White Paper Submitted by NREDA Member, David Kolzow, President of Team Kolzow, Inc.

"I love living in the country, but it sure is hard to make a living here."

In A New Map for Rural America's New Economic Frontier, Mark Drabenstott wrote, "Probably no single strategy has become more important to rural regions than thinking and acting regionally. Economic strategies are becoming more regional in scope as the realization deepens that regions are where the impacts of globalization are felt. Economists refer to this as the new economic geography, but the evidence is widely seen in budding efforts to think regionally." To again quote Drabenstott, "globalization has made regions the new 'athletes' in the global economic race."


Rural Economic Development: Building a Sustainable Community - White Paper

This paper, a special supplement to the Rural Telcom Educational Series, was produced by the Foundation for Rural Service. The paper was developed by NREDA at the request of FRS to highlight the need for rural telecoms involvement in economic development. NREDA members Dana Baker and Dorrene Benthin, of GVNW in Portland, Ore., provided the majority of the material. NREDA President Pat B. Merritt, CEcD, of Georgia EMC in Atlanta, Ga.,provided collaboration case examples and editing assistance.