• Max, Nebraska, unincorporated
• Elsie, Nebraska, 153
• Haigler, Nebraska, 225
• Madrid, Nebraska, 288
• Palisade, Nebraska, 381
• Stratton, Nebraska, 427
• Trenton, Nebraska, 656
• Wauneta, Nebraska, 675
• Benkelman, Nebraska, 1193
• Grant, Nebraska, 1239
• Holyoke, Colorado, 1931
• Wray, Colorado, 1998
• Imperial, Nebraska, 2007

An implication of the population figures is that members of teams typically were already well known to one another through school and community activities. Consolidated schools meant that in some cases students were already well-acquainted across community boundaries. The Dundy County team, as an example, includes people from Benkelman, Haigler and Max.

There is little racial diversity in the area and team make-up reflected that reality. Adult members of teams, however, ranged widely in age.

As a whole, team members who participated in the workshops attended by the evaluator were enthusiastic, involved, happy to be there. Team organization was evident mainly through observations o i team assignments and responsibilities at the workshops, where it was obvious that extensive planning and sharing of tasks had been decided far in advance.

On arrival, members of the team from the host community were busy with set-up and arrangements, getting juice and pastries ready, setting up equipment, taking care of trainer needs, and on and on. When the workshop ended, a clean-up crew was just as busy, taking down tables and chairs, taking out garbage cans, vacuuming, taking down and returning equipment. At the third workshop in Stratton, when a trainer noted that the screen was quite small, a team member went out and found a larger one and had it set up by the time the workshop was to begin.

Workshops were held at various sites, principally church basements or multi-purpose rooms, and refreshments and food were plentiful. In the fifth workshop, held in Benkelman, everyone got a writing pad supplied by a local bank, and napkins, pencils and other handouts were donated by other local institutions.

Trainers at the third workshop did what was called a "Parade of Concerns," asking each team to list "serious concerns" in your community, then select one and match it with available community assets. Here is what emerged at the top of each team's list:

Palisadeiadt of Opportunity
Wheatland: Life of the School
Grant: What to do with the$ 15,000?
Holyoke: Youth/Adults Not Working Together
Trenton: Low School Enrollment
Wray: Unite Our Community Despite Our Differences
Dundy County: Lack of Job Opportunities Stratton: Declining Population
Imperial: Library Expansion
Wauneta: Lack of Leadership

At the same workshop, teams were asked to brainstorm a list of characteristics of a sustainable community, and then the lists were compared. Those items that were found repeated included more opportunities for employment, good local education, lots of recreation, safety and security, community pride, working together cooperatively, flexible and adaptable, appeal to all ages, good health care, basic services, religious variety, good technology and potential for growth.

Teams that qualified proposed projects that range from simple and low-cost to complicated and expensive. Benkelman is creating a community web page for Dundy County, with links to information on shopping, housing, jobs, youth activities, recreation, hobbies, schools, agriculture and business. The potential benefits from the web page are ambitious, perhaps a bit too ambitious:

Through the master web page and its links, we will try to attract people to the Dundy County area by promoting the quality of life available... A community web page will allow information about Dundy County to be available to people all over the world..,. We feel that a community web page will ultimately help the economy of Dundy County grow,

Students will do most of the work to set up the site. Computer equipment purchased to build and house the site will be located permanently in the Benkelman Women's Club Library, where it will be available for citizen use. B W Telcom, the local phone company, has agreed to provide free Internet service.

Team Wheatland is setting up computer training sites in both Elsie and Madrid, with Internet access at each site. The team's proposal explains that:

A community with technology programs will expand community access to available communication resources provided by services such as the Internet and community E-mail connections .... Senior citizens will have the opportunity to become technologically literate, while parents and children will also be able to use this service as a giant information and career expansion resource."

A training schedule was established, and a schedule of monthly evaluation meetings was established to monitor the project closely.

The Wray team is doing something similar, setting up what it calls a "multi-media work station" in ahighly used community building, the Wray Rehabilitation and Activities Center (WRAC), opened several years ago after an ambitious fund drive that raised more than S2 million.

By purchasing multimedia equipment and placing it in a convenient location, we will be expanding information resources and improving access to such resources outside the classroom or the office. Ideally, effective technology must be less dependent on the physical landscape and be a more universal mode of outreach to a rural community.

The WRAC is open from 6 a.m. until 9p.m. on most days.

The Grant team is taking an entirely different approach, hiring students to research grant opportunities and then a professional grant writer to develop a proposal for a project estimated to cost $200,000 to improve long distance learning, telemedicine, and economic development. Still, there's a lot of confidence in the proposal:

The MIRA Project has been very educational over the last eight months. It has encouraged a very exciting bond between the youth of our community and interested community members in the pursuit a/furthering technology in rural Nebraska.

It's apparent that in the case of three of the four qualifying teams, extensive community involvement and/or collaboration with other organizations has been a hallmark of MIRA project planning. This has been especially true in Grant and to some extent in Wray and Benkelman.