Change agents
by Cape Business staffThese two leaders must manage by coalition building among businesses, the community, and increasingly, second-home owners. They are young, confident women assuming the biggest jobs of their lives at a time of critical change for their organizations and the Cape. Together, they are responsible for more than 1,700 businesses – big and small. They take over from highly successful and trendsetting predecessors, but are expected to pursue new and expanded missions.
They assumed their new roles as spring descended on Cape Cod and after grueling selection processes that pitted them against scores of rival candidates.
Elizabeth Bridgewater, executive director of the Lower Cape Community Development Corporation, and Monica Parker, executive director of the Hyannis Area Chamber of Commerce are among a growing group of change agents on Cape Cod. They are young, confident, collaborative and ready to adopt new tools to achieve economic success.
During a wide-ranging and freewheeling conversation, they identified eight principles of management they rely upon – and would readily recommend to businesses of all sizes and stripes across the Cape:
• Flexibility
• Listening and communicating
• Mentoring
• Relationship building
• Teamwork
• Service
• Passion
• Collaboration
They also join a growing chorus of leaders who believe that three critical arenas must be addressed by business, government and community if the Cape is to thrive in coming years:
• Investing in housing for the workforce
• Finding the capital and political will to construct wastewater treatment systems
• Tapping the economic power of the nonprofit community.
Both of you are relatively new to the Cape. How did you emerge as executive directors of your respective organizations?
Bridgewater: As women and new leaders, it is important to work diligently to build relationships and create your own opportunities. A key is networking.
Parker: As a washashore and sometimes half the age of decision-makers, it’s easier for people to brush you off. I worked very hard over the years to meet as many people as possible on the Cape and to find mentors, like Richard Brothers, director of the United Way, and Rick Angelini, who introduced me to everyone they could. At the chamber we always say that people like to do business with people they know. That’s the power of a membership organization like ours. I had worked with members of the selection committee and was given the opportunity to interview because they knew me and my skills.
Bridgewater: Being young actually was welcomed. When you come on the scene with a strong background and energy, you encounter many people – especially board members who now are retired on the Cape – who want to groom you and bring you along. At the same time, you have to prove that you have the background.
Parker: That’s true. There is a definite desire to pass on the standard and to sustain the issues others have worked so long to nurture.
Bridgewater: Just as I was fortunate enough to have mentors, I find myself building that role and responsibility into my job. I have younger people on my staff, and one of the most satisfying parts of the job is working with them, teaching them, helping them find the resources they need to succeed. I encourage my staff as well to reach outside the organization and network.
Parker: Everyone in our office happens to be women and all are under age 45. There is a lot of energy among us and we are learning from each other.
What attributes gave you confidence going through the selection process for your new jobs?
Parker: I think being confident by nature helped me. When you work in a prison system and conduct homicide investigations, you develop that confidence, especially when you work in situations where physically you may be in jeopardy. Inevitably, though, it is about capability. I was fortunate that I had recently worked with some of those around the table on the campaign in Barnstable to oppose the split tax, so they could make a decision based directly on my performance.
Bridgewater: I believe my board hired me because they are looking for a collaborator. I demonstrated that in the area of economic development. You must be creative and strategic, with vision; someone who could go out and build relationships and have a strong voice in the community.
Parker: I know they wanted someone who was energetic, who would be a strong advocate for a very large membership organization with a diverse constituency. I believe they were impressed that I have the political savvy to move issues legislatively and at the local level, and that I could activate membership and engage members.
Do you have a guiding professional philosophy or mission statement?
Parker: Community is not a birthright, but an active decision every day to effect positive change in your environment.
Bridgewater: It is really about service to the community and to my staff and board and volunteers. I see my role as one of service first. When I was thinking about moving ahead in my professional life, one of the biggest intimidating factors was concern I was supposed to have all the answers. I realize now my role is really to be a catalyst. I don’t need all the answers at any one moment. My role is to have a clear vision of what we need to do and provide a framework for that. That is a serving role. I am there to cover my colleagues’ backs on many levels. I find that to be among the most exciting aspects of my work.
Parker: If hers is service, mine is advocacy. I think I have an ability, a calling, to speak for people who cannot speak for themselves. That has encompassed people in prison to those with special needs at Latham Center. Every day, I try to wake up and ask myself: ‘How am I going to effect positive change in my environment?’
Businesses might be perceived as able to speak for themselves. But small businesses, the backbone of our economy, don’t feel they are being heard. Many don’t believe they have the opportunity to get their message out to the community at large.
The reality is that businesses and the community are interwoven, particularly in places like Cape Cod. We are one large community, and we should not perceive ourselves as somehow being separate residential and commercial worlds.
Are you describing, in a way, the recent battle in Barnstable over a split tax?
Parker: One of the biggest challenges facing the Cape in general is an ‘us versus them’ mentality. It could be NIMBY, Not In My Back Yard, as it applies to affordable housing, or the split-tax initiative. Those supporting a split tax, which disproportionately impacts businesses, may not realize they are hurting that person who is outfitting their child’s Little League team or contributing to a nonprofit organization, or might have to leave town for a more favorable business climate and leave loyal customers behind.
We really are one fabric here on Cape Cod; when one single thread is pulled from it, the entire garment begins to unravel. That’s somewhat a cliché, but it is true.
Bridgewater: It’s funny listening to Monica. It makes me think about what I have observed in the Lower Cape community. There is lot of fear because of rapid change. But fear will lock up people. It’s increasingly necessary for people to hone their listening skills and utilize their emotional intelligence to create conversations and build trust.
I see many people afraid of losing what they have; but the solutions they need require some change. To move those solutions forward, you must recognize the emotional attachment people have with the Cape; their childhood experiences and hopes for the future. It all requires us to reject reaction and build community.
Parker: One of my concerns when I enter a political battle is the demonization of either party. With the split tax, people started pointing fingers. Businesses blamed the big homeowners on the water; residents blamed corporations that are destroying our environment. But in reality, it was small businesses who were concerned the tax burden was shifting unfairly onto them and elderly homeowners who did not know where to turn as their taxes escalated.
What many people don’t understand is that we are such a close-knit community – business owners and residents alike – that you can’t make a decision that doesn’t affect relationships across the spectrum.
Bridgewater: We hear the terms second-home owners and washashores. Us and them versus the local community. But second-home owners care passionately about the Cape. A lot of second-home owners have become retirees, or they are here on their way to retirement and want to add value to the community. We have members of our board who were second-home owners for years and now are here as passionate advocates. So it’s erroneous to make a distinction. It stops the conversation.
Parker: You are absolutely correct. If one group takes the moral high ground, where does the conversation go? You have to be open as a leader to build coalitions that are unexpected and even unprecedented – for example, between small businesses and second-home owners. Each of these groups feels they are being taxed without representation, and that’s why membership in a group like the chamber is critical. We offer that advocacy.
You identify a common link between small business and second-home owners – of being unfairly taxed without sufficient representation. Does the affinity between these two sectors go deeper?
Bridgewater: Absolutely. Right to the bottom line. The second-home market is growing rapidly; anyone who can afford a second home here has resources. As a businessperson, that is a natural growth market. I would not want to make that segment of the population my enemy or problem. Instead, it is an opportunity and customer base. I need to be asking: ‘How can I build relationship with them as my customer?’ I can’t look at them as just a walking dollar bill, but as people with concerns, values and needs. Many of them are going to become year-round residents.
Parker: We have to recognize that we live in a seasonal economy. There is a lot of energy and economic power arising from the second-home population. While the seasonal economy remains strong, it is evolving slowly and surely to include the second-home economy. They have a permanent stake here. This goes to the interwoven nature of our community. Without second-home owners, we would not be able to have the same dynamic quality of our economy.
In the Hyannis area, the ‘season’ is becoming longer and longer and we are doing a great deal to keep our businesses bustling year-round. We are very excited by the incredible changes on Main Street Hyannis and a year-round arts center would really solidify that work. And there are lots of sections in Barnstable that are not very seasonal at all – the Route 132 corridor and Independence Park, for example. Second-home owners are an important part of the equation of sustaining those portions of our economy as well.
What are the biggest challenges and opportunities you face in your new jobs?
Bridgewater: Our biggest challenge is to engage more people in the conversation about affordable housing and economic development. These issues are vital to the Lower Cape economy and affect everyone in some way. So we need to strengthen existing partnerships as well as build new relationships in the community. There is a great opportunity for collaboration within the nonprofit community as well as with private business owners to address some of these issues.
Parker: Coming out of the pure nonprofit field, I have had lots of colleagues who asked me, ‘Wait a minute, you are going to work for business people?’
Well, chambers of commerce are nonprofits; and many members are nonprofit organizations themselves. I have a strong belief that the tenets of good organization and management are the same for profit-making and nonprofit-making businesses. Do we have strong funding streams? Are we messaging properly? Are we serving our constituency well? Are we making a good widget? Is our product matching the value of what people are paying for? Are we earning their membership dues or their donations? What value is the consumer getting for the product, whether it is produced by a nonprofit or a profit-making business?
How do you take a challenge and turn it into an opportunity? Coalition building. It has come up repeatedly in our conversation. We have an estimated 1,200 nonprofits on the Cape. That is an enormous part of our economy. I would like to see the chamber help build an incubator that creates a better nexus between the for-profit and nonprofit communities. A place where nonprofits can learn the skills of the for-profit world and through those lessons create healthier, more sustainable organizations. Unlike a large metropolis, we have a unique opportunity to really examine the intersections between nonprofits and for-profits, and the Hyannis Area Chamber of Commerce is in a unique position to do just that.
Bridgewater: We exist to accomplish a particular mission. How we do that can happen in many creative ways. Our issues are Capewide issues – affordable workforce housing, wastewater treatment, a competitive wage. They affect private companies, nonprofits, residents, second-home owners and retirees. The challenge is how to engage all of them in the same conversation and to think creatively to solve them.
The challenge also is the opportunity. We are at a moment of time on the Cape when, I believe, it is necessary to get everyone affected by these challenges working together.
A good example is a project in Chatham. The Lower Cape CDC has been working with a private developer and a nonprofit organization, Friends of Chatham Affordable Housing, to build four units. The funding comes from the developer, the town government through its Community Preservation Act funds, and private contributions. No government grants were involved – as in the past. We had two nonprofit organizations, a private developer and local government all involved in a very exciting model.
Parker: Businesses every day are supporting nonprofits; even more as government funding dries up. The seeds of so many nonprofits are being sewn through profit-making companies and people. Nonprofits have to respect the many times small business owners go into the back room and find some item for a silent auction or give a gift certificate for a volunteer appreciation dinner. All these little contributions add up to big impacts.
Small businesses are stretching themselves as much as possible to support nonprofits and their community. That’s a relationship we really like to focus on at the chamber. Our mission is to foster, enhance and promote a healthy business climate. That means a healthy community at large. Healthier businesses mean more tax revenues for better town resources, more sustainable nonprofits, and more prosperous and enjoyable downtowns.
Business is not a bad word. At the Hyannis Area Chamber, we believe that business leaders become community leaders.
Can you together select key issues that will determine our Cape economy in coming years?
Bridgewater and Parker:
1. Providing diversified housing for people at all economic levels; of course the workforce, but also for the elderly and fragile.
2. Building a wastewater infrastructure.
3. Developing a technological infrastructure that will support small businesses and drive revenue
4. Stemming outmigration of young people. Without children and a diverse population, the quality of life suffers. Any ecosystem without diversity is destined to fail.
5. Striking a balance between nurturing growth and not hindering it. We don’t want the pendulum swinging so far that it forces small businesses to cross the bridges.
6. Addressing globalization, even on Cape Cod. Everything is happening online, from retailing to arranging Cape Cod vacations.
7. Designing an agri-eco-geo-arts tourism industry to replace the traditional seasonal economy that relies only on beaches and recreation.
Hyannis Area Chamber of Commerce
Location: Hyannis
Established: 1913 (as Board of Trade)
Status: Nonprofit, membership-based
Serves: All the villages of Barnstable
Missions: Outreach; economic development; government relations; workforce housing; attract and retain businesses; promote tourism; stimulate technology; manage and market the JFK Hyannis Museum; promote Father’s Day Main Street Car Show and Christmas Stroll; operate Web site; operate Visitor’s Center
Members: 700 businesses and nonprofits
Annual budget: $700,000
Employees: 13
Name: Monica Parker
Age: 33
Position: Executive Director, Hyannis Area Chamber of Commerce
Education: B.S., University of Miami, advertising, graphic design and marketing
Moved to Cape: January 2002
Home: Chatham
Previous Experience: Homicide investigator, Florida Dept. of Justice; Brockton Youth Opportunity Center; Latham Center
Succeeds: Lynne Poyant, new director of Barnstable Community Services Department
Lower Cape Community Development Corporation
Location: Eastham
Established: 1992
Status: Nonprofit organization, tax exempt; one of 68 in Massachusetts
Serves: Provincetown, Truro, Wellfleet, Eastham, Harwich, Chatham, Orleans, Brewster
Missions: Affordable housing development; commercial development; expansion of consumer markets for local food products; small business loans; technical assistance for small businesses; business resource center.
Responsibilities: Owns and manages rental housing; develops home ownership opportunities; rehabilitates property; operates the Business Builders Program to help businesses sharpen skills and operations.
Clients: More than 1,000 businesses, including shopkeepers, restaurant owners, shellfishermen, consultants, carpenters and artists.
Annual budget: $2 million
Employees: 10
Name: Elizabeth Bridgewater
Age: 40
Position: Executive Director, Lower Cape Community Development Corporation
Education: B.A., Bradford University, international relations; M.A., Southern New Hampshire University, community economic development.
Moved to Cape: September 2001
Home: Wellfleet
Previous Experience: Center for Women and Enterprise, Accion International, Cambridge.
Succeeds: Gwen Pelletier, retired
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