RIPPLE Blog Posts

"It's the Economy AND the Culture, Stupid"

2010-03-08 16:51:33 -0800

Having just returned from a week long training NeighborWorks Institute in New Orleans, I could hardly wait to share my experiences, and the lessons I felt the Rural Northwest can take from The Big Easy.

The recovery of New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005 has been much more expeditious than many initially dared to hope. Current numbers state that population is now nearly 80% of pre Katrina numbers. I’m definitely no expert on this issue, but I don’t think I’m alone in asserting that a strong local culture played a significant role in speedy reconstruction. It stands to reason that stronger one’s sense of ‘home' (a network of people, traditions, dialects, foods, and places that are integrated into your personal identity), the more compelled one will be to return and rebuild. As far as strong local ‘flavor,’ there are few places in the US that can compete with New Orleans.

One of my instructors at the institute said that she had struggled to find a convincing argument for art as economic development. I would argue that culture, of which art is a large component, is the strongest force driving economics. People don’t put their futures on the line to rebuild an economy; they risk it all to rebuild ‘home.’ Conversely, economic activity serves as a primary catalyst for cultural development. This is demonstrated in New Orleans through the central role that the arts and music scenes have played in inspiriting and driving the rebuilding of the city.

Two organizations that I had a chance to visit are playing a key role in that process of cultural economic development. What makes these organizations noteworthy is the fusion of cultural and business development. More than promoting art for art’s sake, these organizations take a comprehensive approach to nurturing and growing artists, which necessarily includes a strong business education component and qualifies these programs as ‘economic development.’

New Orleans Arts Councils, among many other activities, offers Arts Business Programs to promote business skills for artists, organizing a monthly Arts Market to give artists direct access to their customers, and www.NOLAfunguide.com which seeks to “rebuild the area’s cultural infrastructure” by providing a comprehensive centralized events calendar. They also assist in accessing Louisiana Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, who provide free legal assistance to low to moderate income Louisiana artists, and addresses specific issues such as copyright law.

We also visited the Tipitina’s Foundation Incubator. The humble incubator space, filled with computers loaded with digital editing software for music, film, and other digital media, serves as a hub for artists looking to build up the business end of their operation. From their website:

"Tipitina’s Music Office Co-Op is a five-city network of media business training centers, serving more than 1,800 Louisiana musicians, filmmakers and other digital media workers. The Co-Ops provide technology access, instruction, mentoring, networking, and practical business infrastructure for creative entrepreneurs."

I was incredibly impressed by this organization, not only because of the fantastic service they provide, but also the strategic approach they take to evaluating and documenting their impact. While the stories behind the work of this organization and the art that the members produce are quite compelling, it can be easy to write off cultural development efforts as ‘fluff,’ especially during an economic downturn. However, when you’re hit with the stone cold data regarding the results of their efforts, it’s hard to ignore. To provide just two examples:

Average music/media earnings among Music Office Co-Op members jumped 36% (from $4,726 to $6,427) in 2008. Despite small downturns in 2005 and 2007, average member earnings have increased 52% since the Co-Op began in 2003.
Return on investment was better than ten-to-one; for every dollar spent operating the Co-Op, its members realized $10 in new income and investment.

The lessons I took home from New Orleans, and that I hope to share, is that successful business development and community revitalization efforts utilize both a ‘numbers based’ approached focused on dollars and jobs, and more visceral activities that tap into the heart of a community. For example, we know that successful downtown revitalization efforts tie in community history and fun cultural events with strategic business support and financing. Cultural and economic activities do not need to be tackled separately, but can, instead, inform and support each other.

The most uplifting aspect of the lessons I came away with, is that this type of ‘cultural development’ is something we can all have a hand in. When I go to hear Hotqua (a local gypsy swing band) play at our local wine bar, I’m not only supporting the arts in my community, but directly contributing to our larger economic well being. While we as individuals may not be able to recruit a new industrial plant to our community, we can support those businesses, organizations, and activities that give our community it’s unique character.

The natives of New Orleans didn’t return to the city because it had a lot of the same things you can find anywhere else; they were drawn back by those aspects of place that were irreplaceable. The same goes for those of us out 'in the sticks.' Those who venture back to struggeling rural communities often site cultural reasons for their return, and community lead marketing and recruitment efforts for frequently site the 'rural lifestyle' as a key reason for 'heading ot the hills.' Just because cultural aspects of develpment aren't easily quantifiable, doesn't mean they don't play a pivotal role in building resillient communities.

What aspects of your community informed your decision to call it ‘home’?

What about your community is irreplaceable?

The Elusive Farmer-Blogger

2010-03-03 08:54:18 -0800

Farmers make great writers. But while there's a fantastic agrarian tradition in the literary world (Wendell Berry! Wes Jackson!), farmer-bloggers are a little harder to find. Those who do are among the first blog updates I check on my Google Reader - it's so exciting to know what's going on in the fields, even in the "slow" winter season.

Here's some news from a few of my favorites:

"What a happy, happy day this is as I checked each garlic bed and every one has garlic breaking through the ground except one. The Japanese variety is 3" tall! I like that variety a lot as it kept nicely in my kitchen through January. Hurray!!!!"

High Prairie Garlic is just across the Columbia River in rural Washington, and Debbie sells some of the best garlic anywhere at our farmers' market in Hood River!

Of course, every kind of weather has pros and cons. In this case, the ‘con’ is that the warm weather is speeding up the usual winter cycle of growth and flowering. Many of the crops we over-winter are technically ‘biennials,’ which means that they flower and set seeds in their second year. In some cases, we welcome those shoots since they are edible and delicious ‘rapini.’ But the appearance of buds also means that the plants are beginning to approach the end of their edible life cycle. Once all the rapini is picked, the crop is usually done. This year, we’re seeding shoots and buds earlier than normal. The cabbage in this week’s share is already just beginning to unfurl and send out its buds, which is many weeks earlier than last year for the same variety. There are more factors in this than just the warm weather, but we’re definitely consistently seeing everything happen earlier this February than in past winters.

From Oakhill Organics in the Willamette Valley - Katie spoke on a panel about farmer-writers at this year's OSU Small Farms conference.

In addition to updates on what's growing and changing out in the fields, farm blogs offer a glimpse into the tremendous challenges small farmers face, and the philosophy that undergirds the daily decisions that must be made -

The last few weeks have been rather rough. FarmMan is still not feeling well. He has been sicker than I have ever saw him before. That leaves me to catch the slack around here. I can do a lot but I can't build the chicken nest boxes and that is our main income source right now.

From Life on a Southern Farm, in Georgia.

I think farming, is at its heart, a series of alternating moments of creation and destruction. I remember, several years ago now, standing in a greenhouse, thinning seedlings, killing little plants so that other plants can grow stronger and healthier; and again, this past summer, thinning radishes and carrots, talking with my neighbor as she and I both struggled with killing the little carrots and broccoli’s we had nurtured for weeks so that the strongest ones would be stronger.

From The Dirty Way, also in Georgia.

Do you know of other great farmer-bloggers out there? Please share in the comments!

Write Effective Newsletters Your Customers Can’t Wait to Open

2010-03-03 08:41:37 -0800

First off, every small tourism business should be sending out at least a monthly email newsletter.

Everyone likes to receive good, juicy, interesting email. We like it almost as much those snail mail letters we used to get from close friends and loved ones.

It is that anticipation of interesting news, feel good messages, surprises and delight that we need to duplicate in our email newsletters.

Writing that newsletter can be as easy as emailing your favorite friend. Here’s how:

Observe how you write an email to a close friend.
My favorite email writing sessions are to my sister who lives in Cairo, Egypt. I can picture exactly where she’ll be sitting when she opens the email. Sometimes I see her grabbing a minute between students, and sometimes I visualize her in her big overstuffed chair with a cup of tea.

Take a moment to visualize your Perfect Customer the same way. THAT is who you’re writing to. Is she at work or at home? Where is he sitting? Is she rushed, and is this a usual condition for her?

The opening statement – making the connection with your reader.
I usually start my emails to Kathy by responding to something in her last email. I’m concerned about her, or happy for her or sharing her excitement about something.

You have a deep understanding of your Perfect Customer. You know her PAIN. You understand the things that excite him.

Your first statement in that email newsletter should reflect that understanding and connection. It will keep your Perfect Customer reading, and will help to build your relationship with her.

Your news, the body of your newsletter.
Here’s where you talk about yourself and the reason for the newsletter. By holding everything you know about your Perfect Customer in your thoughts as you write, the message is likely to resonate with your reader.

It will connect them with your excitement about this latest news. It will help them to want to become part of that excitement.

I can’t wait to receive email from my sister. She always transports me with her words to the interesting places she’s visiting, if only a walk down the street to buy vegetables. It makes me deposit another few dollars into my trip fund!

When you focus on your Perfect Customer, writing your news becomes so much easier. You feel freer to express your excitement, and you sound genuine in your desire to share that excitement. You allow your personality to come through, and the newsletter won’t sound like a drab sales pitch.

Is it a risk? Of course. As well as I know my sister, I sometimes miss the mark with a story or request. And sometimes I’m more successful that I ever thought possible! But our emails to each other never go unread or half read.

After a recent post about Idaho’s newest sales project, The Great Idaho Getaway, I received an email from the head of Idaho’s tourism department thanking me for the post. She talked about how hard it has been for people used to more traditional marketing to understand this new, exceedingly customer focused marketing approach.

If a whole state can do it with the expectation of great success, so can you.

The closing, your “call to action.”
How should your Perfect Customer respond to this email newsletter?

Here is where I ask my sister to do something. “Email back and tell me…” “ Go out today and get that scarf before they’re all gone!” “ Please make a reservation for …” “Tell me what you think.”

Look at your own friendly emails, and I bet you’ll find some kind of call to action at the end… unless you don’t want to hear from that friend for a while.

This is the hardest part for even the best of business people to get right. What do you want this person to do? Click through to your web site? Sign up for something? Purchase something? Watch for and open your next newsletter?

If you don’t tell them explicitly what they should do next, you will not get the response you want. In marketing, it’s called CLOSING THE SALE.

Then, remind them that you’ll be back soon with more news. If you use autoresponders, tell them that more will come. If your email comes out once a week or once a month, remind them to watch for it.

You’re done. Watch your stats. I bet you’ll have a better response than you ever thought possible

If you haven’t created a profile of your Perfect Customer yet, sign up for Rural Tourism Marketing's newsletter and learn how, in your free copy of Marketing For Free in 2010.

Read What Idaho Can Teach Rural Tourism Businesses About Focusing on Your Ideal Customer.

You can read and comment on all of Joanne Steele’s posts on Rural Tourism Marketing on her Rural Tourism Marketing Blog.

Historic Agreements Aim to Mend Klamath Waters Divide

2010-02-23 12:20:00 -0800

The world’s largest river restoration and dam removal effort kicked off in a spirit of celebration inside the grand rotunda of Oregon’s Capitol February 18.

Beneath a mural depicting Native fishermen at yesteryear’s tumultuous Celilo Falls, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Governors Ted Kulongoski of Oregon and Arnold Schwarzenegger of California joined Chairmen Arch Super of the Karuk Tribe and Thomas O’Rourke of the Yurok Tribe in California, and Joseph Kirk of the Klamath Tribe in Oregon in signing the agreements.

Restoring the Balance - Klamath Dam Removal Agreements from Thomas B. Dunklin on Vimeo.

The Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement aims to restore a mountainous land of rivers, tributaries and wetlands spanning the Oregon-California border.

Its sister Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement, contingent on full funding and scientific study, could open hundreds of miles of the Klamath River closed to salmon for a century.

The agreements, five years in the making, signal a close to decades of bitter struggles between tribal, agricultural, environmental and governmental entities, and more recently dam owner PacifiCorp.

Federal water management practices over the past century had taxed the federally reserved fishing rights of the tribes of the Klamath Basin, the National Congress of American Indians testified in 2004.

They stated development of irrigation and reclamation projects created non-sustainable crops in the historically arid Upper Klamath Basin that required high volumes of water. Water exported out of the basin led to over-dependence by agriculture and stressed the fisheries.

“We had back-to-back disasters,” said Craig Tucker, Karuk Klamath Basin coordinator.

Drought in 2001 spurred water increases under the Endangered Species Act to protect two species of Upper Basin sucker fish, culturally important to the tribes, and the wild coho salmon. The move withheld irrigation water from farmers, pitting them against the tribes, conservation groups, and federal agencies.

“It was hairy at times,” said Tucker, recalling the political backlash that ensued.

It went from bad to worse.

The Bush-Cheney administration reversed the decision and restored irrigation, leading to the largest salmon kill in the history of the West. Some 70,000 salmon died in 2002, devastating the Klamath Basin tribes. It left Yurok tribal members at the mouth of the Klamath River in stunned disbelief.

“Everyone sued everyone else,” said Tucker. “In the middle of this water catastrophe, the dams came up for re-licensing. Solutions were possible but only if people recognized the concerns of other people in the basin.

“So we started negotiating.”

The agreements will restore more than 350 miles of historic salmon habitat and thousands of acres of wetlands, improve river flows and water quality, settle water-related litigation, increase irrigation certainty and affordable power options for agriculture, provide economic revitalization programs for tribal communities, and create a coordination council to manage the watershed.

“The Klamath River [is] a stunning example of how cooperation and partnership can solve difficult conflicts,” Salazar said. “The agreements provide a path forward to meet the needs of local communities, tribes, farmers, fishermen and other stakeholders while restoring a beautiful river and its historic salmon runs.”

Mouth of Klamath River in Yurok Country, Northwest California

“Change is happening and we invite people to join us,” said Yurok Chairman Thomas O’Rourke. “Legislation will take some time, but former adversaries are already working together to manage the Basin, take care of our people, and craft a shared future. That’s what we’re celebrating here today.”

“This brings together dozens of groups that for years and years stood toe to toe, but now stand side by side united in this cause,” Schwarzenegger told the crowded room. “By finalizing that agreement we can say, ‘hasta la vista’ to the dams.

“I can already hear the salmon fish screaming, ‘I’ll be back!’”

Fifty organizations representing dam owner PacifiCorp, the Obama Administration, three of the four Klamath Basin fishing tribes, several counties, agricultural districts and numerous conservation groups agreed to support the agreements. But there were dissenters.

Fish and wildlife in the Basin’s Trinity River in California is integral to Hoopa Valley tribal customs, religion, culture, subsistence and ceremony. The agreements, Hoopa Tribal Chairman Leonard Masten said in a statement, undermine tribal rights, do not ensure dam removal, and rely on unfunded and unspecific fishery restoration goals. “We cannot stand behind deals that require the subordination of our rights, and that may never result in dam approval.”

A few others, including two environmental groups and a group representing irrigators also oppose the agreements.

The agreements could be a model for the nation, Salazar and Schwarzenegger said, leading Columbia River Native peoples in attendance to express hope that, even while dams in the Columbia Basin are not among those now slated for removal these agreements could pave the way to revitalizing voices at the legendary Celilo Falls muffled in stilled waters behind The Dalles Dam.

For them, the Celilo Falls mural lent meaning to the ceremony.

For Karuk, Klamath and Yurok tribal perspectives on the agreements, visit www.klamathrestoration.org. For the Hoopa tribal perspective, visit http://www.hoopa-nsn.gov/news/klamathwater.htm. For agricultural perspectives, visit http://kwua.org.

Photo by Thomas B. Dunklin.

You can read more of Terri Hansen's work at Indian Country Today.

Loss of a Rural Grocery Store Is Bad News for Community Health

2010-02-22 10:45:55 -0800

This Saturday on Weekend Edition, NPR featured a story about Hanna, WY population 800 where economic conditions are forcing the town's only grocery store to close. NPR correspondent Molly Messick reports,

With the Hanna Food Mart gone, there will be nowhere in town to buy bread or milk. There's not even a regular gas station in Hanna just a couple of credit-card-only gas pumps. A simple mini-mart is 20 miles away. The nearest grocery store will be an 80-mile drive round-trip. But a lot of people in Hanna don't get around that easily.

The story does an excellent job of exploring how the inability to do business causes a chain reaction of unfortunate events for rural communities: When a key stone business is forced to close its doors, it often takes another with it. Losing a local business, like a grocery store also means losing a community gathering place. And, losing a grocery store has an impact on community health. The Center for Rural Affairs provides an indepth look at grocery stores in rural communities,

The lack of a grocery store means residents have less access to healthy fresh fruits and vegetables, and the elderly and others without reliable transportation will tend to buy their food at convenience stores with more limited selections or go for longer periods of time between visits to the store.

The focus on the small town grocery comes shortly after the release of a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation study which ranks America's counties according to their health, their findings suggest that grocery stores are a good indicator of community health:

Counties ranked the unhealthiest are less likely to have at least one grocery store where people can buy healthy foods such as fresh produce. About 33 percent of zip codes in the unhealthiest counties had a grocery store, while 47 percent of zip codes in the healthiest counties had a grocery store.

And bad news for rural communities,

Suburban and urban counties tend to be healthier than rural counties. About 48 percent of the healthiest counties were urban or suburban, while 84 percent of the unhealthiest counties were rural.

What is the solution here? Grocery stores are essential to healthy and vital communities, yet we can't expect grocers to operate when they can't turn a profit.

How to Make Your Visitor’s Journey to Your Rural Destination Part of Their Adventure

2010-02-22 10:39:14 -0800

Since Dan Marriott’s presentation at the California Cultural and Heritage Tourism Conference, I’ve been thinking a lot about how people get to our rural destinations.

Rural and small towns are reached by car journeys.

What does the "mapquest" route take your visitor by on the way into your town?

For us, the adventure we are marketing begins with this journey. If we leave the route to Google Maps or MapQuest, we miss the opportunity to bring our visitors to town via our Golden Roads. These are the scenic routes that meander past our most picturesque sights and historic delights. It might not be the most direct route, but it’s safe and sure to delight.

It is the prelude to what’s in store once they arrive in our towns.
People who visit rural destinations are not resort style travelers who want to land in one spot for four days or a week of all-inclusive fun.

They tend to be explorers who come to discover, sample, experience and immerse.

Use your web site to show them the Golden Road to your destination. Tell them how to get onto your most scenic route. And then tell them what they’ll see along the way.

Create a downloadable pdf of your Golden Road route, telling them about historic, and geologic locations, picnic spots, swimming holes. Explain what they will see, and note what used to be – the locations of former towns, stage stops, battles and uprisings, and more.

Give them short side trips. I greatly appreciated learning about a 15 minute detour on my way from Centerville, Tennessee that took me to an old time country store.

The Internet makes this all possible. Only a few years ago, the cost of printing and mailing would have made this project unaffordable. Today, it is a matter of compiling the information, formatting it as a pdf and uploading it to your web site for people to print before they leave home.

Tell us about your town and its Golden Roads.

You can read and comment on all of Joanne Steele’s posts on Rural Tourism Marketing on her Rural Tourism Marketing Blog.

Unintended Casualties

2010-02-19 15:27:06 -0800

An indispensible fixture of any good farming community, the rural veterinarian is ready to treat a cow in labor, injured horse, or woeful hound dog at a moment’s notice. At least that's the image I had growing up watching ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ on PBS. Whatever your feelings on the work of James Herriot may be (or public television for that matter), his novels defined the popular romantic view of rural veterinarians. Unfortunately, and also of concern to herdsmen and other rural animal lovers, these lauded professionals are in short supply and dwindling fast.

Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture, announced last Friday that the USDA is rolling out a new program to help combat the shortage. The plan, in short: bribe recent veterinary school graduates with staggering debt loads (typically between $130,000 and $140,000) into rural areas by offering student loan repayment of up to $25,000 a year. I may have this wrong, but a ‘shortage’ would seem to imply that there’s an abundance of demand that’s not being met, which would also seem to imply that there’s money to be made. So why is it so hard to convince veterinarians to live the bucolic dream?

A number of factors contribute to these shortage of rural veterinarians. Yes, money plays a large role. Recent graduates lack the finances to set up their own practice, and so seek to work with an established practice while they pay down their school debt. Sure, there’s also a lot of money to be made in catering to house pets, prescribing Prozac to neurotic teacup poodles and the like, but aren’t there veterinary students out there who were brought up on James Herriot like I was? Who would find treating powerful beasts of burden more attractive than dogs designed to ride your Coach purse?

"In a really small area, it's difficult to make a practice work," said Dr. Donna Anagarano, associate dean for academic affairs at Auburn University School of Veterinary Medicine. "Vets want to have outside interests, and many of them are married to other professionals. You want your spouse to be able to find a job, too. Small communities also often don't offer enough support to pay down that debt and make the practice feasible."

David Hardin, a veterinary authority at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, provides a thought provoking insight into the situation. "As the rural population declines, there's a smaller pool of people that are interested in veterinary medicine to draw from." Could it be that simple? Fewer veterinary students coming from rural areas mean fewer vets who will return to rural areas.

The implications of this shortage for our food system and food safety are significant. Fewer large animal rural vets, who have to travel longer distances, lead to higher veterinary costs. As a result, herdsmen are relying more on their own knowledge to treat animals or simply forgo preventative treatments. This can lead to a larger numbers of sick animals entering our food system, which ultimately ends up on your plate.

The concern over livestock health is large enough that it leads the government’s justification for the dept. repayment scheme. "USDA can help ensure there is a first line of defense against animal diseases across the United States by placing qualified veterinarians in areas where there is a critical need," Vilsack said. "This program will help reduce veterinary shortages, especially in the area of food animal medicine, which will reduce stress on producers and improve the health of the livestock industry."

I can’t help but wonder about other ‘endangered professions’ in our rural communities. Consolidation of farming activities has undoubtedly contributed to the lack of rural veterinarians, which leads me to think of feed stores, equipment repair shops, mobile slaughter, seed cleaning, and a hundred other niche professions that have dwindled alongside the family farm.

Which is all just a reiteration of the fact that with economic development, “you can’t do one thing.” Tweak one valve on the economic machine and there are bound to be multiple and largely unpredictable implications somewhere else. To end on a positive note, the same goes for positive effects as the negative implications I’ve been discussing. A change in one person’s spending patterns that diverts even 10% of their spending to local, independently owned businesses has an impact (three times the impact those dollars were having at non-local businesses). A group of 40 or so community members who join a CSA create a livelihood for a young farm couple. Our actions in rural communities have a much larger proportional impact on our communities than our urban cousins, and we should leverage this opportunity to its greatest extent.