Plan unfurled to recruit new residents

By BUSINESS EXPANSION AND RETENTION

Castle Country Business Expansion and Retention rolled out a full fledged Demographic Recruitment program on May 10 at its general board meeting.
“What will make this program work will be you and the residents of Castle Country,” said Richard Shaw, whose company has helped develop the effort for BEAR. “We need everyone in this area who is on social media to send out the link to our Demographic Recruitment website so we can get penetration in markets everywhere.”
Shaw said that the idea of Demographic Recruitment was not a new one.  With today’s digital tools to reach people it is something that can finally be effective in bringing new people to the area.
Demographic Recruitment centers on one central idea: the recruitment of individuals, rather than  corporate entities, to bring economic growth.
“Over my years working at the Sun Advocate as editor and publisher, I did a lot of historical research,” said Shaw. “What I found was that the two county area would work really hard to try and diversify business when the price of coal was down, but when it went back up it seemed almost everyone would abandon the initiative.”
That has been going on for 70 or 80 years, says Shaw. And in addition the efforts were always to bring big business here.
In reality, the area could not support a company that offered a 1,000 jobs.     
“We just don’t have the workforce,” he said.
But by recruiting individuals who are of independent means who will live in the area or small independent business people who may telecommute, we can grow through attracting people, “a little at a time, instead of through large firms.”
The idea is that those who relocated here will spend money, use services and pay taxes. And some may even start up their own small businesses in the area.
The effort that culminated in Thursday’s presentation began about two years ago when a committee was formed by the BEAR executive board to put such an effort together.
The committee consisted of Jordan Leonard, the Economic Development Director for Emery County, Ryan Murray, who heads up the Small Business Development Center and Ethan Migliori, who is the Director of the Center for Workplace Development on the USU Eastern Campus.
Shaw’s Company, Red Dog Communications, was then added to the committee to help do the actual physical development of the campaign.
Consequently the idea of how to get people to look seriously about moving to Castle Country took shape.  One concept to pitch the  area is that it is a great place for outdoor recreation and is fairly close to metropolitan areas without big city problems.
 The story of transplants to the area could be a key to recruiting other people to come here. The committee interviewed a number of people who moved to the area and have stayed, using their testaments in both videos on the website and in the blogs that accompany it as well.
“This is one of the ways everyone who has come here from somewhere else can help us,” Shaw said. “We need your stories. We need your point of view.”
After showing off the work to the 40 or more business people assembled, Shaw said, “If you think some of the videos are a little hokey, they were meant to be that way. We think humor has its place in helping people to think about relocating here.”
    The blogs on the site are not static but refreshed with new photos and copy between one and three times a week.
    BEAR is using a three-pronged approach to get people interested in relocation.
    First, everyone involved in BEAR, from the casual attendee to board members, can send out the link to everyone they know and ask for it to be forwarded to people that their contacts know as well. In addition if BEAR members have people they know that might be interested, the website can be a great recruiting tool.
Second, Emery Telcom’s television services are going to begin playing one of the videos this month on their network of stations. The website’s address (whereshouldilive.org) is prominently displayed on the videos.
Third, group recruiting will take place in various places across the metropolitan areas of the Wasatch Front. BEAR will be looking to present concepts concerning living in Castle Country to people through organizational meetings and other types of events.
Murray also addressed the group saying that the website is really at this point a Beta Test of what is being done.
“We are asking you to tell us what you think and how it can be improved,” he said. “We want your input so we can make it a great tool to use.”
Financial support for the project has come from BEAR as well as from the Carbon Emery Board of Realtors, Castleview Hospital, Peczuh Printing and the Tony Basso Group.