THE RURBAN FRINGE

Making the Most of Conferences

Well, I’m off to Growing Rural Tourism 2011 … and with warmer weather approaching and seminars, conferences and workshops springing up all over the place, my online colleague Becky McCray – at Small Biz Survival – has put together a great series of posts on how to get the best bang for your buck when choosing, [...]

Focus on Creating Value for Local Customers

I’ve heard it said there is no silver bullet to sustainable living, but rather a toolbox to pick and choose your methods from.
One method of mine is to ‘buy local’ as I view sustainable consumerism as intentional consumerism. 
Yet on the flip side, virtually no local economies today are fully self-sustaining.  Cheap manufacturing elsewhere, cheap big box [...]

The Value of Historic Restoration

One of the great things about my job is having the opportunity to become involved in a wide variety of projects – large and small – with the end goal resulting in increased economic, social, and additional opportunities for the area.
One such project I’m currently working on is the restoration of a historically significant structure.  While it’s definitely seen [...]

Reasons to Engage Your Community

Build Connections – Strengthen, deepen and expand relationships and better connect people and resources.
Advance Mission – Serve your organization’s core reason for being.
Build Relevance – As you interact with others, their interests and aspirations, you become an increasing part of their lives and matter more to them.
Increase Value – The greater your impact on others [...]