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B R & E INTRODUCTION: effort to make sure that parts are not omitted or unorganized. This means doing some of the work yourself, but not ALL of it! As outlined later in more detail,your Coordinator's Role: Quarterback not participation on the Leadership Team brings you a number Entire Team of personal benefits and rewards. Is this booklet for you? If you have read the booklet By reading this guide,you will learn the characteristics of a Implementing Local Business Retention and Expansion successful Leadership Team and the critical nature that the Programs:Is It for Our Community?and you think you team plays in the BR&E Visitation process. You will might want to become a member of the local team that helps become familiar with the roles of the Leadership Team, organize the program,you are in the right place. This learn how these roles can contribute to the success of your booklet will help you better understand what the Local program,as well as the benefits and costs of serving as a Leadership Team can expect to do,and how each role member of that team(See page 6 for an overview of the relates to the other members of the team.` different functions of the Leadership Team,and a suggestion for how to organize them). Other organizational approaches Before we begin to discuss the different functions of the may be more appropriate to your community. You may be team,we need to say a few words about the overall philoso- tempted to have one person be the"everything"coordina- phy that must guide every action of the Leadership Team. for—this was the model used in the early days of the Unlike other Business Retention and Expansion Visitation development of the program. However,splitting these programs,the process you are engaged in is a TEAM functions among several people makes it much more EFFORT,not a LONE RANGER effort. While relying on feasible for volunteers to run the program. a single individual may help get things done in the short run, it does little to develop a community's capacity to handle issues as they arise. Once the individual burns out,or Benefits of Serving on Leadership Team moves away,things go back to the way they were. As a member of the Leadership Team in this process,you will The benefits of serving on the Leadership Team are real and need to know a little bit about what others are doing,so the significant. They are the reason that an overwhelming team can recover quickly if someone is lost or over- majority of former coordinators recommend that other whelmed. The best way for you to know about other parts communities do the program.' The following paragraphs of the program is to help a little at critical points in the describe some of the potential benefits. It's up to you to process. It turns out that there are specific times in the decide which of these might be the most important for you. process where no one individual can do it all. Your job will be to help out at these times,or ask for help when YOU are High Visibility in Successful Programs responsible for coordinating a particular aspect of the program. Being part of a highly visible,effective effort can help you build credibility for other projects. Few economic develop- Coordinator as Quarterback of Team ment programs provide as much opportunity for visibility and yet are practically guaranteed to be as successful as the (Not the Whole Team) BR&E Visitation program. While some other economic development programs can be successful,few have the high To understand your role a little better,think of a football success rate of the BR&E Visitation program. There are team. A quarterback can't do the whole job—other players seven or eight opportunities for the program to get news are needed. When it is your turn to organize part of coverage,giving it high visibility(See Appendix D for the local BR&E Visitation effort,it is like you are serving in the role of team quarterback,NOT THE WHOLE team. sample press releases). • Identification of Major Issues As a member of the Leadership Team,you will help provide If you have been in the community for a number of years, overall direction to the local BR&E Visitation program. the survey results probably won't surprise you. However, Each member of the team coordinates a specific part of the the results of the survey are still likely to help you. As one program. For whichever part of the program you choose to former coordinator put it: "I don't expect to learn anything coordinate,the principle remains the same:you organize the new from this. But having the numbers will help me show Local Leadership Team Manual -- 5