Also what I was struck more by is when you put the task force together, I'm embarrassed to say, but I didn't know a lot of these groups existed. And, so, I thought I was recreational smart, let's say, for outdoor recreation in Minnesota. So we need to find a place, a base spot to find all these groups, what they do, how they put people into outdoor recreation and connect. So that's about all I have right now. Thank you. >> Gratia: Thank you for sharing, Perry. Sarah, would you like to share? >> Sarah: Sure. Thanks, everybody. And I would just like to give snaps to everybody who has spoken so far. I really agree with what everyone has said. One thing that I think I would kind of call out here in the sort of list that you brought is sort of the idea of understanding all of Minnesota's outdoor recreation resources. I would almost encourage us to think kind of beyond, you know, sort of this outdoor recreation space, kind of what are the opportunities for partnership outside of, you know, the outdoor recreation sort of inside club here. And I guess, you know, one example I've heard, many many people mentioned in their opening remarks about the health benefits, the mental health benefits of spending time in nature, I was excited to see a pediatrician as part of the group, that's really a great voice to have at the table, but, you know, I think right now what we're seeing is that our parks and green space and neighborhoods really are part of our public health infrastructure, but it's not funded as such. And we don't -- you know, preparedness, kind of what you mentioned about -- several people just mentioned sort of the parks not necessarily and communities not necessarily being ready for so many people coming in to park spaces. So I think that there's an opportunity for us here to think about how do we partner outside of and sort of pollinate with other agencies across the state of Minnesota to really ensure that our parks and green spaces are set up to perform that really critical public health need and to meet that public health need. >> Gratia: Thank you, Sarah. Breanne, it looks like you're up next. >> Breanne: Thank you. One thing I reflected on as I read the summary, many people talked about access and then there was also another kind of body of response on, like, a desire to educate or inform citizens about opportunities. I thought that was -- I spent some time thinking about the access barriers and the difference between wanting to and not being able to and, like, being able to but not wanting to. I thought that was interesting. And, you know, speaking of all the populations who might not consider outdoor recreation includes them and how do we help broaden that definition, kind of echoing what Asha said about, you know, how we define outdoor recreation and a wide range of experiences. And I'm hopeful that our recommendations are kind of those Universal Design ones, where they maybe -- [ indiscernible ] [ audio cutting out ] all groups and all citizens increase access. Thank you. >> Gratia: Thank you, Breanne. Aaron, I see that you sent me a comment, would you like to share with the group your thoughts? He may be having trouble connecting. I can read what Aaron send meet. He said, create a better understood process for statewide user groups to create/begin a collective dialogue for everyone at the table. Deliver great outdoors for our residents first and to the highest level possible which turbo boosts our tourism engine. In turn, involve our resident outdoor enthusiasts to be investors instead of just customers. Lastly, communicate as one body with many easy-to-access regional amenities. Thank you, Aaron. Greg, I see that you sent in a comment. Would you like to share with the group? >> Greg: Yeah, thank you, Gratia. You know, I was thinking, listening to everybody here, great group of people, and, you know, don't know everyone but no some, look forward to getting together with all of you, but, you know, we're all Minnesotans. And I was thinking of Governor Walz's, you know, One Minnesota theme, you know, during his campaign, which certainly seems to be the case here with this group of people and, really, with all people in outdoor recreation. My point was, you know, I've just, over the years, seen, you know, conflicts between different things in outdoor recreation and sometimes I would describe that as, you know, the muscle versus the motor crowd or whatever. But I just hope that we can -- and it seems like with this group we can -- value all forms of outdoor recreation and really work together to promote every sector within the outdoor recreation industry. And that seems to be a theme from the document which I found -- thank you -- but I just wanted to put that out there as a hope and wish of mine. So thank you. >> Gratia: Thanks for sharing, Greg. It looks like we reached the end of the line in terms of comments go, and I think we've heard from about half of everyone. I would love to hear from some additional folks. So, you know, please jump in if you have something to add to the conversation. And even if you've already spoken, feel free to go. Oh, it looks like Ray. Go ahead, Ray, thank you. Ray: Can you hear me, you guys? >> Gratia: Yes. Ray: So, as I said, powerful group and I was remiss not to say that I'm really honored to be part of this in representing the metro and kids and whoever else I represent. But one of the things that we've had a difficult time with over at the Loppet Foundation is that we pride ourselves in really working with youth on the north side and trying to, you know, trying to develop them and getting them outside through skiing and mountain biking, other things that we do. But since the schools have been out, it's been extremely difficult to get ahold of them and it's been really warm and fun doing a lot of Zooms and the kids are engaging. So it's been leading me to kind of think about, you know, how do we continue these relationships because the relationships is everything with most everybody, but, in particular, I think once you get into youth, relationships are everything and they're craving for it. So how do we start promoting new healthy activities in light of where we're at in the state of Minnesota in regards to enhancing new ways for them to get outside. It's been very difficult for some of our kids to get outside because they just don't have access. So how do we find new ways to promote the great outdoors in Minnesota in light of everything that's going on. So that's something that's been on my mind. So thank you. >> Gratia: Thanks for sharing, Ray. Stephen: This is Stephen, I could jump in. Can you guys hear me? >> Gratia: Yes, thanks, Stephen. Stephen: I'm really interested in kind of the macro process and timeline and goals in just making this process and group as efficient as possible. And, so, kind of boring, but I just feel like there's so many -- we need to balance this sort of collaboration between a lot of cooks in the kitchen. So I'm just curious around, what is kind of the macro timeline and what are the goals and KPIs and what are the guardrails also? Because this topic of outdoor recreation conservation, everything that falls under this purview, is so broad that it can get to the point where you lose focus. So that's maybe my top concern, I think a challenge that we have heading into this. >> Gratia: Yeah, thank you for sharing that, Stephen. I think, you're right, that stuff is really important to kind of ground the work and understand, like, how to get from point A to point B. I'm going to real quick see if Randolph Briley, who's going to be one of the co-chairs, wants to step in and comment on some of that stuff real quick. >> Randolph: Can you hear me? >> Gratia: Very lightly. >> Randolph: Can you hear me now? >> Gratia: It's a little better, yeah. >> Randolph: Sorry, I'm using cheap iPad -- or iPhone headphones. So as far as KPIs, no, we haven't determined those yet. I hope we can work on those collaboratively as a team. But with regards to guardrails, I think, again, that's another potentially iterative process for us. But I think a few, we tried to lay out a few in the charter and I think Commissioner Strommen and John Edman mentioned a few at the outset during the background section. So one of those guardrails is the term "actionable recommendations." So the goal of this group is not really to create new jobs, basically. It's to come up with ideas that we can actually act on, to take into account -- take into account the economics, the politics, the societal impacts, and come up with ideas that we can move forward on and that are actionable. A few other guardrails that I think Commissioner Strommen brought up when she was talking about what our focus doesn't include, we're not promoting any one outdoor recreation industry or organization over others. This is a collaborative effort. Contentious policy initiatives that pit one constituency against another are also outside of our purview. And, so, those also serve as some guardrails, as well as some of the purposes and values that are in the charter that we'll be sharing with everyone today and hope to talk about it further in the May meeting. That's all I have for now. >> Gratia: Yeah, thank you, Randolph, for jumping in. Hopefully that was helpful to the group a little bit. As Randolph mentioned I think, you know, as you read the charter, we kind of get into a little bit more, some of those guardrails will become better defined. It looks like Joe said he can share some comments with the group. Joe. You're up. >> Joe: How's that? Can you hear me okay? >> Gratia: Yes, I can. Oh, it looks like you may have muted yourself. There you go. >> Joe: How's that? Better? >> Gratia: That's better, thank you. >> Joe: First off, I agree with many of the comments said. You know, you know, I think it would be helpful, at least for myself, to have a better handle on, like we talked about, what other states are doing. You know, kind of like take the best, leave the rest. Maybe I could look for -- towards you guys for providing us the education, whether it's documentation or discussions or whatever the case might be. It's one of those things, you know, the more you know, the more you realize you don't know. I think that would be helpful. You know, Covey talked about seek first to understand and then be understood and, again, there's a lot of different interests, a lot of different activities, a lot of different demographic groups. You know, I think that that's going to be important to this group as well to, once again, respect everybody's lens, right? You know, everybody looks at the world a different way, based on probably 10,000 things. And that's going to be important to, I think, pull this off. Thirdly, you know, quality rang out. It's not just the opportunities, but it's quality opportunities. That was important to me, kind of an ah-ha. And, finally, it's one thing to develop a plan, that's going to be very important to develop the right plan to reach the right groups of people with the right messaging. But you know what? Communicating, finding a way to communicate and motivate our ideas to the right demographics is going to be very important also. It's one thing to make a plan, but if we don't get it across to the right people, it doesn't really matter, does it? So the communication piece of this is going to be, in my opinion, as important as the actual development. And that's it. Thank you. >> Gratia: Thank you, Joe, for your thoughts. Molli, I see that you sent in a couple thoughts. Do you want to chime in and share with the group? Oh, okay. I think -- let me try and unmute Molli real quick so she can share with everyone. One second, please. Okay, Molli, you should be good. Sorry about that. >> Molli: Oh, yeah. I see I can talk now. Okay. I agreed with Joe. I was going to mention that I think we should focus on some of the programs that have been done in other states. I read a couple studies that have looked at, you know, giving state park passes for free to some lower economic status families, but they have, like, a 50% fill rate. So just trying to understand what some of the barriers are to programs that have already been rolled out so we don't, you know, focus on things that may not have the greatest impact. And then also one other thought I had was, you know, with the COVID crisis happening in April, the springtime with 60-degree sunny days, the parks seem to be overwhelmed and overcrowded right now. But I wonder what the impact of the state parks would have been if this would have kind of escalated in the middle of winter with, you know, negative below freezing temperatures and, so, try and encourage people to access the parks and outdoor activities when it's wintertime. I know that when I have a lot of families in clinic and it's starting to get warm out, they'll say, like, okay, now we can finally get outside, I think to myself, okay, how do we remove some of the barriers to get these families outdoors in the winter. I know the sunlight and the warm weather is a big part of it, but how do we encourage a change in mindset to families to really access fun activities during the wintertime as well. >> Gratia: Thanks for sharing, Molli. Once again, we've reached the end of our line. I think there's a few other people who haven't spoken yet, so I would just like to open up an opportunity. I think we have just over ten minutes left of this portion to kind of share thoughts and reactions to expectations. >> Megan: This is Megan Christianson with Visit Grand Rapids. >> Gratia: Hi, Megan, thanks for sharing. >> Megan: Sorry. I lost connection there for a while but I'm back now. So I think the biggest thing for me is the effectiveness of communication. So we had done -- the DNR and Explore Minnesota did a press release announcing this task force. I think one of the important things is to continue to keep communication with the average person, not just the task force, but keeping communication of what the task force is doing, as we move forward with coming up with new ideas. I think that it's really important to keep that information out to the general public to let them know that this group does exist and we are working on their benefit as well, not just our individual organizations or areas that we represent. >> Gratia: Yeah, thanks for sharing that, Megan. That reminded me of something Commissioner Strommen said about just like how we really want to engage the broader public and recognize that not every outdoor recreation interest is sitting at this 20-person table. So I think your point that that will be really important as we continue this process. Would anybody else like to share? Well, thanks, everyone, for sharing so far. I really -- one thing that I appreciated hearing was just, like, such positivity and excitement to collaborate and work through some of these issues and opportunities Minnesota has to really be a leader in outdoor rec. I'm wondering, you know, I heard some really good ideas about, you know, what we can do to address member concerns. I'm wondering if anybody else has any thoughts on, you know, based on some of the concerns that people brought up, if anybody has any good ideas on how to address those, whether they relate to communicating with one another or kind of narrowing a scope that the task force can all agree on. I would just love to hear member reactions, how to address some of those concerns. Stephen: Stephen again, here, so, I mean, I guess from my side, again, just seeing a timeline would be really great and maybe there is one, but I don't remember seeing it. And just our macro goals to start with would just frame this up. And then kind of work backward from there and maybe divide and conquer a little bit as per people's connections and time and expertise and capabilities. So just maybe some, like, macro organization of this whole function is I feel like what we need at this point. And that kind of needs to come from the top down because there's just a lot of people here and we need direction. So that is my thought. >> Can I jump in real quick, Gratia? >> Gratia: Yeah, thanks, Randolph. >> Randolph: As far as the timeline, right now we're planning on, hopefully, delivering the actionable recommendations that this task force comes up with to the DNR and to Explore Minnesota by December of this year. That's the goal that we set out thus far. It's fairly aggressive compared to what some other states have done. But we wanted to make sure that it was lined up so that because these recommendations are hopefully actionable, that we might be able to do things in the next legislative session. That's all. I'm done. >> Gratia: Thanks, Randolph. To your point again, Stephen, you know, as Randolph mentioned, we have this goal of December to come up with these recommendations. At our next meeting, which I'll talk about a little bit at the end, you know, we'll be diving in more to kind of flesh out specifically what the group -- what kind of information the group needs in order to move forward, which I think will really help set the stage for what the subsequent meetings look like. And, so, hopefully there will be some more clarity on that, especially after the second meeting. But, yeah, I think that's a very valid point, that it really helps to have that information to understand how we're going to get to those actionable recommendations. I'm going to give it, you know, a little bit of time to see if there's any last comments before we move on. I think I will actually -- we're running now a little bit of ahead of schedule, so I'm thinking we'll open it up to see if there's any public comments or questions out there. And then if time allows, we can jump back in and just quickly go over the charter before wrapping up the meeting. So I'll just give it a little bit of time, so jump in if you have any last comments related to this part. [ pause ] >> Greg: This is Greg, Greg Lais. You know, I love the action items orientation, the statement of not having it be a moon shot is also very reaffirming and reassuring. One of the things I'm thinking here is that with a collection of people here as involved and as talented as they are in representing different organizations, I'll bet every one has three to five action items that they're already doing, you know, to meet the broad set of goals of the task force. And I would just encourage people to think about what they are doing or what they've seen done and be ready to, you know, express those or put those out somewhere in kind of an idea corral or something. Just as a small example, you know, we're working with Minneapolis Public Schools on credit recovery, kids in summer school, with the idea of using outdoor recreation infused academics to get kids excited and engaged about learning. And I think that for all of us on this call, if we stop for a little while, think about those specific things that we're doing or that we're aware of and be ready to put those forward, I think that would be really helpful. So that's what I had to say. Thank you. >> Gratia: Thanks, Greg. Thanks, everyone, for sharing. It was really awesome. I was taking vigorous notes while you all were sharing because you all have such great ideas, I'm really excited to see if some of these things come to fruition over the coming months. We are going to move on to public questions or comments. So if anybody who's participating as a public participant has any comments or questions they wanted to ask, now is the time. You can use the Q & A function for WebEx to answer some of your questions -- or to ask some of your questions. So let me... It looks like we have a couple. So we have Amanda John Kinsey with a question. She said, thank you for the wonderful conversation. I would so appreciate hearing from this brain trust about how outdoor recreation and tourism can offer communities that are in economic transitions, new opportunities to support sustainable place-based jobs. Thank you, Amanda, for the comment. I think, you know, this is probably something we don't have an answer for today, but hopefully this will be something that the task force wrestles with and we'll have some good ideas about moving forward. Jill wrote in a comment. She said, as for the states, there is an NGA outdoor learning network, additionally, there are 16 other states with offices and/or task forces. They're actually all set up in a pretty different manner but could definitely use as a resource. Thanks for that information, Jill. That will be something that I'm sure we'll be digging in on as we look for best practices about how to move this process forward. Holly Larson asks, will handouts -- excuse me -- will handouts be made available to those of us participating as a listener to the public? Yes. So, the agenda is up on our Outdoor Recreation Task Force web page. There will be a link to that on the last slide. And then we'll also be publishing minutes related to that. And, so, those will be made available to the public. And as we move forward with different opportunities for public engagement, that Outdoor Recreation Task Force web page is the best place to stay up to date on what the task force is discussing and to get involved with task force discussion. So that looks like kind of the end of the list of the questions from the public. I'll give it another minute or so to see if anything comes in. [ pause ] Holly asked another question. What about the materials you discussed today, the draft charter, the summary of the expectations? So the charter will be up on the web page. As for the summary of expectations, I'm not sure if that document will be made public yet, but I will be sure to keep you posted on that, Holly. And then we had a comment from Edrick. He said, I think anything determined by the task force needs adequate resources behind it, especially education. Thank you, Edrick, for that comment. Randolph, I don't know if you wanted to jump in and expand on anything that I mentioned or any of the questions that came in? >> Randolph: No, I don't have anything to add. I think you answered them great. >> Gratia: Ray Aponte, task force member, asked a question, will the public questions and comments be housed someplace to refer to? We are recording the meeting and then we will be receiving a transcript from our live captioner, so all the public comments and questions will be captured and will be a resource related to our answers to those. Thanks, Ray, good question. All right. So it looks like we've regained a little bit of time. Thanks, everyone, for your questions and comments. Randolph, I'm hoping I can turn it over to you to, since we did recover a little bit of time, to walk through the charter real quick. >> Randolph: Sure. I'd be happy to. And, sorry, I didn't introduce myself previously when I answered, I just jumped in. So my name is Randolph Briley, I'm the special assistant to the Commissioner at the DNR. I'm not originally from Minnesota, but I spent the entirety of my career focused on natural resources and outdoor recreation policy for Minnesota. The previous ten years before 2018 I spent in Washington, D.C., as the natural resource staffer for then Congressman Tim Walz. I'm excited to have a chance to be a part of this conversation and we wanted to have a quick opportunity to go through briefly the charter. There's no urgency to adopt this today. The task force can take time to consider, offer feedback. Feel free to send any feedback to myself or Gratia that you'd like. I'd be happy to get on a call as well to discuss it further. But for the first few sections, the purpose and value sections of the charter, Commissioner Strommen and Director Edman pretty much laid it all out. So the basic purpose -- the basic two purposes of the task force is to figure out a way to bring measured growth, increase in equitable access and a higher quality of outdoor recreation outdoor opportunities to Minnesotans and our visitors. Number two is how to organize and implement this collaborative work going forward. The result will be a product, hopefully, that we can deliver to DNR and Explore Minnesota by December with actionable recommendations. Those recommendations will become actionable once we have buy-in from the entire task force, once we have buy-in from the public. These recommendations -- I think a theme earlier in the conversation was the importance of public engagement throughout these conversations over the next several months. We look at this public engagement as kind of a hub and spokes model where this task force is the hub and various other public engagement opportunities from phone calls to people you know to formalized meetings that we might hold in the southeast with various interests and the entire gamut of engagement opportunities are the spokes and we want to make sure that as many voices as possible are informing this work because that's how the recommendations become actionable. So as far as the values, Commissioner Strommen ran through these. So I'll be really quick. It's quality of life, equitable access, environmental stewardship, and economic development. So getting a little more into the weeds of the task force, the specific activities that are laid out in the charter are, one, to engage with the public and hold a series of conversations about priorities and opportunities for future collaboration around outdoor recreation in Minnesota. Like I said, the task force is just one component of that public engagement. We're the hub. But we'll have many spokes. The goal is to conduct a needs assessment for outdoor recreation in Minnesota to inform our actionable recommendations, to discuss priorities and opportunities for future collaborative efforts, and to provide those recommendations by December 20th. I won't go through the membership portion of the charter because we've all gone through our introductions. So the next section is on chair roles and responsibilities. As Gratia mentioned earlier, the DNR Commissioner, Sarah Strommen, will serve as honorary chair of the task force. She's appointed special assistant to the DNR commissioner, myself and Director Edman will be serving as co-chairs of the task force. The co-chair responsibilities include working with staff and facilitators to develop agendas, to appoint subcommittee members, as necessary. At least one chair or designated substitute will attend every meeting. Further, the co-chairs may consider replacement or expansion of the members for such factors that might include a member's change in organizational affiliation that is not aligned with the task force values, a member's ability or willingness to serve, the need to acquire particular expertise on a subject, perceived conflicts of interest, and a need to increase diversity. Furthermore, the task force member roles and responsibilities, this is the fun part. Members are expected to attend all meetings. They may participate in meetings via conference call if such options are available and they otherwise are not able to make the meetings in person. This is an item we might want to discuss further as a task force, is the ability to appoint proxies if you're unable to meet meetings, that's an item we can discuss. Task force members are expected to review materials provided before all meetings and be prepared to participate in all meetings. The materials will be provided electronically with as much lead time as possible. Members are expected to represent themselves and the organization which has authorized their membership. The task force members have a responsibility to keep organizations and interest groups that they represent informed about the actions and the outcomes of the task force process. And, finally, task force members are encouraged to represent their own personal and professional viewpoints about the process. The final few sections of the charter include engagement of others, we've already gone over that pretty much. Task force members are expected to consider their input as they review issues and develop actionable recommendations. We can't overemphasize enough how important your role as task force members will be to engaging others. DNR and EMT can only do a certain amount. It's imperative that we can force multiply with the task force members on this team to engage as many people in the public, and as many interests as possible to bring those voices into the discussion. Finally, subcommittees may be appointed by the co-chairs. Project management and administrative support will be provided by the DNR. And a huge shout-out right now to both our team at Parks and Trails, Gratia, Arielle, Erika, Shannon, Laura, Rachel Hopper, everyone at Parks and Trails, for all the work they've done so far and to Leann at EMT for all the help and guidance she's given us to get us to this point. Finally, meetings will, as you probably already know, the task force will meet regularly beginning today, meetings will be scheduled for dates, times that maximize the ability for members to participate and all meetings, communications and work products will be public. So that is the charter. We will share that today and, like I said, take the time to ingest, to consider the charter because while we won't buy in on the recommendations, we also won't buy in on the charter, we won't buy in on everything we produce here as a task force. So feel free to send feedback to myself or Gratia and we're always available to discuss further. So, Gratia, that's really all I have right now for the charter. If there's any questions I can try to answer, I will do so. But we may have to put a pause and come back to it. >> Gratia: Thank you, Randolph, for running through that. Yeah. I think just kind of given the time and wanting to give people enough time to comment and reflect on that and maybe see it in front of them, we'll pause on comments from that and then, like Randolph said, we'll be sending that out today. And if you have any thoughts on it before the next meeting, feel free to contact either one of us and we'll be sure to go over that in more detail and finalize it at our May meeting. So with that, I'm just going to get into some final details. So we will have a homework assignment for the task force members in between meetings one and two. We're asking you to complete this a little bit ahead of the next meeting, just to give us some time to kind of go through your responses and get organized for the next meeting. So I just wanted to give a little info on this assignment here and then I'll be sending it out later today. So the first part of it relates to establishing group norms. So asking you to think about how you want to conduct yourselves as task force members and how you want to work together. And the second half of the assignment, kind of the meat of it really relates to identifying task force priorities. So we'll be asking you to reflect on your top areas of interest and identify those in the homework assignment, using the lens, you know, what are Minnesota's opportunities and what can Minnesota do better. And we'll also ask you to help us brainstorm what information you feel like you need in order to identify Minnesota's strengths and opportunities as it relates to each area of interest that you identify. So we'll be sending that assignment out later today and you have about two weeks to complete that. We encourage you to, you know, work with others in your network to think about different areas of interest that you would really like the task force to focus on and then we'll really dive into those at the next meeting. I just wanted to give a quick update on the summer schedule. Thank you, all, for providing your input on what dates do and do not work for you. As Randolph mentioned in the charter that, you know, we are going to do our best to accommodate as many folks as we can and we can work through alternate solutions if you're not able to attend a meeting. We do have a tentative date for June, and I'll be emailing these out as well, but it's June 25th. And then we do have dates for August. And for August we're planning a two-day meeting for August 26th and 27th. We're still kind of working out some dates for July, but those will hopefully be worked out shortly. And if you're not able to attend these dates, summer's busy, we know, so like I said, we'll figure out a way to keep you up to date and informed on these task force conversations. Also we do have -- I do have a meeting evaluation that I'll be sending out as well, asking for your feedback of the meeting so we can continue to be -- to improve. I feel as a millennial very humbled by technology today. So thank you, all, for bearing with that kind of rough start to the meeting. But I'm glad we all got online and were able to meet today. So a reminder that our next meeting is scheduled for just under three weeks, it's Monday, May 18th, from 1:00 to 4:00 via WebEx. The link to register for that will be available soon, both on our website and then emailed out to all the task force members. So look for that. And, you know, with just kind of the uncertainty with COVID-19 right now, we are just going to have to be really flexible as we move forward in terms of our ability to meet in person. It's hard to know what life is going to look like three weeks from now, let alone, you know, for our June meeting. So we're hoping for the best, but we'll just all have to keep in mind that, you know, we just need to do what is safest for us all and that may be continuing to meet remotely until it's safe to meet in person. So with that, I just want to put out, see if there's any final questions from task force members before we sign off for the day. [ pause ] All right. Hearing none, I just want to thank you so much, everyone, for attending and sharing today. We're super excited that we've kicked off this process and excited for conversations to come. If you have any ideas, thoughts, concerns or questions in the meantime, feel free to reach out to me. We do have a dedicated email for the task force. So questions and comments can go there. And I'm looking forward to working with you and, yeah, look for some communications from me later today with regards to all those things I mentioned just a bit ago. Thank you, everyone. Have a great day. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Nice to meet everybody. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, everybody. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, all. >> Thank you. DISCLAIMER This text is being provided in a lightly edited draft format. Any reproduction, publication, or other use of this CART file without the express written consent of the captioner is strictly prohibited. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility, and this lightly edited CART file may not be a totally verbatim record of the meeting. Due to the live nature of the meeting, some names and/or terms may be misspelled. This text may also contain phonetic attempts at sounds and words that were spoken, and environmental sounds that occurred during the meeting.