Telling Our Story

I attended the Two Rivers Economic Growth’s annual meeting last week. The guest speaker was Hal Stearns, noted Montana historian, who really has encyclopedic knowledge of our state. His presentation, “Montana Towns: Then, Now, and Tomorrow,” which he delivered with passion and energy, was full of anecdotal facts about the many towns across Montana. He talked in depth about the need for our towns to “tell their story” and gave many examples of towns that do a good job and towns who need to improve.

This notion of telling our story resonates deeply with me. I was lucky enough to get to learn some of the Valley County story when I first came here in the early 90s when Boeing was buying the operational portion of former Glasgow AFB. We were in negotiation to purchase the base for over three years. My superiors at Boeing kept asking us “Why is this taking so long?” We learned early on that negotiating over the phone and/or sending FAX messages (remember this was prior to email!) to the Commissioners did not move the process. It was not until we figured out that we had to be here, in person, to look the stakeholders in the eye, that we began to understand the full impact that this purchase had on many parties.

It was not just the County Commissioners that had skin in the game here. We had the community of St. Marie, who relied on the owner of the base to provide water to the residents. Then there was the City of Glasgow, who used the lower portion of the water pipeline to supply water to the entire town of Glasgow. You can bet they both were big stakeholders. Of course, there were the many government agencies, from the FAA and GSA to the State of Montana Public Service Commission, that had requirements that all of us on both sides of the procurement process had to meet.

My Boeing procurement partner, Gerry Bresslour (a wonderful attorney and individual), and I made more than a dozen trips to Valley County in a year and a half. We got introduced to all the community leaders, both official and unofficial. We learned their stories, and they learned ours. Boeing was buying the base because we already knew that we were in the “middle of nowhere,” where we could test airplanes unhampered by air traffic, and where we could do “noise” testing with little background interference.

We all know the ending to this story. But I can tell you that we would not have been successful had all stakeholders not told their stories, and listened to others, so that we could structure a deal that met all parties’ needs. We have threats and opportunities coming at us everyday here in Valley County. Its up to us to “tell our story” and to listen to others tell theirs, so that we can meet our challenges head on, ensuring us a vibrant and prosperous future.