Community Wisdom, by Maury Forman & Robin Roberts

I met up with Maury Forman, the master economic development humorist from Washington State, at the California Association of Local Economic Development (CALED) annual conference last month. Maury shared a copy of his new book, Community Wisdom, which is chock full of pithy statements, delightful humor, and yes wisdom as the book's title suggests.

Community Wisdom combines keen observations about economic development with intoxicating humor. It's a fun book that isn't afraid to poke a little fun at economic developers and what they do. Maury is right that we tend to take ourselves too seriously at times. During these tough economic times, it helps to laugh. I thank Maury for helping us do that.

Here is taste of what you will find in Community Wisdom: Tips, Ideas and Thoughts for Community Success. "Economic development has three primary strategies: the lottery, which consists of playing the high-stakes game of recruiting a company from the outside; the bread and butter, which refers to retaining and expandsing existing businesses; and the gardening strategy. The gardening strategy refers to seeding businesses within your community. Gardening and bread and butter are where 90 percent of the jobs come from."

Community Wisdom is published by Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company in Dubuque, Iowa.

You can contact Maury Forman at his email address. Click here.