#3 Reason Community Development is Hard to Do
Understanding Community Gate Keepers
by Michael Holton, Center for Rural Affairs - editors note... brought to you by "popular" demand...
Rural communities are made up of a social group called the gate keepers. This may prove to be one of the most difficult aspects of community development in small rural towns.
Gate keepers are usually people who have lived in the community for years, often clear back to the time when small rural communities were thriving. They made a living and prospered while raising their children. The community was and is still good to them. They do not want to see new community development come in and take away what they have acquired.
These people often resist big changes with statements like, “We don’t need that!” or “It was good enough for me when I was growing up.” The key to dealing with the gate keeper plight is to involve them from the beginning in the discussion and work.
Agree? Disagree? Post a question here or contact John Crabtree, johnc@cfra.org
Center for Rural Affairs
Values. Worth. Action.
by Michael Holton, Center for Rural Affairs - editors note... brought to you by "popular" demand...
Rural communities are made up of a social group called the gate keepers. This may prove to be one of the most difficult aspects of community development in small rural towns.
Gate keepers are usually people who have lived in the community for years, often clear back to the time when small rural communities were thriving. They made a living and prospered while raising their children. The community was and is still good to them. They do not want to see new community development come in and take away what they have acquired.
These people often resist big changes with statements like, “We don’t need that!” or “It was good enough for me when I was growing up.” The key to dealing with the gate keeper plight is to involve them from the beginning in the discussion and work.
Agree? Disagree? Post a question here or contact John Crabtree, johnc@cfra.org
Center for Rural Affairs
Values. Worth. Action.
posted by Center for Rural Affairs @ 9:53 PM
18 Comments:
At 11:05 PM,
Dougherty Iowa said…
At the risk of sounding parochial, having a devil's advocate that can view development projects through a critical eye does not sound all bad to me.
At 8:47 AM,
Anonymous said…
When a small community's gatekeepers are working together, wonderful things can happen. When the gatekeepers have territorial issues, which most often is the case, rural/community development comes to a stand still.
At 1:12 PM,
Anonymous said…
By involving the traditional rural gatekeeper in the discussion and the work, you stand a chance of quickly finding out gatekeeper's interest level. For example, if you were to request participation from gatekeeper for someone in their organization to become involved in the discussion and/or work, the "rank" of the person assigned to the discussion and/or work, if not gatekeeper, may be an initial indication of gatekeeper's interest. -Rural McCook, NE.
At 1:25 PM,
Anonymous said…
And, i guess it would follow that a gatekeeper's willingness to engage (show up for meetings, etc.) is also an indication of level of support. I know that is generally true, but, a gatekeeper might use more passive-agressive techniques to "show" their lack of support (for example, volunteer to help with a project but not show up). So, the point here, and as I understand it, the point by rural mccook is to fully engage the gatekeeper, even if their input is not always or even usually positive.
At 1:57 PM,
Anonymous said…
You know what, I think that when communities have people that go to that much effort to be negative, you just have to either go around them or go over them. I get sick of building consensus, just keep moving forward.
At 11:03 AM,
Anonymous said…
There has been tremendous discussion about all this and I was reading the Opinion section in the Fargo Forum this morning and the Editor's comments were excellent and I thought that I would share them with you since they address our discussions.
Mr. Von Pinnon stresses that communities in rural America need to adopt the attitude "It's not having what you want, it's wanting what you've got" which he quoted from Sheryl Crow.
Let's face it- we will never be able to compete jobs and wages with "the big cities" but we can offer some other types of incentives that young families will quickly turn their head's and take notice.
Offer tax incentives to allow parents to stay home during their child's first year?
Offer free child care to parents until their children enter kindergarten and pay the child-care providers enough to make it worth it.
Pay our senior citizens population to teach the younger generation how to save and spend their money more wisely?
I think that anyone that has participated in this discussion agrees that people that live in rural America aren't looking for the fat paycheck, but rather a better way of life.
Legislative sessions are beginning this week and I thought these were some great ideas to propose to them.
At 6:16 PM,
Anonymous said…
Perhaps you're right, perhaps rural people will always play second fiddle to the "big cities" when it comes to wages and jobs.
But I just do not like accepting that, why should rural people get paid less than their ubran cousins?
At 6:37 PM,
Anonymous said…
Well its a double edge sword really. People that live in smaller communities get paid less, but the cost of living tends to be lower as well, for example housing and rent.
I do agree with you that just because you live in a smaller area, you shouldn't have to sacrifice receiving benefits which I see in my area.
At 6:48 PM,
Anonymous said…
Other than housing, which is a signficant cost, I admit, the cost of living in a rural community is NOT lower than living in most cities
At 7:40 PM,
Anonymous said…
I wonder how many employers besides this blog's sponsor, CFRA, or the state of Nebraska for example, permit working from home in order to enhance rural living and/or help cut travel/commute costs? This may be another idea to Nicole's stated tax incentives for potential or existing employers??? -Rural McCook, NE.
At 8:13 PM,
Center for Rural Affairs said…
That is a good idea, the Center for Rural Affairs does allow staff to work from home. We have staff working from rural communities across Nebraska (and one in Lincoln) which helps more communities than just Lyons. And, of course, a number of us live here in Lyons as well.
I think, to carry your thought a step further, that we should look at ways for the state of Nebraska to do even more in this regard. Telecommuting is a reasonable option for many state functions. Not every function of the state needs to be located in Lincoln.
John Crabtree
At 11:40 AM,
Anonymous said…
I agree. And, with the Center and supporters help, perhaps there is a way to enlist NE (and other states) in a telecommuting work effort for eager rural workers. Paying taxes, which supports the government jobs, doesn't stop at the urban, city limits. -Rural McCook, NE
At 12:47 PM,
Anonymous said…
rural mccook, do you know of other states that have established such telecommuting systems? I'm just wondering if there are any examples out there to consider?
Dougherty, Iowa
At 2:09 PM,
Anonymous said…
Without doing some research, no, I have no direct knowledge of other states being organized in telecommuting. Project anyone? How many of us are there divided by 50 states, or minimally a specific region for starters? -Rural McCook, NE.
At 2:19 PM,
Center for Rural Affairs said…
Most of our active readers and commentors are from NE, IA, MN, ND, SD, KS, CO and a sprinkling from other states (more in Midwest and Great Plains than elsewhere, but we've gad cooments for a lot of states. John Crabtree, johnc@cfra.org
At 1:07 AM,
Center for Rural Affairs said…
Let me try that last sentence again...
We've gotten comments from a lot of states...
At 6:49 PM,
Anonymous said…
I'll wait another day for a couple more of the states John noted to reply, then I'll post and/or pass along to John what I've discovered about telecommuting job options with state governments. I made (general) inquiries to the states that John listed. -Rural McCook, NE.
At 3:08 PM,
Unknown said…
The National Rural Health Association (NRHA) is a national nonprofit membership organization with more than 18,000 members. The association’s mission is to improve the health and well-being of rural Americans and to provide leadership on rural health issues through advocacy, communications, sportsbook, education, research and leadership. The NRHA membership is made up of a diverse collection of individuals and organizations, all of whom share the common bond of an interest in rural health.
http://www.enterbet.com
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