2023 Theme: The Idea Friendly Way is the Easy Way

We have new tools and new ways to do things.

No one has to take minutes, and no one is in charge of forcing accountability on others. There’s no deciding, no voting, no shaming.

You don’t have to get everything planned out to the Last Detail before you ever get started. You sure don’t need yet another plan on your shelf. You don’t have to do everything yourself, or waste a lot of time trying to drag people into doing what they said they would do. 

We can involve a lot more of the community, reach new people, and accomplish big things in new small ways. That’s the Idea Friendly Way.

You don’t have to learn a bunch of new skills

You already use social media, messaging and collaborative online tools. The Idea Friendly Method gives you a simple way to accomplish more together. 

As you follow our newsletters, videos and audios, you learn the new behaviors and how to describe them. That lays the groundwork for new ways of doing things with you and your community. 

Doing things the Idea Friendly way saves you time and cuts down on your workload.

The old formality that held you back will drop away. No committees means no committee meetings! You’ll spend less time debating and planning when everyone can try their own ideas and do quick tests. 

You may feel a little lost at first without the usual committees, action teams, task forces, officers, meetings, agendas, minutes, and reports. When you feel that anxiety, pause and think about your real goal. 

Your goal isn’t about maintaining an organization the way it used to be. Your goal is building your community. And that means doing things that aren’t efficient, where you aren’t in control. And you’ll all have more fun with get-togethers, self-organized crowds, smaller actions, doing things and enjoying challenges together. 

You’ll be a magnet for people who want to create positive change without forming yet another committee.

How you’ll learn more, throughout 2023

Essential community building topics we have planned are: 

• The Idea Friendly Method – It’s the foundation of doing things the new way.
• Finding Volunteers – kill your committees and reach people the easy way. 
• Youth Engagement – We’ll be speaking directly to young people who have ideas with a new video you can use with kids in your own community. 

We don’t plan the whole year in advance. We respond to what you need.

Right now, the escalating price of food is hurting many small town people, so we’ll be sharing updates to our Food Build Community video and audio. 

You’ll continue to share your challenges with us, and we’ll adapt to your needs throughout the year.

Building unified communities, treating each other fairly and opening up opportunity to more people

Over the past few years, we’ve used themes to unify what we share with you.

2021: Building community despite divisions

2022: Building fair and unified communities

2023: The Idea Friendly Way is the easy way: Open opportunities to more people

We know that bringing people together across divides is the best thing you can do to rebuild the fabric of your community. We can build more fairness into what we already do and open opportunities to a wider range of people. And we open opportunities to more people by helping them use the easier ways. 

What this means for you, your community and the world

The small towns that thrive into the future will be the ones that are open to new ideas. The power to act is in the hands of all the people now, including you. 

Throughout this year and always, we teach you the method that unleashes the power of everyday people like you to take action. Little by little, action rewrites people’s programming and values in positive ways. And that is how we are going to do our small part to rebuild the fabric of our communities and countries together. 

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