Before you answer that, take a moment and consider what Jim Beddow and the Rural Learning Center are doing.

Beddow by himself won’t stop the decline in rural South Dakota or even inspire those still living there to have larger families to keep the schools open.

However, in some cases, there is a spark of hope that wasn’t there before, and it stems in part from the different approach Beddow is touting as the future.

Instead of “revitalizing” small towns and trying to rebuild them into the retail and service centers they were 50 years ago - something almost everyone agrees can’t happen - Beddow’s buzzword is “transformation,” which means small towns can rebound but they will look, feel and act differently than they did in the heydays of the 1950s and ’60s.

Small town survival cannot depend on attracting a new industry or retail store, though some communities have been fortunate enough to see ethanol plants sprout up, as well as other types of ag-related business.

Other approaches are required for transformation to occur, and some show promise:

* In Faith, a town of 500 in the far northeastern corner of Meade County, town folks have formed a not-for-profit wind farm. The goal is to establish 45 turbines and develop a revenue stream to support the schools. “They are,” Beddow remarked, “looking at the future differently.”

* In Eden, a Marshall County village of 97, the local economic development corporation is buying up older homes that previously were snapped up by hunters and fishermen from the Twin Cities and Sioux Falls who live there annually, but only for a short period of time. Eden hopes that preserving those homes for seniors and young families will act as an additional inducement to locate there. Community leaders say they wish they had started the buy-ups 15 years earlier.

* Near Wessington Springs, a hunting lodge owner is converting his ranch to native grass with an eye toward attracting visitors heading west in summer. The lodge works well for fall and winter hunting; some tourists seeking a genuine ranch or rural experience in the summer would result in fuller use of facilities.

* Some in Jerauld County are thinking about a tour of classic churches along state Highway 34 as a sort of rural tourism attraction. The churches are Belleview Lutheran Church north of Howard, Sun Prairie Baptist Church south of Howard, and St. Wilfrid Catholic Church in Woonsocket.

Different kinds of enterprises are important in rebuilding the rural economy and they fit well with a changing lifestyle, both in work and play, Beddow thinks.

“People have gotten interested in active vacations, getting out and doing things as opposed to observing things,” he contends. “Where we work and live are increasingly two different places. Forty years ago they were the same place. Now we have people driving all over.”

The seed for the Rural Learning Center was planted in 1993 when Beddow was president of Dakota Wesleyan University. His idea, that it was time to garden not hunt, appears to have taken root. For some small communities it makes sense because if they focus on jobs recruitment from the outside, they likely will be disappointed.

Instead, the emphasis is leadership within those communities and working with other communities in a collaborative way.

The Rural Learning Center, now in its fourth year, is building a new home in Howard. Given Miner County’s aggressive role in finding new ways to grow in recent years, the location is perfect.

Communities for the most part reflect local leadership. However, for small towns, strong, visionary leadership often is at a premium simply because there are fewer numbers to draw from. That’s where Beddow and the Rural Center can play an important role.

It may be the best thing that’s happened for out-state South Dakota in a long time.