Keeping it simple

Sisters does not need an elaborate plan for economic development. The most cost-effective and realistic way to promote economic vitality is simply to promote Sisters Country as a destination.

Most folks who have established businesses here came here first as visitors, drawn by recreation opportunities like cycling, golf and camping and/or events like the Rodeo, the Quilt Show and the Sisters Folk Festival. The lure of Sisters is not a business opportunity per se; there are more "sensible" places to site a business. It's the "we have to live here!" factor that convinces people to try to make a go of it in Sisters Country.

The retired couple, the mom-and-pop shopkeeper, the traded-sector company - we get them all the same way: They want to make a life here and they'll do what it takes to make it happen.

Sisters has taken useful steps to help them make it happen, and we can step up those efforts.

Mac Hay described his job as economic development director as primarily that of a "facilitator and point person." In defining the position going forward, the Sisters City Council should embrace that description. Then the focus should turn to marketing Sisters. The Sisters Area Chamber of Commerce has done a lot to enhance the marketing of Sisters' many assets, and more could be done to tell the Sisters story with a relatively modest increase in investment.

The narrative should include the "hidden" side of Sisters: the entrepreneurial pioneers who have made the choice to be here and have created businesses with national and international reach.

The burden of funding marketing and facilitation should not fall entirely or even primarily on the City of Sisters. All the stakeholders must pull together, pool limited resources for maximum effect, and pull out the stops to bring people here and make them want to stay.

Jim Cornelius, Editor