{"id":677,"date":"2019-03-25T08:46:24","date_gmt":"2019-03-25T12:46:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/?p=677"},"modified":"2019-03-26T08:37:00","modified_gmt":"2019-03-26T12:37:00","slug":"vermonter-of-the-month-monique-priestly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/vermonter-of-the-month-monique-priestly\/","title":{"rendered":"Vermonter of the Month: Monique Priestley"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is a monthly series in which the Attorney General will feature a Vermonter doing exemplary work in their community. Have someone you think should be featured? Email <\/em>AGO.CAP@vermont.gov<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Attorney General T.J. Donovan with Monique Priestly at The Space On Main in Bradford, VT<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Driven by her \u201clove for community in every sense of the word,\u201d our March Vermonter of the Month, Monique Priestley, founded The Space On Main<\/a> in 2017 as a nonprofit community-based coworking, maker, conference, event, and gallery space in the heart of rural Bradford, Vermont. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monique grew up on a back road in Piermont, New Hampshire,\njust over the river from Bradford. From a young age, her parents fostered a\nlove of the arts, learning, hard work, and volunteerism. Monique says that as\nfar back as she can remember, her mom always volunteered in the community and\nbrought her and her sister along to help. In her view, the community was always\nthere to help them in return. Because of this, Monique believes there is\nstrength, energy, and hope in community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a teen, Monique moved across the Connecticut River to\nBradford. She went on to graduate from Northern Vermont University \u2013 Lyndon and\nthen the University of Washington\u2019s Master of Communication in Digital Media\nprogram. After completing graduate school in Seattle, Monique returned to\nBradford and bought a house. Since then she has served on numerous boards,\ncommittees, and commissions, and was recently recognized as the Cohase Chamber\nof Commerce\u2019s Citizen of the Year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, Monique continues to demonstrate her dedication to\ncommunity by founding The Space as a way of fostering entrepreneurship,\ncollaboration, creativity, and innovation in the Vermont\/New Hampshire Cohase\nRegion.\nWe recently had the pleasure of touring The\nSpace and learning more about the work Monique is doing and what drives her\npassion for community:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did you come to\nunderstand the need in your community for a space like this? What made you\nstart this program in a rural place like Bradford, Vermont? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am involved in quite a few local community groups and\nnonprofits. Before working on The Space On Main (also referred to as The\nSpace), there weren’t many meetings that happened without someone asking,\n“How do we engage the young professionals here?” I was always the\nyoungest person in any room (often by a few decades) so this question was often\ndirected at me. At the same time, several of Bradford’s most beloved businesses\nhad closed or moved and there was palpable desperation in the air. I started\nwondering whether I should move back to Seattle (I went to grad school at\nUniversity of Washington and work remotely for a company there). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At one particularly hard meeting, a mentor and friend of\nmine asked me to share an idea I had only told a handful of people. I wanted to\ncreate a space where people could gather to work, create, teach, and learn\nside-by-side. I knew there were people who wanted to engage with the community\nbut did not really need or know how to. I wanted to bring them together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That meeting turned into an instant buzz of ideas. I went\nhome, sent out an online survey to gauge community interest, and got 85\nresponses that weekend. That was a lot for rural Vermont. I started meeting\nwith those people one-on-one in their homes, in coffee shops, in their studios,\nat their offices – figuring out exact needs, desires, prices, challenges, vibe,\netc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is something\nthat has been a welcome discovery? What is something that has been a challenge?\n<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am inspired every single day by the people who reach out\nto find out more about The Space, but more importantly, they reach out to find\nout how they can become an active member of their communities. They just need\nsomeone to listen to their story, to their ideas, and to help talk through the\nquestions that are holding them back. It energizes me, it helps awaken\nsomething in them, and it makes me appreciate humanity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In terms of challenges, the whole process has been one big\nseries of challenges. I did not know the first thing about most of the tasks I\nneeded to complete. Luckily, I have always been a lover of problem-solving,\nunquenchably curious, resourceful, and stubborn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What has been the\ncommunity response?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Honestly, mixed. There are people who understood what The Space was from the beginning and have been amazing – and who really made the entire thing possible by providing guidance, funding, and support. There are people who come in, sit down, and talk through what The Space can mean for them. There are the people who do not understand The Space – or really even the spark that happens when people from diverse backgrounds interact with each other. Then there are the people who just have not heard of it yet. The first few keep me going. The latter few present opportunities to practice marketing and storytelling skills. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ve said that\nabout 2,300 people have been to The Space on Main since it opened. Are you\ndrawing just from Bradford or surrounding areas? How do you get the word out? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are definitely drawing from Bradford and the surrounding\nareas. We have regular members and attendees from up to 45 minutes away on both\nsides of the Connecticut River. We have had quite a few people stop in that are\nvisiting family or friends. We have requests from people who want to be members\nwhile their kids attend local summer camps. We have had a few people become\nmembers for a few days at a time while they scope out housing in the Upper\nValley. And our Event Space and Conference Room are being booked all the time\nby local nonprofits and businesses that need a place to hold meetings, classes,\nand retreats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have mostly focused on social media, Vital Communities\nlistservs, and Google. Features on television networks, in Seven Days, and in\nlocal papers have really helped. Word of mouth is the biggest driver. We plan\nto put more of a focus on print advertising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are some lessons\nyou\u2019ve learned about starting a small business? Do you have any advice for\nother Vermonters starting this? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have patience, appreciation for timing, and listen to\neveryone and everything. There have been so many moments when I just could not\nget through to resources that I was advised to pursue. That was frustrating at\nfirst, but then I realized that opportunities to connect were presented to me\nlater, in drastically better circumstances. At this point, it happens so much\nthat it is entertaining to see how someone, or something will end up circling\nback around. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think my advice would be to be open to any and all ideas\nand connections. I say yes, to a lot of things that seem pretty random – a\nperson I should talk to, an idea someone wants to brainstorm, an event someone\nwants to go to, an article I need to read, but I never walk away from anything\nwithout having learned something from it. Those lessons increase my awareness\nfor later discoveries and connections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You are located right\non Main Street in downtown Bradford. Are you working on bringing any other new\nbusinesses like yours to the downtown? Any long-term goals for The Space?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cool thing about The Space and being personally engaged\nis that people reach out all the time with business or community ideas they\nneed help with. As I connect with various people and organizations, it broadens\nthe resources I can help point others towards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along with growing membership and rentals to sustain the\nnonprofit, our goal right now is to develop and fund programming that can\nprovide support and opportunities to remote workers, entrepreneurs, small\nbusinesses, and community members. We are also working on funding for equipment\nthat will expand the types of programming that can be offered. We have ideas\nfor using the third floor of the building and have been asked about potential\nsatellites, both of which are longer term goals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For right now, we are pretty excited for the number of people we have been able to serve in the first five months and cannot wait to see how The Space adapts and evolves over the coming year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"TJ<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a monthly series in which the Attorney General will feature a Vermonter doing exemplary work in their community. Have someone you think should be featured? Email AGO.CAP@vermont.gov. Driven by her \u201clove for community in every sense of the word,\u201d our March Vermonter of the Month, Monique Priestley, founded The Space On Main in 2017 as… Continue reading Vermonter of the Month: Monique Priestley<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4519,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[223768],"tags":[505445],"class_list":["post-677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","tag-vermonter-of-the-month","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4519"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":685,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677\/revisions\/685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}