Ten great ideas for 2011

The Hyak at the shipyard being painted last week - wahoo! Photo by Rick Galer (thanks!)

Everybody has the top ten stories of the year, this time of year – I was just watching the CBC and they had all the disasters; NBC had all the scandals; and E! had all the fashion disasters. I guess that’s good…someone has to do it. For me, though, I’d rather see if we do things just a little better here on the island. Here are my Top Ten Hot Ideas for the island for the coming year:

• People need to get creative with the present economic climate. Complaining doesn’t cut it, and besides, it’s unbecoming. I liked it when one of the restaurants downtown popped out a “power outage sale” sign for cold sandwiches at lunchtime a month ago; it was great when the Cotton Cotton Cotton folks (Randy & Gail) took their shop’s clothes & goods over to the folks at Village at the Harbour a few weeks ago.

There ARE customers – take the game to them. Don’t keep doing the same thing & hoping it’ll somehow work.

• Paint the ferries. Even if we have to sneak over & paint ’em ourselves in the middle of the night (the Ferry Paint Avengers strike!), it’s good for business.

• “Friendly” matters. We can paint the town, we grow plants on the side, we can re-pave the streets, but the one thing that will create return visitors to our island is smiles. Cheap, easy to use, and effective for customer retention.

And if things are really that bad for you, then fake it for the rest of us. Smile.

• Get involved in our awesome schools. We have fields to build, kids to mentor & tutor, work to do, food to serve, games to cheer at. We have a good deal – get involved & make it better.

• Woo the Canadians, so they want to come visit. Shoot, there’s 330,000 people in the greater Victoria area…six miles away!

It’s easy – make our Canadian friends feel welcome! Accept Canadian currency, be ready to convert it (hint: today the Canadian dollar if 99.94 cents on the American dollar. Really close these days), talk metric if needed, and put a flag out. Ask about their cool islands & the way they do things – you’ll be glad you did.

• Talk – and act – on parking in Friday Harbor. It’s time. Done right, this can help both the visitors AND the merchants. It’s time.

• As we address budget cuts for the coming year at all kinds of levels – county, state, town, and schools – please put the most vulnerable & hurting in the front row of your deliberations.

• Enjoy your island! It’s new year’s resolution time anyway, so add to the list: walk the beaches, watch the wildlife on our beautiful westside, stroll through town when you’re not shopping, walk the docks in the marina, call a friend & connect for coffee, today.

• Get creative this year – you’ve put it off long enough! Write those stories, draw that picture, paint the canvas, and write that song…it is in expressing your heart that your spirit will sing.

• Finally, love each other. It was cool to have a civil, deliberate sheriff’s race this fall; the local elections were so much more civil than the national stuff. We have a number of pressing & difficult issues in front of us, which we need to solve together. Take the time to listen & learn from other islanders, and let’s run this race together.

Have a good New Year’s Eve tonight, and then let’s get this new one going!

Peace,
Brother Ian

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