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Your Home Town less welcoming
(by Barbara Christian - February 10, 2010)
WINDOW ON MAIN STREET, BY BARBARA CHRISTIAN
Your Home Town less welcoming
On Feb. 1, after years of working her heart out for Chagrin Falls' Main Street cum Downtown cum Your Home Town organization, Nancy Haag was fired from her job as its director.
It is the second mistake the organization has made. The first was an incomprehensible name change. But we won't beat that dead horse again.
This latest turn of events is stunning on a number of levels. The way it was handled was disrespectful, harsh and oh, so "big business."
Your Home Town is not a big business. It's a small, local nonprofit whose goal is to support the village's independent businesses, the local economy and residents. The Your Home Town board undermined its purpose when it decided to trash its main support beam.
You may recall, the famous name change was done to give the group a welcoming, old-fashioned, warm and fuzzy friendliness. The Your Home Town board did not walk the walk when it came to treatment of its own employee.
What Nancy got was, "Here's your hat, what's your hurry, and don't let the door hit you on the way out."
But it turned out to be a swinging door. What Your Home Town got in return was a big black eye that will leave a lingering mark.
So why was Nancy fired the way she was?
We are living through economically challenging times, but was she offered the option of cutting her hours and her pay? Why was it necessary to cloud her reputation by summarily "terminating" her?
The invitation to talk about it has been extended to Nancy, and we hope she takes us up on the offer of a candid discussion.
There is no doubt Nancy will survive and will go on to do something good. When she does, you can be sure she will approach it with the same work ethic she has approached everything she does -- with every ounce of energy and more time than she is paid for.
The real question is whether Your Home Town will survive. The official story is it will go back to its all-volunteer beginnings. But where is it going to find them? If you have been part of a not-for-profit organization, you know good volunteers and their spare time are hard to find.
Like we said, the situation was handled badly, Nancy was treated inhumanely, and Your Home Town came off looking like the bad guy. In one decision, Your Home Town became just like a whole lot of big, impersonal businesses that view their people like Kleenex, or worse, as liabilities.
Here's another invitation. It goes to Your Home Town board President Keith Latore. Talk to us, explain, set things right with the community and restore Nancy's good name.
If he is still unwilling, then how about the others on the Your Home Town board? Lisa Turner, John Eberle, Connie DeGood, Wendy Naylor, Rick Brown, Kathy Lyle, Chris Thome, Dick Desberg, Dick Kaplan and Susan White are accessible people. Pick a couple and ask them.
Better yet, ask if they have lost their moral compass or just their sense of direction. Then set them straight. Remind them they do business on Main Street, not Wall Street.
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