Marketing Hometown America holds kickoff event in Kimball

Marketing Hometown America held its kickoff event at the Kimball Event Center Thursday, October 10.

A modest crowd of local residents sat in the Meadowlark Room in the Event Center as Connie Hancock, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension Educator, kicked off the meeting with an explanation for the project.

“The Vice Chancellor of the Institute of Ag and Natural Resources has charged all of us within the university, particularly the College of Ag and Natural Resources and Extension to work on changing the demographics of the state of Nebraska. He wants us to look at lowering the median age by the year 2020,” Hancock said.

According to Hancock, in 2007, research was done on what brings people to the Panhandle with focus groups being built throughout the state, one of which was right here in Kimball. The focus groups were asked to concentrate on specific questions such as what was attracting people to the community, how they were welcomed, and what was the message around it.

As research was compiled, local conversations started among community leaders such as Larissa Binod, Director of Keep Kimball Beautiful, Wilson Bowling, Kimball Economic Development Director, Jo Caskey, Kimball County Tourism Director, and Jennifer Provance, President of the Chamber of Commerce Board, which paved the way for the project to come to Kimball.

“As we think about those collaborations with tourism, economic development and the Chamber of Commerce, that’s a powerful partnership locally that we have that really can do quite a bit as we engage in this conversation and as we create a kind of action plan that you folks want to have for the community for Kimball and the region,” Hancock said.

The project is being funded through the assistant of the University of Nebraska Rural Futures Institute and the USDA National Research Initiative, according to UNL Extension Community and Economic Development Speacialist Cheryl Burkhart-Kriesel.

“The Rural Futures Institute is sort of one of the spark plugs for getting this going. We actually were chosen in a grant process and brought this opportunity to Kimball,” Kriesel said.

According to Kriesel, Marketing Hometown America is a way to counteract the seemingly defeatist belief that with declining numbers residents should give up and adapt a “the last ones in town should turn off the lights and shut the door” mentality which taints marketing strategies.

“One of the key things that new residents told us is that rural communities do kind of a bad job of marketing themselves. They undersell themselves. So the light bulb went on for me saying, ‘Well, we can do something about that. That’s doable,’” Kriesel said.

The program works through the use of Study Circles consisting of six to eight people, where residents come together and work to generate ideas and aspects of the community which they would like to promote and market to people in other parts of the country to try to bring them to the community under the direction of one of the projects facilitators.

“The benefits really are that one of the things you’re going to talk about in these study circles and group conversations is what new residents are looking for as they relocate to a community. You’re also going to talk about assets, and what new residents think are an asset to your community. And that might be altogether different than what you as a resident who has been here a while see,” Kriesel said.

The residents participating in the Study Circles will meet for four two and a half hour sessions. The first session will focus on residents connection to their community, getting to know each other, and beginning to look at what residents like about the community. The second session will focus on how the community stacks up to others in the state, considering what people look for when they move to a new place, analyzing census data and filling out a report card for the community.

The third session will have participants asking why people would want to move here, beginning to develop a vision and thinking about marketing points for the community. The fourth and final session will focus on action steps to promote the community, putting together a marketing plan focusing on community strengths and offering project idea to work on that improve community image.

After the fourth session, the community will be invited to participate in a forum to select their favorite ideas from the circles.

“After the public meeting, as you share your marketing plan, we’ll give you dots and everybody has a chance to vote on pieces of the plans they really like. You vote so all of those good ideas are lifted up,” Kriesel said.

However, even plans that don’t get much support at the time could prove to be beneficial in the future, according to Kriesel.

“Now, if no one signs up, there are no stars: the project doesn’t go anywhere. But it’s also good to know that you have these ideas and projects and this kind of came up, because there could be opportunities down the road where the timing could be right, the place could be right and that thing could move forward,” Kriesel said.

The benefits that the project, particularly participating in the process, can bring to residents is perhaps best summed up in the words of Kerry Ferguson, who serves as a facilitator for the project.

“There are lots of people that have an idea about what they want to do where they say, ‘They need to do this’ and ‘They need to do that’,” Ferguson said. “It’s refreshing to me to be part of a process where the framework is in place to where we can not just say ‘They out to do that’ but say ‘We can do this.’”

For residents who missed the kickoff meeting, it is not to late to be apart of the project, and Hancock and Kriesel welcome any resident interested to reach out and join.

“If as you engage in conversation tomorrow and the next day and there are other people that want to participate, the chamber has agreed to be that kind of spot where we can filter in those conversations so give Betty a call at the chamber office to give her the names of people that want to be participants, and we’ll connect them with facilitators and study circles,” Hancock said.

Study Circles will be meeting at facilitators’ discretion throughout the coming weeks with the full group of participants slated to next congregate together for the Action Forum on November 21.