posted on August 10, 2010 07:23
Editor's Note: This week we are fortunate enought to have Owosso Main Street Manager Natalie Burg as our guest blogger. Natalie, like most Main Street Managers, has a diverse background including downtown marketing and freelance writing. Her intent of this post was to give some advice for new Main Street Managers, but we thought the title we gave it was more appropriate. Enjoy the read!
By Natalie Burg
Main Street Manager
Owosso Main Street/DDA
If there’s something you want to do, ask a Main Street manager. Really, anything. If you have a desire to say, start a rock band or open a 401(K) or shoot yourself into outer space, but you really want to do this with someone’s validation and support, just Google “Main Street Office” and ask whoever answers the phone.
Main Street managers love to say yes to things. We will say yes and then agree to be your personal coach. We do this because we like to maintain enthusiasm, to be encouraging, to make things happen, and also because we are, by-and-large, crazy people.
A passion for the affirmative is an essential piece of coordinating volunteers, and is especially in handy during year one with Main Street. If you have a hearty group of ready-and-able volunteers, as we were lucky enough to have in Owosso, a manager is in a perfect position to enjoy an endless stream of yes-we-can-do-that’s and sure-we-give-that-a-try’s.
In year one, our amazing volunteers packed our calendar with all sorts of new events and initiatives and improved upon existing ones. It was fantastic. The board loved it; the community loved it. Yea for us.
And then we found ourselves looking toward year two with the same number of board members, the same number of committees and the same number of really awesome, great ideas for brand new events and activities to add to the program.
Suffice it to say our volunteer base was not prepared handle a twofold calendar. We simply couldn’t do every super, wonderful thing in the suggestion box (not to mention, the completely insane, impossible ones). While this was easy to see, what was not easy was deciding how to pull out the dreaded, awful, icky (dun, dun, DUN…) “no.”
For example, one of my volunteers spent the weekend helping with Old Town’s Festivals of the Sun and Moon, and he was absolutely blown away with delight. He loved it. He thinks we should do the same thing in Owosso, this year. What did I think about next month? Would I come with him to meet with Old Town’s staff to find out what we needed to do? He was open any day next week.
Um…yeah, no. That was not going to happen for a variety of very sane and rational reasons. But how to say that to him in the right way?
Fortunately, there is a great deal of space between “yes” and an unequivocal “no.” One of my favorite bloggers, Derek Sivers would say, there are always more than two answers to any question. After reading a particularly inspiring blog by Sivers on examining multiple options for every quandary, it dawned on me that there are dozens of ways to respond to volunteer ideas, the majority of which are not “yes” or “no,” and far more meaningful than “maybe.”
I was not about to dampen my volunteer’s enthusiasm. So instead of saying “no,” I asked him to think about what his favorite part of that elaborate pair of festivals was, and consider how we could fold, say, a beer tent or an art exhibit or a great music line-up into one of our existing events coming up this year. I’d be happy to contact Old Town and ask for a copy of their work plan.
Success! He seemed to like this suggestion, and I didn’t have to explain to him that his original idea had been totally outside the realm of possibility.
The best news is that in the role of Main Street manager, the opportunity to say yes to things is a frequent one, regardless of where you find yourself in the program. Which is good, as most of us consider agreeing to things somewhere between a hobby and a higher calling. It’s great to know, however, that on the occasions when “yes” isn’t the perfect response, unless an idea is illegal, immoral or unethical, a flat “no” never has to be the answer either.