With the fancy Masters diploma in hand, Brian considered a job working for one of the big eight accounting firms in their consulting division.  But what did he really know that could be offered in that environment?

As Brian was concluding that this did not feel right, his newlywed wife Suzy, a proud graduate of La Grande High School, plugged her nose and mentioned that the competing town right down the road, Baker City, was advertising for an economic development director.  While the notion of shifting from the blue and white La Grande Tigers to the purple and gold Baker Bulldogs was a stretch for Suzy, a job was a job and they needed to get on with life.

Brian applied.  He interviewed.  His first day on the job was June 15, 1987.

With a father as a civically-engaged extrovert, Brian had it in his blood to engage with people, focus on projects, and get things done.  He figured that’s the way life was supposed to be.  He had never known anything else.

For the next 6½ -years, that is all he experienced:  think about it, write about it, meet about it, collect all the resources, build it, operate it, rinse, and repeat.  Over and over again little Baker City, Oregon, population 10,000, and Baker County, Oregon population 17,000 would succeed at everything they put their mind to.

Everything.

Of the dozens of successful projects, one experience stands out to Brian the most.  It was the first day on the job and the gist was, "Hey kid, we’re going to go build the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center.  There’s a group of volunteers.  Get to it."

Brian isn't not sure about the others, but it never occurred to him that the Interpretive Center would not be built.  "Of course it would.  We had it in our minds.  We were working together.  There was a plausible path forward every day.  Just get up and take the next step.  We will get there."

At the time, Brian really did not realize what he was learning.  This was a "destination tourism" strategy.  The city possessed many of the "key success factors."  They were inventing and implementing the organizing, planning, and execution "action steps."  They were living in an "Action Community."

Brian did not really know any of those terms during the period from June 1987 through the end of 1993, but over the next 20 years he would spend a lot of time thinking about it.

 

Next up:  Applying for the Economic Development Job