Staff photo by Fritz Busch New Ulm Forward members Sue Kimmel and Melissa Miller discuss the organization’s next steps at the Dick and Sue Kimmel home Tuesday night.

NEW ULM — New Ulm Forward, an organization concerned about race relationships and celebrating diversity in the community, discussed its next steps, Tuesday night.

The organization, which came out into the public domain at New Ulm’s National Night Out in German Park last July, listed a number of healthy community dimensions.

The list included: inclusion, recreational and artistic opportunity, environmental stewardship, infrastructure and services, safety and security, community leadership, economic opportunity, spirituality, wellness and life-long learning, as earlier printed by the Blandin Foundation.

“We want everyone to find a place in New Ulm. And to help make New Ulm the best place it can be,” said meeting host Sue Kimmel.

Towards that end, Kimmel talked about hosting a family-oriented “family table” event in New Ulm to be held next month, likely on a Monday night. The actual date will be determined after Kimmel discusses the event with a number of people whom she wants to feature.

“After everyone is introduced and some people talk, I think it would be good to do a lot of listening,” Kimmel said about the February event that will include sharing traditional ethnic foods.

She talked about New Ulm Forward partering with other organizations.

“I want New Ulm to own this,” Kimmel said.

At a New Ulm Forward meeting last summer, District 88 Superintendent Jeff Bertrang talked about the benefits of merging the organization with other local groups with similar interests and goals.

“If these groups join us, it can open doors for grant writing that can allow this organization to continue to flourish,” Bertrang said.

Minnesota’s future population will change, according to the Committee on Immigrants and Minnesota’s Workforce. The University of Minnesota Office of the Vice President for Research recently published a number of predictions:

• In the coming decades, Minnesota’s population will likely grow at a pace that is significantly slower than previous growth rates.

• Minnesota’s population will grow older and more racially diverse, but population changes will not be equally distributed.

• Minnesota will be more and more dependent on immigrants for future population growth.

• Without a future substantial increase in migration to Minnesota, the state’s labor force will likely grow much more slowly than it has in recent years. This will make filling many job vacancies much more challenging.

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Fritz Busch can be emailed at fbusch@nujournal.com.