By Jay Yoo
Rural America Arts Partnership
Ken Flies
Phone; 952-322-3212
www.jonhasslertheater.org
Email; kenflies@clear.lakes.com
The Rural America Arts Partnership, (RAAP),is an innovative nonprofit community arts initiative that has captured the imagination of the area residents and reinvigorated Plainview’s Main Street. RAAP is a legal and umbrella organization for three affiliated organizations. RAAP does fund raising, all the legal and management work for all three organization. These three organizations include Jon Hassler Professional Theater, Rural America Writers’ Center, and Plainview Area History Center.
The interview was conducted with Ken Flies, who is Executive Director of RAAP. In 1995 after 35 years in the computer industry, Ken moved back home to the hill county of southeastern Minnesota, where his family has lived continuously for almost 150 years.
Since returning to Plainview, MN, Ken has been the founder and Executive Director of The Center for Rural America Arts, which established the Jon Hassler Professional Theater, the Rural America Writer’s Center and the Plainview Area History Center. Ken is also a member of the Minnesota State Historical Society.
In 1998, Ken’s poem – An Ode to a Soldier Long Forgotten – about a soldier from the Hill Country and the Tenth Minnesota, who fought at Nashville in the Civil War, won the Editor’s Choice Award of the National Library of Poetry and in 1999 the Editor’s Choice Award of the International Library of Poetry. In May 2000, Ken produced and directed an original play about soldiers from the Hill Country and their exploits at The Battle of Nashville, titled “The Guerillas from the Greenwood.” Currently, he also is a financial investment advisor and consultant to a company in Ukraine and created several other businesses in various other industries.
Jon Hassler Theater
The Jon Hassler Theater is a part of RAAP. It is located in the Center for Rural America Arts, a former International Harvester implement building on Broadway in Plainview, Minnesota. The building is one of a few thousand of similar design that populated the rural American landscape beginning in the late 1940’s. Since many of these buildings have now disappeared, it provides an appropriate setting for meeting the goals of the RAAP. This building and its uniquely characteristic architecture remind us of the hay days of family farming and small agricultural town commerce in America. The Jon Hassler Theater has 225 permanent seats and lobby exhibition space of approximately 3,000 square feet. The Theater is fully equipped with state of the art lighting and sound systems, dressing rooms and handicapped accessible restroom facilities. It is the only theater space to which the renowned Minnesota author Jon Hassler has allowed the use of his name.
(Jon Hassler Theater Homepage www.jonhasslertheater.org)
History Center
The Plainview Area History Center, an affiliate of the Rural America Arts Partnership, is committed to telling stories and preserving the history of people and events of the Plainview area, believing an understanding of the past will enrich our present and future. The Plainview Area History Center is a non-profit organization and an affiliate of the Rural America Arts Partnership. The building was purchased entirely by funds raised through the generous giving of groups and individuals. It is not a city-funded organization and receives no tax dollars. The Center relies entirely on generous gifts from organization, individuals, and grants.
The building is loaded with history. The first church to be built in Plainview, its construction in 1866 by the Methodist Society originally sported a central bell tower for an entry. Because of its large seating capacity, in the early years of the town's history the church auditorium did double duty by hosting many meetings for the city before other facilities were constructed. Several high school graduation exercises were even held here.
The Plainview Area History Center opened its doors to the public on Saturday, June 12, 1999. Guests are welcome to tour the facility and get an idea of what is planned for the Center. A Plainview timeline and newspaper clippings showed events since the beginning of the city.
The business website was developed in 2000. The Jon Hassler Theater and History center have their own website, the Writer’s Center doesn’t have a website yet. In terms of Internet use, email is used frequently as a communication in this organization. Email is frequently used as a communication tool and Internet is used for communication with customers, vendors, suppliers and other organizations. Ken also uses email to provide information and schedule programs.
Not only has the Internet been used as a communication tool, the Internet has also been used as a business tool. Business tool use includes research tool (information search, market analysis, competition analysis, newsletter), selling and buying tools for your business (website, virtual mall, affiliation), communication tool (use of chat room, discussion groups), marketing, advertising, promotion, customer service tool. Ken said, “People can actually make reservations and purchase tickets via email if they desire. As far as the theater is concerned, we use the Internet to look at what other theaters and writers groups are doing. We also do programming and ticket pricing.” Internet is used as a selling and buying tool and also customer service.
As a result, the Internet changes the way business is being done. Ken mentioned, “Oh, absolutely. I think that when we use the Internet or email, we can communicate with a number of people and also do the research work. Things have been changed dramatically” In dealing with the clients or customers, they sometimes give positive and/or negative comments concern the website and business. When there is a complaint about business, Ken generally follows up by email or telephone..
The website is designed and maintained by the same individual in his organization. Ken said, “We have an individual who created the website and that individual makes modifications when needed.” In the organization, one of the employees is capable of managing the website. As a result, maintaining the business website does not appear to be a difficult task for his business. His comments included, “I don’t think we had too many difficulties because people that set up the website have a lot of computer experience. I actually worked in the computer industry for many years and in fact, I worked on designing Internet devices”. This organization started with the website, so in terms of improving sales, customer service, advertising, promotion and relations with vendors has not changed as a result of having an website.
The website contains ticket prices, programs for the current seasons and past season, information about Plainview, including, restaurants, hotels, nearby cities, and recreation, travel and tourism. Although they do not operate chat rooms or discussion groups, the contact information is available, so that customers can contact them when needed.
Having a website provides the business advantages for Rural America Arts Partnership. Ken said, “We have a new theater that started up in 1999, so having a website was important. We are in a rural area, having a website was important because people are always suspicious about something new. Website provides a great advantage because it provides a lot of information for those who are not aware of the theater. People can find the location and they also can find out what the American Art Partnership and organization is all about.”
Web presence makes it very easy for our organization to promote ourselves to the rural community. Ken emphasized that “by making the website professional, it also builds up trust for those who do not know about the organization. He mentions that people have good understanding when there is a web presence.” It is very important for cost saving because; otherwise, the organization had to spend a lot of money for materials, printing and hire people to establish its presence. Having the web site, makes doing business faster. In a rural area, his final comments revealed that it is very important to establish a level of professionalism in the area. Jon Hassler is a professional theater, which has grown very rapidly and very well.
Finally, Ken contributes his success to the focus of his business. He puts a lot of attention to the theaters and writer centers. The organization focuses on world theme and Rural America Arts Partnership can keep a spirit of small towns and theater through writing and through other kinds of humanity.
For other small rural businesses, Ken strongly expressed the need of to have a business website. He recommended considering using the website for any business. He said, “Absolutely, I think it is so easy for consumers to figure out products they sell and things they do, which things are unique and which are different.” Website provides business professionalism and longevity. Ken believes that any good business should have a website. There is an educational program that is suggested for small business to develop a website. In his case, they originally did some website work through the University of Minnesota through an outreach program for rural areas helping to build websites.