Past Reimagining Rural Events
2025 Reimagining Rural
Session 1 | TRENDS IN RURAL MONTANA
Tuesday, February 4
Tara Mastel, MSU Extension, utilizes recent data to share current trends across the
state. Plus, success stories from small towns across Montana.
Tara Mastel is Program Lead for Community Vitality at MSU Extension where she works to support rural community vitality and local leaders. She served nearly ten years as a Community and Economic Development Extension Agent in Jefferson County Montana where she led a range of projects including historic building renovations, industrial park development, farmer’s markets and local community foundations. Tara grew up in Wolf Point and lives with her family in Red Lodge.
Session 2 | SMALL-TOWN SUCCESS STORIES
Tuesday, February 11
Hear from some of your neighbors who are getting stuff done in small towns across the state. You’ll hear from Vaughn Zenko of Baker, Jenn Swanson, Shelby Jones-Dozier of Choteau, and the Winnett Aces.
Vaughn Zenko is a Montana Nonprofit Association Ambassador and has been the Executive Director of SMART in Baker, Montana, since 2021, driving economic growth and community revitalization across Fallon County. With a proven track record of securing over $1.4 million in grant funding for Fallon County, Vaughn is dedicated to fostering innovative projects and partnerships that both improve quality of life and support local businesses and was named Baker’s “Citizen of the Year” for 2023.
Before joining SMART, Vaughn served as a morning radio host and play-by-play announcer for Baker High School sports, connecting with the community through storytelling and live broadcasts. His experience spans economic development, community engagement, and public communication, making him a versatile and passionate leader.
Shelby Jones-Dozier has been with Montana State University as a Family and Consumer Science and 4-H Youth Development Agent for close to two years in Teton County. Community Vitality is an area of her work that she is passionate about because of its potential to create thriving communities and support healthy families. Before coming to Extension, she was a high-school science teacher in rural Montana.
Session 3 | TRANSFORMING CIVIC APATHY INTO COMMUNITY PRIDE
Tuesday, February 18
Jeff Siegler, of Revitalize or Die, believes revitalizing communities is the most important work we can do. It has the power to transform people’s lives by fostering a stronger sense of community. Jeff has dedicated himself to killing apathy- one town at a time. Plus, we’ll hear from Broadus, a small town that invited Jeff in to help kickstart their civic overhaul.
2024 Reimagining Rural
From thought-provoking guest speakers to inspiring local stories, the 2024 reimagining rural series was a great opportunity to learn and grow together.
Session 1 | Monday, January 29
Tara Mastel, MSU Extension Community Vitality kicked off the first night of Reimagining Rural with data to debunk the myth, “small towns are dying.” Plus, we heard from the community of Roundup on their downtown revitalization success story.
Session 2 | Monday, February 12
On night two of the winter session of Reimagining Rural, Sabre Moore of the Carter County Museum shared more about Ekalaka's journey with Reimagining rural program over the past few years and the impact it has made on their community. Additionally, the forces behind SaveYour.Town Deb Brown and Becky McCray shared their research-backed, Idea Friendly Method that helps communities be more resilient and open to new ideas.
Session 3 | Monday, February 26
On the third and final night of the 2024 Reimagining Rural session, Rebecca Undem shared love notes and wisdom for the doers, dreamers, and spark plugs in small towns. From finding co-strivers to enduring idea squashers, Rebecca divulges her own story of success from Oakes, North Dakota, and some of the inspiration behind "Growing Small Towns."
2023 Reimagining Rural Inspiration Hour
Making things happen in small towns.
Visit here for more information.
2023 Reimagining Rural Gathering - June 13, 2023 - Townsend, MT
A successful one day, in-person conference for funders, policy makers, and partners invested in a vibrant future for rural Montana. The morning session was an overview of changes afoot in rural Montana and ways organizations are adapting to make an impact in remote communities. The afternoon session included speakers from four communities across the state who shared how they engaged their community and accomplished inspiring projects. Throughout the day, people had the opportunity to connect with peer organizations to discuss new ideas and learn how to work better with rural communities to help them achieve their vision and goals. Click here for more information about the conference and resources available.
2022 Reimagining Rural recordings:
- Thursday, September 8 – Montana’s own rural “Brain Gain”. Reframe your view of rural with "Brain Gain" research that shows rural is changing, not dying. Tara Mastel, MSU Extension Associate Specialist, will share a new way to look at the changes happening in our rural towns.
- Thursday, September 22 – The "Idea Friendly" Way to Get Things Done. Becky McCray and Deb Brown’s “Idea Friendly Method” is a revolutionary way to accomplish a lot with little money and nocommittees! Becky and Deb are back by popular demand.
- Thursday, October 6 – Success in a Small Town. A small Montana town success story accomplished by volunteers and things they already had will be featured to inspire your community members to imagine what is possible.
Participating communities:
- Receive up to $200 to defray costs of local event.
- Have community coaching available as you plan your local event.
- Receive free facilitator training for the local facilitator you chose.
- Receive individualized free marketing materials to assist in local promotion.
- Have access to county data on some of the changes happening.
2021 Reimagining Rural recordings:
- September 13, 2021. Rewriting the Rural Narrative. Reframe your view of rural with "Brain Gain" author Ben Winchester. View the recording of the September 13th talk here: https://youtu.be/CE4y_YAGhAs .
- September 27, 2021. We did it and you can too! Short stories of successful projects from rural Montana community leaders that made things happen. View the recording of the Sept 27th session here:
- October 4, 2021. Winning in Winnett MT. Hear about how residents in Winnett MT, population 182, went from possible dissolution of their county to a robust Beef to Schools program, new housing and construction of a new community center. View the recording of this session here: https://youtu.be/BYzhALyfQco .
2020 Reimagining Rural recordings:
- Link to Ben Winchester's talk on Rewriting the Rural Narrative given on September 15, 2020.
- Link to Deb Brown and Becky McCray from Save Your Town speaking about idea friendly ways to save your small town using what resources you have held on September 28, 2020.
- Link to October 13 talk by Sarah Calhoun, founder of Red Ants Pants on the increase in community vitality of White Sulphur Springs.
How it all started. The Fall 2019 In-Person Event
The Reimagining Rural Planning team hosted an in-person event in Harlowton attended by over 100 people in September 2019 to learn about and discuss rural issues with other statewide counterparts. The goal was to raise awareness about rural and build relationships among organizations that have a stake in the success of rural communities.
The Reimagining Rural event had a significant positive impact on the attendees and the audience as indicated by the positive evaluations and the interest in sharing the message of the keynote speaker, Ben Winchester, from the University of Minnesota Extension Center for Community Vitality. Winchester’s “Brain Gain” and positive message about rural life was so relevant that three different organizations invited him to give the keynote address at three separate events in Montana during the spring of 2020.
Bringing Reimagining Rural to Rural
Following the success of the in-person event, the Reimagining Rural planning committee was awarded an outreach grant by Montana State University to recreate the in-person event remotely in 20 rural communities across Montana. The goal of the virtual event was to bring the important message shared by Winchester directly to groups in rural communities so they can learn new ideas and gain inspiration to take positive action in their communities. The resulting program was initially planned for the spring of 2020 but was rescheduled for Fall 2020.
Rescheduled and Expanded Thanks to Additional Partners
Thanks to a partnership with The Burton K. Wheeler Center and additional support from the Montana Community Foundation, we were able to increase the number of communities participating in the fall 2020 program and we were able to expand the program to three days.