Mount Business Association, formerly Mount Mainstreet, has a new chairperson. Photo / File
Kim Renshaw loves a good challenge.
The 37-year-old has been voted as the new chairwoman of the Mount Business Association, formerly Mount Mainstreet.
Her challenge will be helping to give the association a new direction for 2021.
"I like it when there's a problem to solve. That's my favourite type of work," she said.
"This is interesting to me because there is a lot wrong that needs to be resolved."
The managing director of Mount-based business Beyond the Bin was initially brought into the association as a guest to discuss strategy at the December board meeting.
Her passion and experience in events and facilitation led Renshaw to nomination in early 2021.
Renshaw sees her new voluntary position as a facilitator.
"This is public service for me. Everyone should help out their community at one point or another in their life. Surely we all have to contribute."
She is encouraging members to attend a meeting next month to discuss a path forward, what promotional and event activities they wish for and what the identity of the Mount Business Association will look like in a post-Covid-19 world.
"The cancellation of event plans and the loss of tourists and cruise-ship passengers is a huge challenge for us to mitigate.
"We need members to bring their best ideas to the table, and let's together make a compelling business case that we can all be inspired by and action quickly.
"We have to accept things have not been so great, but to change them we need everyone's buy-in. Without everyone's buy-in, it's a lost cause."
Renshaw said the streets used to be bustling with people and now it feels a "little empty".
"That's what we need to look to remedy," she said.
"I just don't feel we're maximising our potential for visitors and for shoppers ... we've kind of lost a little bit of our identity of who we are as a shopping district.
"I think we need to figure out as a group of members what our identity looks like and who we are targeting, who are we trying to bring here."
As chairwoman, Renshaw said all she could hope for the future of the mainstreet was that it was "humming".
"It needs to feel vibrant. It needs to be a place where people want to work as well."
Her "dream scenario" was for people all over the city to view the Mount's mainstreet as a retail and hospitality destination.
"I would also really like to see a good strong relationship between the different mainstreets sharing wins as well.
"There's a lot of great infrastructure we can share to deliver some really great amusements and attractions for our entire greater area and we can work together to achieve some things."
Renshaw had lived in the Mount for 10 years and also helped to create the Gourmet Night Market in 2013.
"I love the Mount and hope to inject my passion and values-based, collaborative approach into the governance of the Mount Business Association."
The organisation will deliver multiple events in 2021, but Renshaw said exactly what events will depend on the members, their needs and their target demographics.
"It's likely that our member's needs have changed significantly since Covid-19. We have a large number of professional services businesses here, as well as our retailers and hospitality providers.
"We need to map out who the (potentially new) members' customers are and then plan our activities around that, to ensure we are servicing their needs, as Tauranga City Council collect a specific targeted rate from these businesses explicitly for our organisation to produce an economic return for them."
Renshaw said she recognised the association had been relatively quiet since dropping its physical location in 2018.
"We wish to develop a meaningful plan of attack, to meet the needs of the members and to pursue the vision of a vibrant town-centre that locals and tourists want to visit frequently.
"I look forward to meeting members."
Board member Scott Brundell, of New Zealand Honey Co., was pleased Renshaw had taken on the voluntary chair position.
"After working with Kim in the past, I've always appreciated her focussed and driven nature.
"She is very capable and clear in her approach, and I have absolute confidence the Mount Business Association will be in a strong position for the future with her guidance as board chair."
The new chairwoman will host a meeting with all Mount businesses (members) on March 10 from 4.30pm to 6pm at the Mount Ocean Sports Club.