March 17, 2005

C of C director quits unexpectedly

By Lauren Heaton

Betsy Newman, the director of the Yellow Springs Chamber of Commerce, handed in her resignation last Wednesday after 11 years with the organization. \

Newman will leave her job March 18, following a month of unrest among some downtown merchants who claimed the Chamber and its director were ineffective in promoting business in Yellow Springs.

But far from being pressured to leave, Newman said she decided on her own to resign the Chamber.

She declined to comment further for this article, saying that she had a lot to do to prepare for her replacement.

Newman’s resignation came as a surprise to Don Hollister, the acting Chamber president, who said he thought Newman had decided to stay, despite the recent conflict between her and some Chamber members.

In her resignation letter, Newman said she timed her departure to allow her replacement to start organizing the Street Fair from the beginning rather than being thrown in midway through the process, Hollister said.

But Hollister also said that over the past year Newman has felt unappreciated for the work she does at the Chamber.

“As a volunteer, I’ve been aware that occasionally she’s found the job increasingly thankless,” Hollister said.

Newman’s resignation gives the Chamber short notice to find a temporary coordinator for the June 11 Street Fair and an interim Chamber director, positions that need to be filled as soon as possible, Hollister said.

To complicate matters, chamber volunteers Pam Adams and Kay Curley have stated they will leave the Chamber as a sign of solidarity to Newman. The organization’s other volunteers are Hollister, Kay Corbin, Hardy Ballantine, Olga Harris, Betty Hairston and John Hart.

Elsie Hevelin, who is a paid staff member at the Chamber, will keep the organization’s office, located in the Train Station, open for its regular weekend hours, from 1 to 5 p.m.

Unless these or other volunteers agree to cover the Chamber’s normal hours on the weekdays, Hollister said, the office will essentially be closed until replacement staff is found.

Newman was largely responsible for having the Chamber’s office moved from its former location on Dayton Street to the Train Station replica in 2000, when the Chamber also took on the function of a visitors’ center, Newman said during an interview several weeks ago.

A page from the Chamber’s daily log book from last year shows Newman or volunteers answered 28 phone, e-mail or visitor inquiries from people looking for shops selling handcrafted jewelry, a restaurant selling ostrich burgers, brochures of the bikepath and Glen Helen and tour bus parking, to name a few examples. According to the log, in a single month last summer the Chamber responded to nearly 650 inquiries about Yellow Springs.

“I sympathize with Betsy. People certainly don’t know how much work she has done,” Hollister said. “We’re losing a quiet advocate of the village economy.”

Those who criticize the Chamber’s role say that Newman did not focus on advertising and public relations activities to draw people from out of town to shop or to encourage villagers to shop locally. Last month nearly 40 retailers signed a petition circulated by Don Beard, who owns Peach’s Grill and the Import House, and Mary Alice Wilson, the owner of Dark Star Books, demanding that the Chamber take a different tack on business promotion and hire a new director.

Wilson said she was surprised that Newman resigned, which was not the petitioners’ intention. Many of the merchants had hoped for a longer transition period to allow the Chamber to establish new goals and create a plan to accomplish those goals, she said.

Yet among the merchants there is a renewed energy in the air, Wilson said, and committees are forming and meeting regularly to create brochures, collaborate on advertising, and to do the things some members have been asking the director to do for many years, she said.

“I regret that feelings were hurt, but it came down to the fact that we were going to lose much of our downtown retail if things kept on like they were going,” Wilson said.

Others, including Pam Adams, a Chamber volunteer and the co-owner of the Village Herb Shoppe, valued the service Newman provided at the Chamber.

“When someone comes into the Chamber office and Betsy helps them, when they leave I have great confidence that they have a smile on their face and want to come back or want to stay here to live,” Adams said. “We have lost one of our most valuable assets.”

Though Hollister agreed that Newman was an asset, he intends to advocate for the separation of the Chamber of Commerce from its role as a visitor center.

The village still needs a visitor’s center, he said, but not one whose demands prevent the Chamber from serving its own needs. The Chamber also intends to delegate more responsibilities to its members, he said. Chamber members are in the process of forming committees to address their stated need for a business publicist, a mailing list, an evaluation of the organization’s bylaws and possibly a monthly Art Stroll coordinator.

The Chamber membership will begin to address these and other issues as it heads into an introspective strategic planning period next week. The first of a series of meetings takes place Thursday, March 24, at 9 a.m. at Ha Ha Pizza. The meeting is open to the public, but only Chamber members may vote.

Hollister said he is hopeful that the business community can move beyond the details of the change in leadership at the Chamber and focus on how each member can contribute to shaping the Chamber into an organization that serves the village as a whole.

“In the act of criticizing leaders, we’re kind of endorsing the knight in shining armor view of how things get done,” he said. “It’s not just how the economy is doing this month, but how are you managing your own household? An action plan for downtown needs to include 40 to 50 action plans for each store.”