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Our latest Survey of Rural Challenges said natural resources are our best rural assets, but you don’t have enough outfitters to take advantage of them as tourism development. Here’s how you can grow your own outfitters. Both Deb and I visited Eastern Kentucky last year. I visited Estill County, and Deb was in Jackson County….
Emily Karsjens Perry asked, “Has anyone seen an example of an Idea Friendly laundromat? My brain is mulling over how to start one very small, possibly in combination with other 24 hour machines.” An Idea Friendly approach to Emily’s laundry ideas would be to: Here’s what Building Connections could look like: Here are some extra…
As a random person with no office or title, you’re in the best position to make good things happen. You don’t have to follow complicated rules of office. You’re not limited by the scope of your title. You don’t have to worry about naysayers crowding your public meetings. You’re you, and you get to decide…
Part of being Idea Friendly is to Gather Your Crowd. It’s not arm-twisting or “volun-telling” other people. You put your idea out there, and you let it attract people to you. One easy way: show progress. Deb used to keep a list of every new business that opened in Webster City, Iowa. Then when someone…
This is my favorite finding from our latest Survey of Rural Challenges: rural people are optimistic about the future of their community. In fact, they were twice as likely to say they were optimistic than negative about their community’s future! Over 300 rural people answered the question, Do you think your community will be better…
8 years ago, I asked Deb Brown if she would like to do something together for small towns. Deb was a full time Chamber of Commerce director, and I had my liquor store and cattle ranch. We started by making email courses and picked the name, SaveYour.Town. Fast forward through 8 years of experiments, and…
Your friends and fellow newsletter readers Sue, Julie and Marieta shared how they’re getting more food to the people having the hardest time affording it right now. We told you about Julie Kent, the librarian from Erie, Kansas. In 2020 the library shared seeds and plants and support. Here’s her latest update: We continue to…
I’m not much of a gardener, but in 2020, I planted a heck of a garden because I wanted to share some with my community. I knew that pandemic shortages combined with lost wages pushed many families into hunger. I gave bunches of lettuce and peppers to a friend who was raising her twin 4-year-old…
When Deb first told me about The Tour of Empty Buildings, I thought it was brilliant. Here’s how it started. In her first week on the job as Chamber Director, she got asked:“What are YOU going to do to fill those empty buildings?” And she said:“WE are going to hold a tour and show them off.”…
In our Placemaking Your Parks, Trails and Waters video, we talk about making more of the outdoor spaces you already have. I told how we used a bunch of empty lots in a floodplain to create a whole new park area on the cheap. Carol Peterson shared her own “hidden asset story” with us: Milnor…
I’m Becky McCray from Oklahoma. I co-founded SaveYour.Town with Deb Brown. Deb used to live in Iowa, but just moved to Mississippi. That meant I had to update our SaveYour.Town “about us” page. Now seems like a good time to share more about who we are, really. We are part of our communities, just like…
Deb Brown just told me that “cohort based learning” is trending according to Trends.co. They said learning in a group leads to 80-90% higher completion rates than learning alone. I’ve seen similar numbers before. So if you want people in your town to learn more about the Idea Friendly Method or any topic at all, start a…
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