Last month, to kick off the New Year, I wrote about Main Street’s strategic planning session that occurred in mid-October last fall. It was facilitated by Wisconsin Economic Development staff and was attended by long time volunteers, current board members, and founding members who created the organization back in 2005.
On tap for that day was recapping our previous plan from 2017 — recognizing accomplishments and changes to downtown — examining our 2022 work plans and budget allocations so we can answer what are we actively prioritizing now, beginning to answer where do we want to be in 5, 10, 20 years, goals, and priorities, and, most importantly, what is the strategic implementation — how do we get there? And how will we know when we make it? I also shared some interesting and key visitor data collected through cell phone data.
There are many components to any strategic plan. Ours includes the visitor experience, residential, supportive environments, and collaborative efforts. But how exactly did we decide on these many components? We did so in a way that was both constructive, to keep us focused and on topic, but also fluid so that nothing was off topic. And while overlapping, each of the main components can be addressed independently.
It’s often said that people never take advantage of things in their own community or region like tourists do. While it happens somewhat infrequently, I’ve worked at a handful of businesses when they are in need of a little extra help. It has been great every time. Part of the reason I love it is because I get to hear first hand about the visitor experience — what brought them to Monroe, how long are they staying, where are they staying, where downtown are they specifically going, and why?
In order to have an increasingly vibrant downtown that includes continued success for Main Street Monroe as an organization — from sustainable funding to attracting young volunteers. But it also includes promoting and improving the visitor experience. We want to increase the overall number of visitors. Our discussions and goals moving forward are both appropriate for looking into the future and also based on needs that have not yet been fully realized but already exist. These range from everything like installing EV charging stations to public restrooms and evaluating our existing events and our programming in general. Programming is a key word because it includes not just event days but things like the summer theme and additional public art installations.
A supportive environment requires collaboration. Like us recruiting and welcoming 10 new businesses in 2022, a great deal of collaboration is required to help promote those businesses, but that is a nonprofit working with the private sector and oftentimes acting as an intermediary with governments. For example, if improving the visitor experience means a supportive environment that allows a variety of new businesses and restaurants to open, Main Street must first address our role in helping make that happen and who else should be brought to the table.
I’m excited to share that by late spring, we will be launching two surveys. One will be focused on business owners downtown and the other will be strictly property owners. The project will be spearheaded by our economic restructuring committee with the goal of helping our board of directors adopt a strategy. It will be based on committee and community input, with all of the committees having a role to play in making sure that it gets adopted and implemented and that our messaging is for intended audiences.
— Jordan Nordby is the executive director for Main Street Monroe. He can be reached at MonroeMainStreet@tds.net. Complete details on Main Street Monroe and its efforts can be found at mainstreetmonroe.org.
