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Building Communities
Practical Tools and Information
Kathy Tweeten, director, NDSU Center for Community
Vitality
NDSU Extension Service, community
economic development specialist
This newsletter is meant to share practical tools and information to assist you in your important role in community and economic development work. We welcome comments on current letters plus encourage your advice for future articles.
Kathy
Content
► Editorial- Why do People Cooperate?
► Fiscal Impact Tool
►
Professional Opportunities
►
North Dakota Tourism Annual Report
►
Festivals and Events Planning
Editorial – "Why do people Cooperate?"
What makes some groups work so effectively that no matter what the
obstacles, they seem to move forward, while other groups, and with seemingly all
the right resources, cannot make any headway? Maybe the work of Robert Kuzban,
an evolutionary psychologist who specializes in the psychology of cooperation
and teaches at the University of
Pennsylvania, can help us answer
this question. I attended a seminar by Kuzban last summer and have thought a
great deal about what he shared and how it might apply to the groups with which
I work. He talks about trust being a large factor in how much people contribute.
People trust that each will do his or her part and do it to the best of his or
her ability. If a group has high trust, members don't worry about anyone
shirking his or her responsibility. Kuzban says there are three kinds of people
in most groups. They are the free riders, about 20 percent, the cooperators at
about 13 percent and the reciprocators at about 63 percent. The free riders are
just that. They don't do much but take a lot. The cooperators contribute no
matter what others are doing and the reciprocators do what the least cooperative
member does. In other words, the reciprocators are willing to contribute to the
extent that others contribute. People tend to look to the least cooperative
member and perform like him/her. This is bad news if you have a poor performer
on your team. He/she may very well bring down the contributions of the majority
of the team. Of course, things are not always so simple, and how groups and
group members’ act will depend a lot on the particular circumstances.
Sincerely,
Kathy Tweeten
NDSU Center for Community Vitality director and
community economic development Extension specialist
Fiscal Impact Tool (FIT)
Software for making a
quick estimate of the local fiscal impact of economic development activity
Source: Daniel Gorin, Federal Reserve Bank,
Washington DC
The Federal Reserve Fiscal Impact Tool is an automated process, in the form of an Excel workbook, for estimating the effects of proposed economic development projects on local sales and property tax revenues, and costs to local government. The estimates are based on user-provided information about the project (such as location and number of jobs) and the locality (such as tax rates and one-time government costs); default values embedded in the application that can be modified by the user for greater specificity; and simple assumptions made by the tool's developers. FIT enhances the analysis by providing supplemental information.
FIT is intended for economic and community development professionals, primarily in small and midsize communities. It can be used to learn about the general costs and benefits of proposed projects. Or it can be used as an aid in decision making, providing information on the extent of support a community or region might be able to afford when planning for different development possibilities.
FIT provides a quick analysis of the impact of proposed
economic development. Users can increase the precision by providing more
detailed data and by reviewing the parameters of the project more broadly.
Go to:
www.federalreserve.gov/forms/fiscalimpactrequest.cfm
to request a copy of the software. Make sure you specify the region you want.
Professional Opportunities
Source: Business Retention & Expansion International, North Dakota Department of Commerce Tourism Division and Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines, Iowa
Marketing Madness - North Dakota Tourism Conference
April 30-May 2, 2006, Minot, N.D.
Speakers include: Don McEachern, “Demystifying Branding for Tourism”
Steve Jermanok, travel writer
Roger Brooks, “The Immutable Rules of Successful Tourism”
Go to: https://registration.ndtourism.com
Business Retention and Expansion International Annual conference
May 17-19, 2006, Omaha, Neb.
Speakers include: Terry Whipple, “Cultivating Entrepreneurship”
Ken Stone, “The Impact of Big Box Retailers on BR&E”
Plus: numerous concurrent sessions, preconference certification training and more.
Go to www.brei.org for registration information.
Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines Annual Conferences
Aug. 8-9, 2006 (for the Dakotas), Sioux Falls, S.D.
Speakers include:
Ben Stein, award-winning actor, economist, writer, journalist and teacher
Plus numerous concurrent sessions.
Go to www.fhlbdm.com to register online and for more information.
North Dakota Tourism Annual Report
Source: North Dakota Department of Commerce Tourism Division
Good news for North Dakota tourism. - According to Sara Otto Coleman, tourism director, “Visitor statistics, although mixed, do show growth. Although state park visitations and major attraction numbers were down 5 percent and 6 percent, respectively, the four national park areas showed a 15 percent increase. The cumulative lodging tax collected at the local level was up 11 percent, with the state’s 1 percent lodging tax showing growth at 8 percent. This mixture of increased visitor spending and some decreases in admissions was seen across the country in 2005. The number of inquiries we received was up 23 percent, and the number of unique visitors to our Web site is up an estimated 15 percent.
“NDSU research also indicated growth in out-of-state visitor spending, keeping tourism as North Dakota’s second largest industry, with $3.36 billion spent in 2004.”
For more information on North Dakota tourism, go to www.ndtourism.com.
Closing Correctly
Source: Jane Haskell, Extension educator, University of Maine Cooperative Extension
Effective adult educators use small-group methods to maximize each learner’s potential and involve participants in their own learning processes. Learning takes place from the time participates enter the room until they leave. They will tend to remember what happened first and what happened last, so in any meeting, the closing is just as important as a good first impression.
Just as effective openers bring participants mentally into the workshop or meeting and connect them with others and the content, closings connect the learners with what new knowledge or awareness they have gained.
An effective closing contains one or more of the following elements: a sense of value or meaning, action planning, a sense of accomplishment or movement and completeness.
Ask people to share their most important take away, how they will use the new information, etc. If learners acknowledge what they leave with and acknowledge how useful it is for them, the likelihood increases that it will be transferred into action.
