Becky’s email newsletter

Hey, you know that story everyone tells about how teachers and adults are pushing the best and brightest rural young people away to the big city? A new study casts some doubt on that. In fact, the highest achieving students may be the ones with the strongest ties to their own communities. Which makes sense…

Last time, I asked you for your stories about how your town works together. Thank you so much for your answers! I’m sharing these three because they represent towns with populations under 1000, over 10,000 and somewhere in between. Before the answers I wanted to give you one link, one story worth reading today. Daily…

A reporter asked me about towns where business people have pulled together to turn the town around. I wanted to tell him about you, but something held me back. See, I know a lot about Webster City, Iowa, because my friend Deb Brown tells me all about it. I know about Lincoln, Illinois, because their…

There’s a game we play. We state our problem. We might even complain about it. Someone helpfully offers a suggestion. We explain why that won’t work. They give us a different idea. We counter with the things that make it impossible here. And it goes on, back and forth, as we knock down every single suggestion…

There you are, going along, trying to get things done, making a little progress, and then someone hits you with the news. Someone has just pulled a really stupid move. Maybe it was the town government. Maybe the economic development group, chamber of commerce, legislature, or some powerful local organization. Whoever it was, they really…

This week, I want to share some smart ideas about NOT getting more volunteers. In with all the ideas about getting more volunteers were two people who talked instead about priorities–either their own priorities or setting priorities for volunteer projects. That struck me as pretty smart here are those two emails. —————————————————– Hi Becky, I…

I asked you how you get volunteers. It’s probably one of the most pressing questions for small towns: finding the people who do the things that keep the town going, when they won’t be getting paid. You came through. You gave me all sorts of ideas, and we’re going to go over those for the…

Next week, I’m going to start sharing your answers to “how do we get more volunteers?” So there is still time to send me your thoughts on that. Just hit reply and tell me about volunteering in your town and what you do different than “the way it’s always been.” This week, I want to…

A new reader mentioned that her small town has a lot of ideas, but just doesn’t have enough people to actually do them all. She’s not the only one in that spot. Susan Curry, Smithville, Texas:“Our little town is very friendly and has a lot to offer locals and tourists. Our main problem is that…

In the past month, Laura Bowden (Eden, Texas) and Lila Burgess (Goldendale, Washington) both asked about how to get travelers to stop in their small town. Lila put it this way: “Here in Goldendale, WA we are suffering from what I call ‘Radiator Springs Syndrome.’ Like the town in the Cars movie, a main hwy…

Last week, I gave you a bunch of reasons to focus more on growing your own businesses that on trying to recruit outside businesses to your small town. Now it’s time to implement. HOW do you do it? The best framework I’ve found is “Climate, Infrastructure, and Support” developed by the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship.(They…

A reader stopped by my inbox to ask for my tips on attracting outside companies to your small town. I don’t have any. I’m not criticizing him for asking me or for working on attracting a call center. Maybe that is a great move for his town. Maybe it makes sense when you have an inside…