The Strawberry Chairman!
How did you get that job?
by Jan Manning, TSF Historian
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| For twenty-seven years now the Troy Strawberry Festival
has been chaired by a volunteer chosen by his or her peers. The Troy
Strawberry Festival Chairman is responsible for recruiting the individual
committee chairpersons that organize and execute the abundance of activities
that take place prior, during and after festival weekend; picking a theme
for the year; overseeing the overall budget; securing sponsorships; and
being the spokesperson for that year’s festival. Today’s criteria for
chairmanship of this premier event are: service to the community, experience
with the festival itself, organizational skills, leadership skills, and
communication skills. The chair is chosen by a committee of past/present
festival chairman and staff. As the festival committee has grown in size and scope so has its chairmanship. The first chairman in 1977, Stephen Hamilton was chosen because he came up with the idea for a festival in the first place! Hamilton worked with a handful of volunteers who made the first event such a success. From those first years’ volunteers came the next several chairman--Doug Trostle, Rick Jackson, and Tom Thokey. After almost a decade of strawberries when the committee had grown to almost fifty in 1985, the first Assistant Chairman, Tim Lanahan, was chosen during Steve Kalmar’s chairmanship. The Assistant Chairman’s job was to attend as many committee meetings as possible to help be prepared for their year as Chairman. Just a year later, I was named Assistant Chairman--soon to be the second female to become TSF Chairman. As the year 2000 approached and the festival continued to grow and change, the Troy Strawberry Festival added a new layer to the management team and named the chairman two years in advance to ease the transition in leadership. Stan Kegley was named that year. This practice has continued to date with Susan Fogt named to be Chairman in 2004 and Steve Emmel tapped to be Chairman in 2005. The Past Chairman continue to contribute to the Troy Strawberry Festival in a multitude of ways--organizing and executing the Troy 2000 Celebration, serving as festival committee chairman each year, donating to the Hobart Arena restoration, and serving as ambassadors for the festival in the parade each year. Being the Troy Strawberry Festival Chairman is both an exhilarating and time consuming experience. The rewards are many--the headaches fleeting. Without the support of family and friends the show would not go on! It is truly a community wide event hosted by thousands of volunteers who love to celebrate Troy. The Past Chairman Roster: 1977 Steve Hamilton 1978 Doug Trostle 1979 Rick Jackson 1980 Tom Thokey 1981 Charlene Swob 1982 Max Stubbs 1983 Malvern Timm 1984 Earl Burley 1985 Steve Kalmar 1986 Tim Lanahan 1987 Jan Manning 1988 Mike Beamish 1989 Tim Fourman 1990 Dan Plow 1991 Dee Mahan 1992 Rick Riechert 1993 Jim Hall 1994 Joe Mahan 1995 Bill Myers 1996 Diana Thompson 1997 Charles Lobaugh 1998 Tom Kendall 1999 Jody Davis 2000 Stan Kegley 2001 Phil Trentine 2002 Sally Riechert 2003 Roberta Jacobs |