Neligh, Nebraska. Photo CC by J. Stephen Conn on Flickr.

There have been too many years of disinterest and disinvestment in rural America and at times I grow weary of defending the value of the rural place I call home to a national audience. I have read multiple articles about the rural underclass and the poverty that plagues our landscape from Bloomberg Business, NY Times, and Wall Street Journal. One of those articles written by Paul Krugman stated,

“once upon a time dispersed agriculture ensured that small cities serving rural hinterlands would survive. But for generations we have lived in an economy in which smaller cities have nothing going for them except historical luck, which eventually tends to run out.”

I need to ask, is your community living in this fairytale and just running on historical luck, like the author suggests? Or, are you investing in your community and taking responsibility for the inherent change that is affecting your future?

We have all heard about the changing rural landscape from a national perspective…population decline, low median household income, high poverty, high unemployment, low wages, dilapidated housing, decaying Main Streets, etc. Yet, according to the 2010 Census research done by Ben Winchester of the University of Minnesota Extension Service,

“People in small towns can stop talking negatively about what things their town has lost or what it used to be like. The changes in the rural Midwest are almost all microcosms of globalization. Rural is changing, not dying,”

When it comes to change, Ray Kurzweil, author of The Singularity is Near states,

“At the given rate of change, we will experience the equivalent of 20,000 years of change in this century.”

This kind of fast-paced change means we have more choices and less time to make those choices. Today’s rural communities and the people willing to lead them need to be prepared for this environment. From my observation, communities that succeed in the face of change are connected to: data, outside resources, other communities, engaged residents, and global trends. Having insight about this ever-changing knowledge-base makes communities ready to move in a forward direction, quickly.

Here is a story of Neligh, Nebraska. Neligh is a community that refused to begin their story with once upon a time or let themselves slip quietly into obscurity. Since 2012, this community of 1,600 people has seen a colossal reinvestment. Neligh has welcomed 27 new businesses – a 17 percent increase in total businesses – and transitioned 14 businesses to new ownership. Antelope County has seen more than $600 million in capital investment. In a few years, when they complete all the projects in their pipeline, capital investments will clear $1 billion. Neligh didn’t pull up its bootstraps by itself. They asked for help. Their network of partners is long: engaged citizens, local businesses, nonprofits, education community, elected officials and more.

This story may sound like an overwhelming task or a one-of-a-kind success story. However, I am here to tell you that this kind of local development is realistic and beginning to take hold in many small communities because they are investing in themselves! Your community can replicate this type of development when residents like you are willing to be engaged and do the internal work necessary to establish a community development culture, clarify local values, and set priorities. This internal work is then balanced with external forces (e.g. resource providers, peer network, investors, developers, etc.) while seeking regular feedback, support, and advice from empowered community residents.

Let’s invest in rural places and build a community development culture that believes we are not too small to have it all. #Iamrural

Township Supervisor Whitney Hoffman is building bridges and bridging communication gaps in Pennsylvannia.

Note: This is the second guest post by Whitney Hoffman. She’s sharing some thoughts about being ready for and recovering from disasters. -Becky

Guest Post by Whitney Hoffman, Township Supervisor in Kennett Township PA

Small towns across the Country are facing a Communications Crisis.

We’re seeing contracting media markets, where hometown newspapers fold or go digital. TV and radio stations also face intense competition for advertising dollars, and as a result, there are fewer and fewer media outlets that have the time or the interest to report on what’s happening on Main Street or at the local planning commission meeting.

Not only that, busy people are having their attention divided among almost every platform imaginable, and we’re even having people pay less attention to traditional notifications, like mail.

What kind of problems does this communications crisis cause?

Here in Chester County, PA, we sit outside Philadelphia and just north of the Delaware border.  The Philadelphia media market dominates, so much so that Delaware doesn’t even have its own TV station- just an hour on the PBS station, and a few local radio stations. The Delaware paper, the News Journal, used to cover a lot of the news in the local area, but since it was purchased by Gannett, it has become much smaller, thinner, and has substantially fewer resources to report the news than in years past.

When we enacted an emergency services tax increase in our Township last year, we had all the public meetings and the budget meetings covered by reporters. It was reported prominently in the local county newspaper. We sent out email notices of the meetings to everyone who has opted into our email notification list, and we have our agendas posted online. We put notices on our Facebook page. We also record and stream all of our Board of Supervisor meetings on Youtube. We even sent a postcard out to every household, letting them know about the tax increase. Yet it was only when the tax bill came in the mail that people started calling and showing up at public meetings, insisting this was the first they ever heard of it.

We had people taking to a new app called NextDoorNow, complaining about the tax increase and wondering why we didn’t post anything there. Some people wanted to know by text message. Others though a letter versus a postcard would have been better. What we took away from the experience was that there was not just one or two channels of communication now, but many. And for the sake of our staff and our sanity, we needed to make sure we had “official” channels of communication established, where people could get the facts rather than rumors started on numerous online forums.

Communications In a Crisis

When the recent severe storms hit this year, I began to think about how lucky we are to have a variety of communications channels that work, even if none of them seem to reach everybody effectively.  For towns without a Facebook page, community group, email list, or other communication channel, how are displaced people supposed to find out if it’s safe to return home? If the power is restored? What steps to take to secure property or even steps to take if you have to abandon it for a period of time? What is required to show if you need insurance or FEMA support, if all your records and maybe even those of others have been destroyed? Can people rely on the Town’s official webpage for information, or are there other communication channels that will get the word out more effectively?

Bringing Together a Diaspora

When a community is spread out over a large area due to a storm, communications get more difficult. The rumor mill will start to churn immediately, especially if reliable information from authorities is unavailable.

While I could go on at length about how to choose official communications channel(s) for your community, the important point to take away from our experience with the tax increase is that you need to establish official communication channels so people know where to go for reliable information. That will likely be a combination of channels, ranging from email, Facebook groups, Facebook pages, Twitter or other selected channels. You should have those channels and links displayed prominently on your website and social media profiles. And you should remind the public regularly that they can sign up for emails from local government- and then treat these assets like gold.  Don’t use them for advertising, but for important community wide communication. That way, people will gradually learn where they can to go for real, reliable information, even if they have moved away from the area entirely.

That will pay off in spades if there ever is a huge crisis like that facing so many communities devastated by this year’s storms.

Do What Works- even if it’s not “Right”

I went to a meeting of a local business group, and i asked them how they found out what was happening, and how we could communicate better.  Several people said they just followed the posts on my personal Facebook page, as I tend to post updates during storms or when we get word of unexpected road closures, etc. I was both shocked and gratified at the same time. Without my realizing it, people were following and sharing my Facebook posts about the community, and it had become a de facto portal besides our regular Facebook page for communication. Now while that means I have to be a bit careful because more people than I realize are “watching” what I post on Facebook, it also means that they are viewing me as a reliable source for information when they need it most. It’s not the official public communication channel I want to create, but it is one that works.

If you do have a crisis in your community, getting in touch with the local influencers- heads of organizations, groups and the like- and asking them to share important messages could be incredibly important during a crisis or emergency. Putting together a list of these people and updating their contact information yearly would be a great idea, in case it is ever needed.  Many towns already have an emergency preparedness plan, and a list of local organization heads and influencers might be a good addition to this plan.

Communications is Critical

It’s really easy to make assumptions that “everyone” knows something, or that you’ve done all you can to let them know. We found out that people listen to different “channels” depending on many factors- and you can’t count on only one channel to make sure your message is heard.

The truth of it is that there are very few central communication channels any more, and you need to make sure you build a variety of reliable channels so that they’re available when you really need them. Build them now, and you’ll be in a much better position to weather any storm, whether its economic or designed by Mother Nature.

More about Whitney

I was sworn in as a Kennett Township Supervisor in January 2016, and now serve as Vice Chair of the Board as of January 3, 2017. I am the first elected female Supervisor in the history of the Township.

I am currently working as a social media manager for Mingl Marketing and its sister company, Comfort Media Group in Philadelphia, and I also consult as a digital marketing strategist for Epic Marketing in Delaware on a project by project basis.

My consulting business, Hoffman Digital Media, specializes in digital media strategy, content marketing, and management for the web. I work with businesses and organizations to help them hone and develop a social media and 360 degree marketing strategy, ensuring that they can target potential customers online as well as measure the return on investment of marketing dollars. I speak regularly to businesses and community organizations on social media, content strategy, business strategy, technology and digital citizenship issues to groups of all sizes.

Read Whitney’s first post, Planning lessons every small town can learn from disaster 

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Small Business Week

We are right in the middle of SMALL BUSINESS WEEK! Two of the owners of such endeavors are:

I’m a small-business owner.

Becky McCray is a small-business owner (here at Small Biz Survival, Allen’s Retail, and a cattle ranch).

In the last week, I have needed several small-business owners. For example, I:

Got coffee several times at a local shop, Boneshaker;

Went fabric shopping with my wife (well, I sat outside while she shopped at SewBatik);

Picked up some bread, Bread Poets;

Had dinner, Harvest Brazilian Grill;

Got some medicine for my mother (Medicine Shoppe);

Followed Karen Ehrens;

Picked up some travel snacks at Mary’s Market;

and shopped at BisMan Food Cooperative and Plaza Drug for Pride of Dakota products.

Thanks to all small-business owners for what you add to our communities. You are a crucial cornerstone.

So add a comment and tell us who some of the small businesses that you support.