Texting back and forth with Wiscasset’s Terry Heller the other day about a Friends of Wiscasset Village Zoom meeting, some words on both ends of the conversation needed redoing due to auto fill, when the phone guesses wrong, sometimes way wrong, what you are starting to type.

One of Heller’s replies first said “coach chair” when Heller meant co-chair. Unlike some auto fill errors, this one had a ring to it, and kind of fit. Friends, like other area Friends groups, depends on members’ time and energy – whether it is Friends of Wiscasset Public Library raising money through events and the used book store, or Friends of Windjammer Days making that major Boothbay Harbor event happen, except in the pandemic when Maine’s mandated crowd limits were well smaller than what the annual festival draws.

Another key to a volunteer effort is management, and part of that is encouragement. Sounds something like coaching, doesn’t it? And like coaching, chairing or co-chairing a group or event is not all sugar coating; sometimes, it’s getting down to brass tacks, helping determine what will work best and then knowing when to change drills or topics.

Some teams or groups succeed despite their leaders; others manage in part, or great part, due to their leaders. And others are around the middle: Success is about equal parts coaching and everyone else doing their part. 

Friends of Wiscasset Village is fairly new, emerging as Maine Department of Transportation’s downtown project did. But from what we’ve observed so far, the group has a lot going for it, in its past and new leadership and in members who do their homework and are highly motivated for the group and the downtown and its businesses to succeed.

Those pieces are a good start for any coach or co-chairs to work with.