It’s the million dollar question in small towns: how do we get more participation? Participation might mean volunteers, contributions, or even audience members. Volunteers kick off the Picture My WeekendPhotography event in Alva, Oklahoma. I get asked this every time I speak. It seems every town and organization, every festival and fair is dealing with…
What if your town council, your chamber of commerce, and your school board sat down together for a public meeting just to compare calendars? What if these leaders started talking about possible cooperation, shared projects, or mutual goals? What if more local boards and leaders began to participate, aligning their own goals and efforts with…
How much do you know about your competitor’s website? Do they get more traffic than your site, or less? What keywords are sending them the most traffic? Compete.com can give you the answers. Put in three website addresses. Compete will give you their traffic chart. For websites with enough traffic, it will also give a…
Long ago, Rebecca Leaman asked me about nonprofits in small towns. Profit/nonprofit partnership is essentialin most small towns. “A lot of your thoughts on small-town and small-biz development seem to apply well to nonprofits, too – certainly to the grassroots groups that keep rural communities (I live in one) rolling. Your thoughts?” At the time,…
[When Mike Rizzo explained the Refresh Kitanning story to me, I knew you would want to learn about it. Here is how people in one small town are taking an active approach to economic and business development. – Becky ] My name is Mike and I created a community website to hopefully inspire growth and…
[I’m a rural telco cooperative customer, and I know so are many of you. That’s why I’m publishing this guest post on broadband from Shirley Bloomfield, CEO of the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association. –Becky] By Shirley Bloomfield Broadband discussion tableat the Midwest Rural Assembly It’s been called today’s “essential service,” with the transformative power of electricity and…
Victor Vasquez, USDA Deputy Undersecretary for Rural Development, made the keynote presentation at the Midwest Rural Assembly. He started with the story of a road trip with a big city friend. As they reached a particularly empty stretch of land, the friend asked, should we turn back? Turn back? Victor asked, why would we turn…
Our friend Des Walsh from Australia sent me a great email, that I just had to share with all of you. You might not have known but we had a Federal election here on Saturday. The outcome hangs in the balance (although I don’t think there are any hanging chads), with the likelihood of a…
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