How I Became a Strong Towns Member—and Why You Should Do the Same
It’s Member Week! Join the movement that’s building stronger towns across North America today!
I can’t remember exactly when I first met Chuck. Probably 2012 or 2013. I was working for my local government in Lafayette, Louisiana (yes, that Lafayette), and our Downtown Development Authority Director Nathan Norris recommended we bring Chuck to town.
We were working on a comprehensive plan at the time, led out of the City-Parish President’s office. At the time, planning was often linked to “Agenda 21” and “left wing” conspiracies, and Nathan knew that Chuck’s message appealed across the political spectrum. If anyone could communicate planning concepts in a conservative-leaning community, it was Chuck.
From that first visit, I was hooked. Strong Towns and Chuck were consistently able to ensure that a non-partisan message could get through to those who were willing to listen. He helped our community build support for a comprehensive plan (later adopted in 2014), worked with our team and Joe Minicozzi to model out a cutting-edge return on investment tool shortly thereafter, and has visited us several times since.
Strong Towns always cared about what was happening in my community and could help me think about how to improve it in ways within my control. Despite my reliance on Strong Towns’ message, it was a long time before I realized that I should support this work through membership. While I would often google Strong Towns in my work to see if the organization had advice or tips on a particular city-building issue I was facing, membership in a national organization wasn’t for me. I was all local all the time.
Something changed during and after COVID. First, I signed up for the Academy package. I will confess that I did that mostly to support the work of Strong Towns and less to take the courses (I don’t want to look up my completion rate). And it got me thinking. I supported the Academy courses because the insights Strong Towns provides are important to me. They have helped shape how I think about my community in ways that are productive and helpful. Strong Towns was helping me be better and more effective in my own community. I wanted to support them, and I needed their work in the world. It was shortly thereafter that I became a member.
Today, I am fortunate to serve as the chief of staff in this growing but still young organization. I have a bird’s eye view to how our members live at the heart of our work every day.
We are seeking to bring a unique set of ideas into the broader mainstream of dialogue about how cities grow and flourish. Over the years, Chuck and all the team members have built an impressive communication infrastructure to do that. And from where you sit, it may not be clear how much we depend on the support of our members to do that.
Members are our movement. Our members are our inner circle, our heroes, our best lessons, our biggest challenges, and our friends. Becoming a member is taking a step from “I believe this stuff” to “I am a part of this movement.”
Growing this circle is the only way we achieve our mission. We have big goals, and if you’re reading this, we want you to be a part of it.
Strong Towns is helping local leaders, technical professionals and involved residents across North America make their communities more prosperous and financially resilient.
This movement needs you. Become a member today.
Carlee Alm-LaBar is the Chief of Staff for Strong Towns. Carlee has become a champion for strong communities and civic engagement through her work in Lafayette, Louisiana. She has held senior leadership roles in local government and nonprofit organizations. When she’s not with her husband Will or dog Jozy, she spends her spare time volunteering with a variety of local organizations that build connections between people and empower local residents. Carlee graduated Magna Cum Laude from Northwestern University and holds a master’s degree in Public Administration from Louisiana State University.