Today is a day that will go down in history no matter what happens. We may elect the first woman president in U.S. history. We may not. We shall see where the votes are cast tonight. The world is definitely watching this election closely!

No matter what affiliation you have, I hope you get out there and vote. We Americans are taking our vote for granted. We have had such low voter turnout due to the apathy that has developed over the decades. It is time to change this if we want change. So if you reside in the U.S.A.:

This election will also go down in history as one of the most nasty on record. Instead of talking about the issues, it has been reduced to a character battle. There is a great deal of negativity floating around. I will in this post attempt to glean the positive I can to take with us for our collective audience building futures. There have been a few good points to report and learn from:

• Be as inclusive as possible. We have seen first hand what happens when a campaign is not inclusive. It only gets people wanting to oppose you. This does not mean to not value what you believe in, but it does mean to value other people’s choices too. I am proud to report that I have friends across the aisle, and we have managed to stay friends simply by respecting and remaining inclusive for our friendships.

  For audience building, this means to be inclusive for inviting people, but to respect their choices if they decide not to be a part of your audiences. The main issue here is that we could be more inclusive in our invitations in the first place!

• Learn from the “competition.” Even if you feel that they are generally not fit to be elected, the other candidate will have some good qualities (even if you have to use a microscope to find it!). There is always something positive you could take away.

  Best case scenario for the arts is to get beyond the competition mentality. If we are still stuck though, try to admit the good qualities of the other artists and arts organizations and learn from them. You may get a super idea that can be tweaked to build your audiences!

• Let the people vote! It’s good to be the one with the ideas for your arts business, but allowing the people to have their say will get them more involved.

  Audience participation is good to encourage. Let your audiences vote from time to time!

• When the election is all over, we are still all in this together hoping the best for all concerned. At least, this is what I generally believe and hope for.

  Even in tough times for an arts business, it is best to come together instead of being divisive. I sometimes see arts organizations get departmental or divided by roles. We must rise above. United we stand, divided we fall. The more team oriented we can become in running our arts, the better off we will be, and the more likely people will want to join our teams.

So yes, it was challenging to pick out at least a few positive points from this particular election that are worth mentioning. If you have any to add, please do share with all of us.

Happy Election Day to us all!

Cheers to happy and loyal-voting audiences,
Shoshana

Shoshana Fanizza
Chief Audience Builder, Audience Development Specialists