Dave Ivan of Michigan State University Extension rocked the house at the Michigan Small Town and Rural Development Conference with his “Can Small Towns Be Cool?” presentation. He showered us with ideas and examples gathered from 250 community visits, a literature review and the Michigan “Cool Cities Initiative” survey of young professionals. He grouped his…
When I saw what an exciting thing the Third Thursday downtown in Hutchinson, Kansas, was, I grabbed my cell phone, and Jim Seitnater, the Downtown Development Director for Hutchinson, and did a quick interview. I admit, the quality of my cell phone video is awful, but the content is terrific, so there is a…
On Thursday May 1, Barbara K. Baker proposes we revive some real world connecting. Get out and chat with a neighbor. Maybe even deliver a little May Day basket. Do you remember those little baskets of flowers you would leave on a neighbor’s door? Just exactly the kind of thing that used to be a…
Karen Payne, yet another Okie, sent me this list. Though I couldn’t find an author or attribution, I want to share it with you. You can share it with your local community. Top Ten Reasons to Shop Local 10. Local stores are more likely to carry locally produced foods which supports local agriculture. 9. Local…
“My belief is that everyone has a story.”Jeff Pulver Our Friend Jeff Pulver is a big believer in the Power of One. One person can make a difference. One person can do something amazing. This summer, he is encouraging everyone, you and me, to profile some of the amazing people we meet. The trick is,…
Small Biz Survival is one of hundreds across the country taking part in EntrepreneurshipWeek USA (February 24 – March 3, 2007) by planning thousands of activities for America’s next generation of entrepreneurs. Why is this important? In the rural Midwest and Great Plains, nearly 70 percent of job growth in the 1990s came from people…
Our friend Jack Schultz found the best ever “shop local” campaign. (From Oklahoma, of course!) An advertisement from the Perkins Community Foundation really caught my eye in the Perkins Journal. It showed a picture of the local fire department fighting a fire in the community with this caption, “If you have a fire, you need…
[Special guest author Laura Girty lives in Cherokee, Oklahoma, and works for the Oklahoma Department of Commerce in community development. She has kindly contributed articles she wrote for the ODOC Developer newsletter, and yes this article does refer to me, OkieJ (Jeanne Cole) and OkieK (Karen Payne). ] Does your community buy into your community…
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