As summer approaches, many of our rural communities are gearing up to celebrate what makes their community unique. History, language, culture, celebrations and events are all part of a community’s cultural capital, or a way to measure the value of the things that make up a community
What is in store for your community in the next five years? In the next decade? Communities are constantly changing, and hopefully the changes that are occurring are the best for your town. A good exercise for communities to think about the direction they are headed in is to create a "newspaper of the future."
Different cultures may each have their own slant on the traits and characteristics that add up to effective leadership but despite the differences, some commonalities do emerge. Leadership is typically defined as a process whereby an individual influences a group to achieve a common goal. Leadership is also commonly acknowledged to be a fluid process.
Senior members of a community can be a vast resource for community renewal. While some societies view the older generation as elders who hold valuable wisdom and experience, modern societies often tend to view seniors as elderly people whose usefulness is steadily declining. Everyone wins when community leaders realize that seniors possess assets that are necessary for community vitality.
A thriving business needs a strong list of qualified leads. Collecting potential names and emails is necessary to communicate with your ideal audience on a regular basis. Some business experts would go so far as to say without this list, you don’t really have a business.
Small businesses have to prioritize their resources on the activities that deliver the most impact. With social media, choices and options can get overwhelming. It’s easy to feel like you should have a presence on every social media channel. It’s also easy to get lost in managing too many networks.
If you’ve started doing business through social media markets, you know how complicated and time consuming it can be. Yet, social media marketing keeps increasing. Can you afford NOT to get involved? Whatever type of social media you’ve chosen or are considering, Social Media Examiner (http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com) has some great tips from business people who have mastered their piece of the pie.
When undertaking any business endeavor…and particularly when investing personal and family resources…there is one overriding question that must be asked and answered – “Are the potential benefits greater than the potential costs?”
Two challenges facing communities are motivating people to get involved, and keeping people involved in a project. So often, in the first phases of a community project people are excited and enthusiastic about the prospects of change. But soon, when the progress of the project slows, people lose interest, feel overwhelmed and eventually quit. Communities rely on volunteers to meet the needs and wants of the community and it is important to foster this important resource.
“We have new leaders in the community because of what we are doing here. People are volunteering for things that they had never even been invited to before.” That is a quote from a Horizons community member in Wilmot, SD.
Big Stone City’s slogan became “Don’t Take It for Granite” as they moved through the Horizons project from 2008 to the present. From a community of 600 people, Big Stone’s Horizon project pulled together people will ideas to benefit many aspects of their town.
Finding sponsors for your organization can help reduce expenses. Sponsorships are partnerships where both parties benefit. The key is finding the right sponsors for your organization and making the relationship work. It might be easy to say that you’re dedicated to establishing partnerships; however it’s another thing to act like a partner.
“No one can whistle a symphony. It takes an orchestra to play it.” Many times, we find that we are not working alone, whether we are on the job, in a community or church organization or the member of a sports team. We often hear that people need to be “good team players. But what does that mean? What is a team? A team is a group of people who are jointly responsible for achieving a shared goal. If one member fails then it can hinder the achievement of the collective goal.
When planning a community meeting, program or activity that brings a group of strangers together, it is very common for planners to want to jump into the business of the day and not bother with team-building or ice breaker activities. However, it is these short, easy-to-plan activities that often have a huge impact on the outcome of the group’s actions.
As you sit in a meeting, what are you doing? Planning a grocery list? Doodling in the margins of the agenda? Checking emails on your smartphone? Or are you actively engaged, fully listening, and thinking about what is going on around you?
Decision making in a community can come to a grinding halt when conflict arises. When people in a community are passionate about the issues that affect them, a simple discussion in a public forum can turn into a heated argument. Dealing with conflict can fracture a community into an “us versus them” environment and soon progress in community development can stall.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) provides low-income families funds to assist with purchasing food. This program, formerly known as the food stamps program, assisted 104,186 people (45,488 households) in South Dakota during March, 2012. The average monthly benefit per household was $304.77. Users are given an EBT card that the cashier will swipe during check-out.
Are you interested in establishing a community garden in your town? Do you wonder where to start? It works well to find a team of people to help with such an endeavor. Look for community members who are passionate about gardening or interested in helping people get access to food. Local garden club members or Master Gardeners, food pantries, churches and other human-service organizations are often interested in helping with these types of projects.
The Brandon Area Food Pantry has a program that might be of interested for pantries and gardeners in your community. ‘Plant for the Pantry’ encourages gardeners to help supply fresh produce to those in need.
CSA’s, short for Community Supported Agricultural Programs, are gaining popularity across the nation as well as in South Dakota. This is an additional avenue for producers to direct market their produce to local consumers. This type of program allows a farmer to sell subscriptions or shares prior to the growing season. When the produce or food product is harvested it is then delivered on a scheduled basis to the customer.