Business Improvement Districts: An Introduction to 3 P Citizenship

By Lia Demos

This textbook is a beginner's guide to public-private partnerships, Business Improvement Districts. Readers will understand the inner-workings as well as how to participate effectively as board members.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Dec 25, 2015
• ISBN: 9780993976308

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INTRODUCTION

Since the business improvement district (BID) model flourished, entrepreneurs have faced a myriad of challenges with effectively participating on their boards and at their general meetings. The purpose of this handbook is to train entrepreneurs to understand BIDs, make meetings practical, set mutually-acceptable goals, commit to a district-wide vision, carry out programs and services, and finally, evaluate their work.

Illustration 1: 20th century planning emphasized small-knit shops densely packed together, with wider roads for the movement of animals, carts and vehicles

The first section of the handbook is a vital component for all BID members struggling to understand the complex layers of social, technological, political, and economic factors that Main Street businesses have been facing.

If there is anything a BID can do to reverse their fortunes, it is with a training manual that focuses on the core skills underlying BID work. While there are indeed a number of books on the market offering tips and suggestions, the basic skills are not developed. The most important aspect of a BID is cashing in on the immense human capital. BIDs improve the performance of our collective creativity, innovation, and critical thinking. Following along is not sustainable and often leads to committing resources without a return on investment.

No books currently on the market consider the various skill-sets that must be fine-tuned. Various professions and special interest groups also peddle to our regions. Strict rules and procedures lead to fair(er) decisions, budgets, and strategic direction. BID participation has no boundaries. Entrepreneurs are often underestimated and perceived as contrary. This is an area that must improve and requires regulatory reform.

The first place a new (or old) BID starts is with forming a learning community. Passing on knowledge and retaining information is a must to ensure that people can participate and have their voices heard. This means creating a good learning environment that instills trust and commitment from all groups in a BID. BIDs cannot be created over night. However, with the right strategy in place, they can avoid incalculable financial and economic liabilities. In effect, a BID must be an inherently organic structure that passes through various gates before it can function.

The second piece to the BID puzzle is to use critical thinking skills, knowledge, and expertise to set desirable and sustainable goals. There is no I in team, as the saying goes. When a BID develops a master strategy and unleashes a long-term vision, complete with micro and macro-deliverables, the BID positions itself for success. Avoiding this component is haphazard, at best, and fails to capitalize on the abundant resources available within the community. BIDs need to be seen as learning communities, where each member contributes to the total package of skills and knowledge. Parenting and teaching, as the African proverb posits, takes a village.

The kind of organic success seen in Main Streets is not the work of one or a few like-minded people. This prosperity forms from the collaboration of each business owner, employee, and customer in the community. If it is built organically in the same ways communities in the past were able to do it, BIDs can be a way to facilitate communication, set goals, and carry out work. Much in the way ancient armies capitalized on their troop assets, BIDs are about synthesizing the complex information with the layers of physical and mental work needed to complete objectives. In the past, emperors and slave masters organized their communities. In democratic societies, BIDs (as villages) must employ democratic techniques and seize opportunities to gain from one another’s collective strength. If the village is not involved, a BID loses its substance and fails to help its region gain or enhance the local economy.

Suffice it to say, this handbook starts with a critical examination of commerce and how trade is vital to towns and cities. In a sense, without understanding the background and having perspective on why things are as they are, it is very easy to be blindsided. We all know too well that even the greatest titans have struggled and failed. Rome was not built in a day, and we will soon see how we as humans depend on Main Street and our local economies to keep our communities thriving.

The fifth chapter of the handbook is devoted to understanding the operations of a BID and what is required to run agile organizations. Reviewing deliverables helps both participants on the outside and board members on the inside. Proposals, reports, records, and archives are not only necessary legally, but can help or hinder a community’s progress. Most documents are public records, and having a transparent, well-organized record system is crucial.

The sixth chapter of the handbook reviews team building techniques. This chapter fosters a solid understanding of how to carry out work with different personalities. It is meant to pre-empt and to be a practical source for helping team members over come conflict.

The seventh chapter reviews the meeting process. Meetings are an area where most BID members express distrust. Chairing and participating in meetings is a training area. It is how we communicate and are required to make decisions through meetings. This section, especially for individuals who have not served on boards for a number of years, cannot be skipped or overlooked. It is not as daunting as we think, but when we have not learned what participation entails we often make errors and limit ourselves in the process. Meetings are the mortar that holds the BID together, providing publicly-accessible minutes.

The last section of the handbook discusses research and evaluation techniques. Facts and data should always be available. Using evaluative tools, we can improve BIDs to scaffold ourselves with each year of operation. Committing to projects and programs without a reliable interpretation of data is wasteful and leads to shortcuts that hurt returns on investment. Drafting successful strategies requires commitment. Research and evaluation are at the heart of using our collective intelligence and creativity to set plans. Without the objectivity, we can spin ourselves into web. Nobody wishes to be a spider’s lunch, so we must remain open-minded about the necessary responsibilities involved.

A word of caution about research and evaluation—get outside help. BIDs are not a cookie-cutter framework, and we cannot afford to waste our limited resources on research with no results. If anything, BIDs can only pan out by sticking to an analysis of the details. We all have great ideas and vision. We are entrepreneurs after all.

However, BIDs are a private-public partnership, and work on BIDs is egalitarian and professional. The process is cyclical:

•   Community gets educated,

•   Community thinks and talks,

•   Community carries out homework,

•   Community reviews and sets out strategy,

•   Community acts, and

•   Community evaluates.

And from this cyclical process, BIDs can achieve extraordinary accomplishments. This handbook focuses on six quality gates (ACTIVE) that must be passed to see return on investment in a BID:

•   Acceptance (Community accepts the BID)

•   Commitment (Members complete tasks and end goals)

•   Training (Training all members & Lifelong learning)

•   Innovation (Problem-Solving)

•   Vision (Creating and Sticking to a Community Vision)

•   Evaluation (Implementing continual evaluation)

CHAPTER 1

A Curriculum for Main Street BIDs

CHAPTER OVERVIEW:

The introductory chapter reviews the interdisciplinary nature of BID studies. Whether immersed in daily operations or a participant on a committee, decision-making requires training opportunities.

The BID curriculum outlined in this chapter examines the importance of humanities and commerce areas of study. The chapter looks at the andragogical curricula required to have a strong educational background on the topic areas. It further proposes a professional body and certification process.

AFTER READING THIS CHAPTER, YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO:

1.    Identify the academic requirements of a proposed certificate;

2.    Understand the training needs of stakeholders; and

3.    Introduce trends and issues affecting the overall BID community.

1.1 TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

The first step in business research is summarizing a problem statement. A problem statement narrows a fairly general topic by focusing on a detailed description of a problem and its significance or effect in a situation. To generate a problem statement within the realm of Business Improvement Districts, one should have a foundational knowledge of several disciplines offered by social sciences and commerce faculties. Introductory Biology and Psychology are also of relevance.

One writing a problem statement for a Business Improvement District might want to watch the feet moving across a street. Observation is a requirement of the research process.

But most of all, one must be familiar with and competent in facilitating participative research by converting stakeholders into a community of learners. It is through the problem statement the researcher uses language to communicate what needs to be addressed.

How does one look for answers in a local business district? Well, it starts with the process of asking questions. For example, in Toronto, you might hear why questions like this:

1.    Why is Bishop Street narrow?

2.    Why were coach houses built on Palmerston Boulevard?

3.    Why do more people walk along Bloor Street than St. Clair Avenue?

4.    Why did restrooms exist on public streets? Why don’t they still exist?

5.    Why do some streets plant flowers and others do not?

Unless you are old enough to have survived all the changes seen in Toronto over 150 years, you may not likely answer all the questions with the precision of a subject specialist. For this reason, we start excavating for answers by understanding the history of our communities and go one step further by interpreting the initial planning. Unless the community is recently established, and we can start with a tabula rasa, we do not have to go back to trace the historical trends and issues. From this perspective, we gain a deeper knowledge (and appreciation) of our districts and can be better decision-makers, having carried out research that can be broad enough to include rich picture and concept mapping, inferential statistics, and longitudinal studies.

To truly understand, however, the nature and order of things we must take a hands-on approach by using practical applications. For example, a community of learners wanting to address parking issues in their neighborhood is better able to understand what it should propose through educational opportunities. Facilitating learning work-shops that focus on the matter and educate each stakeholder allows groups to learn together, debate, and create.

Subsequently, a skilled BID facilitator, understanding the applicable scientific disciplines, guides from the side as a community of learners evolves better skills at decision-making, reflection, and revision.

Table 1: A BID certificate promotes humanities and business studies.

1.2 A PROFESSIONAL CURRICULUM

The legal framework for Business Improvement Districts has been exported to a dozen nations that number about 3,000 BIDs worldwide. While the framework has had a degree of success, it is far from a remedy for the constraints faced by regions today. It is really only a piece of legislation until the stakeholders are working well together, setting attainable goals, and delivering exceptional results.

BID personnel need rigorous training before and during their professional duties. Such staffs should comply in accordance with the legislation and abide by and answer to a professional body. As generalists, their job description is to meet the expectations of managing the operations of an entity’s daily work. As specialists, they are hired to carry out specific work as part of an entity’s projects.

A plausible curriculum emphasizes flexibility in its offerings, delivery, and modalities. It must have a broad list of introductory social sciences and business courses so that college and university graduates are able to obtain transfer credits. Class-based lectures should be available at least once a year or scheduled for delivery by small groups. The courses should be available in a variety of formats: classroom, distance learning (correspondence), e-learning. Previous credits obtained at accredited European Union, Commonwealth, and North American post-secondary institutions should be transferred liberally. Challenge exams and certificate exams should be invigilated by local proctors at the student’s request.

1.2.1 Business Management Curriculum

BID generalists require broad coursework obtained through post-secondary commerce programs. A structured pedagogical approach includes three core courses, three liberal arts courses, and three business courses prior to writing a national examination and obtaining membership in good standing at the proposed professional body.

1.2.2 Humanities

Post-secondary institutions typically require students to obtain some courses in the liberal arts. It is a standard practice not only of colleges and universities, but of license-granting bodies. According to Stanford University:

The humanities can be described as the study of how people process and document the human experience. Since humans have been able, we have used philosophy, literature, religion, art, music, history and language to understand and record our world. These modes of expression have become some of the subjects that traditionally fall under the humanities’ umbrella. Knowledge of these records of human experience gives us the opportunity to feel a sense of connection to those who have come before us, as well as to our contemporaries.

Humanities broaden the depth of our understanding about the world around us. They develop critical thinking and reasoning skills. BID staff engage in the community around them, interfacing with stakeholders in their roles representing community business entities. Subsequently, the humanities aid staff in developing deep knowledge on relevant interdisciplinary fields.

1.2.3 Foundational Course

The foundational course should offer a comprehensive introduction to Business Improvement Districts, providing the tools necessary for all students to perform work.

The course should cover:

1.    The framework enabling public-private entities,

2.    History of commerce,

3.    Operational tools (management, decision-making, group facilitation, research, and evaluation methodologies),

4.    Business metrics, and

5.    Interdisciplinary topics.

1.2.4 Practicum Internship

This course focuses on the hands-on experience obtained by BID staff or stakeholders through practical experience. An internship can be fulfilled by developing and reporting on a significant project that requires at least 72.5 hours of work.

1.2.5 Capstone Course

The capstone course focuses on a topic proposed by the student. This proposal will focus on a real-world scenario, incorporating theoretical, practical and research-methods.

1.2.6 Certification

Once coursework has been completed, eligible students write a comprehensive national exam. After successfully passing the exam, students are invited to participate as professional members in a professional body. Members will be required to submit annual reports and supporting documents (criminal reference check, performance appraisal(s)). In the event of lack of adherence with membership guidelines, every member will be allowed to have a hearing before their membership is revoked, but the rules will be strict and suspension or probationary terms will be documented. It is suffice to say, organizations that hire members will be privy to the member’s status or past suspensions on a member’s file.

In all, the certification is a standard of excellence