posted on August 02, 2010 10:59
Editor's Note: This week is the first entry from our new Promotions Specialist Mary Stotler. Welcome to the team, Mary!
By Mary Stotler
Promotions Specialist
Michigan Main Street Center
Michigan State Housing Development Authority
As Promotions Specialist for the Michigan Main Street program, part of my job will be to make sure communities take seriously the need for marketing and promotion. But that may not be easy. Promotions is often seen as the party committee; instead, it’s the group charged with getting people downtown. But until one takes that mile-long hike in someone else’s penny-loafers, it’s difficult to understand another’s purpose.
I have had a diverse employment history I suppose, and with each career change I’ve had to rethink many of my misconceptions. As a graduate student, and later as a community college instructor, I taught English to college freshmen. Their lack of preparation for college-level work was appalling. I couldn’t imagine what those stupid high school teachers were doing.
For my sins, I was thereby sentenced to teach high school for a few semesters.
What I learned from that eye-popping experience was that most teachers genuinely care about students and labor for their success. Teachers are also grossly underpaid and overburdened. Students are indeed presented with all the essential skills they need for college, but while they pass the tests, they just don’t absorb the material. It seemed, too, that parents simply didn’t care about their children’s success.
After that, I worked as a branch director in a Boys & Girls Club, where I assumed I’d be working again with children whose parents couldn’t care less about their success. Untrue, again. While the families were often struggling, they all had a deep interest in helping their children succeed. It was there I learned that if I made their kids – and them – look good, people would support my crazy ideas. In return, they learned that I would do everything in my power to justify their faith in me.
BGC is a non-profit, so clearly all the problems these families encountered were the fault of a lazy, bureaucratic government.
After that, I worked for over 5 years with the City of Freeport, Texas as a Main Street Manager. The most important thing I learned there – aside from reinforcing the idea that people would support crazy ideas as long as they came out looking good – is that a person doesn’t go into government for the glory, and certainly not for the money. Like teaching, they go into it with a genuine passion for helping others. It’s not just thankless work; it’s often subject to outright ridicule and abuse. But they go on trying, anyway.
So I’ve learned a lot over the years about trying not to judge other people’s jobs until I really know what they’re about. And I’m hoping that our new Main Street communities especially will keep an open mind about the need for marketing their downtowns. As in my previous careers, I hope they’re open to crazy ideas and that I’ll be able to justify their faith in me.