May 5, 2005

Michael Cannon was hired as the office manager of the Chamber of Commerce and Adrienne Chesire is coordinating the June Street Fair for the Chamber.

By Lauren Heaton

The Yellow Springs Chamber of Commerce grew more stable when the organization’s executive committee hired two new, but temporary, staff members to help the C of C through its current transition phase.

Yellow Springs native Adrienne Chesire was hired as the coordinator of the June 11 Street Fair, and local resident Michael Cannon was hired as the Chamber’s office manager. The two part-time people replace Betsy Newman, who resigned as the Chamber’s full-time director in March.

Though Cannon’s position is part-time at 20 hours a week, he does not consider himself a part-time person, he said after his first day at the Chamber on Monday. While he was hired to “hold down the fort” for the next three to six months until the Chamber articulates a new direction for itself, Cannon said he has a list of his own ideas for the Chamber and for Yellow Springs, starting with a change in the Chamber’s identity.

“I consider a chamber to be the hub of the community, and everything that has to do with Yellow Springs should flow through the Chamber,” he said. “I see the village as a holistic thing, and one sector can’t be successful without the others also being successful.”

After rearranging the Chamber’s office in the Train Station to meet his needs, one of the biggest changes Cannon hopes to establish with the Chamber is to open it up and increase the flow of communication. Everyone has an opinion, he said, and everyone’s opinions are worth hearing, and what better place than the Chamber to act as a bully pulpit, funneling ideas through every sector of the village.

As the manager of the Chamber, Cannon wants people to feel comfortable approaching him in the Chamber office or on the street to exchange ideas. “There’s hundreds of great ideas out there, and a lot of them are simple to do right away,” he said. “Every positive thing for the village will reverberate and create more positive things.”

Cannon will continue to run his own graphic design consulting business, MPowerd, from his home in Yellow Springs and work at the Winds Cafe on the weekends while he starts implementing ideas at the Chamber. His technological savvy will help him update the Chamber office and facilitate communication within and beyond the community to help dispel the perception that the Chamber is stagnating, he said.

As Street Fair coordinator, Chesire is an important part of the new direction the Chamber has taken.

Chesire, who is 26, has attended 22 Yellow Springs Street Fairs, she calculated last week. Hearing the music, seeing all the people and getting lost in the hubbub that draws so many people to town has always been exciting for her, she said.

“I love it, it’s busy, I lose my voice, but I’m just so charged at the end of Street Fair,” she said. “I like seeing all the faces and the kids and seeing people charmed by the village.”

An enthusiastic sponsor of a village tradition, Chesire stepped in on April 13 to relieve Street Fair committee volunteers Eric Clark, Josie Inslee, Gail Lichtenfels and Priscilla Moore of some of their duties. Working at the Chamber office 30 hours a week, Chesire will continue to advertise for vendors, register people for the 190 booths, and make sure the village is prepared to make the Saturday events run smoothly.

After graduating from YSHS in 1996, Chesire attended Wright State and the University of Colorado before moving back to Yellow Springs two years ago to be closer to her family. In addition to working for the Chamber, she manages, directs and acts in Dill Star Productions dinner theater troupe, which performs around the area on the weekends.

“Leaving the town helps you understand why it’s such an interesting, great place to live,” she said. Living close to family, Chesire feels she is here to stay and says she would like to remain with the Chamber to coordinate the fall Street Fair as well.

The addition of paid employees means the Chamber, with the help of its members, will be able to maintain its regular hours, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays, and noon to 4 p.m. on weekends, executive committee chairman Don Hollister said.

The Chamber still has the work of strategic planning to do to decide whether hiring a permanent director is needed to accomplish its recently defined mission, he said. The strategic planning committee has held weekly meetings for the past several months to discuss the Chamber’s future goals, while subcommittees have formed to address immediate needs, such as updating the Web site, yellowspringsohio.org.

Mary Alice Wilson, who owns Dark Star Books, said she has confidence in the new employees and feels that there is a new energy motivating Chamber members to get involved and work creatively to promote the village.

“Things are going great,” she said last week. “There’s more communication, more excitement and, frankly, it’s hard to quantify, but there’s quite a bit of hope.”