After nine years as the executive director of the the Village Green, Ann Self has announced her plans to retire from her post this winter.
Some might say it’s the end of an era, but Self says this is just the beginning.
“It has been such an honor to serve The Village Green and the Cashiers community. I am proud of all that the organization has accomplished, and I will be leaving The Village Green in a greater position to propel forward into the future,” Self said in an official release from the Green announcing the decision.
Self’s retirement marks the end of an iconic tenure as the park’s first and only executive director to date.
First established on a two-acre parcel in the center of Cashiers in 1992, the organization existed as an entirely volunteer-run operation for its first 20 years. It wasn’t until 2012, around the time Summit Charter School left the Green to operate its own facility, that the park’s board of directors found itself in need of a paid staff person to handle all manner of affairs concerning the Green.
“It had grown over the course of time and, when the school left, the current Commons area was repurposed,” Self said. “That created a lot of additional events and activities, and it became pretty clear pretty quickly that it needed full-time management.”
Self was quickly identified as the candidate best-suited to the job.
“I’m a retired United Methodist minister, and I was serving a part-time appointment. The position opened up and it turned out they were looking for someone with the skills I had – being in church works translates very neatly into nonprofit work,” she
said. “I offered to interview and find out more about it, and the next thing I know I’m sitting here nine years later getting ready to retire.”
Humble beginnings
While the Green’s leadership position has evolved into a complex, community-spanning role over almost a decade, the job had humble beginnings.
“At the beginning, I was literally handed a milk crate with some file folders, a big binder and a couple of disks and I had a desk in my kitchen. That milk crate and my kitchen desk became the office of the Village Green,” Self said.
Over time, more and more events and activities were offered. In 2017, the Village Green took over sole responsibility for the Cashiers Leaf Festival and the Groovin’ on the Green concert series. The park began hosting all manner of events in the heart of town, with school groups, churches, corporate and nonprofit entities and many families and private groups using the expansive green space for meetings, celebrations and simple relaxation throughout the year.
In 2016, a new office was built at the Green and Self stepped away from her work with the church to dedicate herself more fully to the Green.
“I like to say the Village Green is my sanctuary, and I have the prettiest sanctuary in Cashiers,” she said. “I look very much at what the Village Green does in terms of bringing community together and building relationships as the same as my understanding of church and ministry.”
All good things
Shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic began, Self was starting to formulate a plan for how she might pass on her responsibilities to the Green’s next caretaker.
“Toward the end of 2019, I started thinking about when that might be and what it might look like,” she said. “I was excited about the new Commons Hall and getting that opened up, and then once we’d done that, toward the end of 2020 I really started thinking about it seriously.”
One of the biggest factors in Self’s decision to step down was her family – with grandchildren growing up and parents getting older, she felt the time was right to dedicate more of her time and energy to cherishing those relationships in her personal life.
“Of course that’s one of my primary reason’s for retiring,” she said. “I want to be able to spend more time with my children and my grandchildren, and my parents are getting to the age where I need to be more available for them.”
Self is also planning to spend more time focused on writing, a lifelong passion that she hopes to rekindle with more time to spend on creative pursuits. In 2020, she wrote a children’s story for a Story Walk at the Village Green, the second she’s written to date.
“I had written another children’s book before Cashiers Come Play With Me, called the Very Special Star – it’s a Christmas story,” she said. “I went back after not thinking about it for several years, and when I dusted it off and polished it up I thought, ‘This is really a pretty sweet story.’ If I could find someone to illustrate it I think it could be great for another Story Walk.”
New leadership
The Village Green has already hired a replacement to fill Self’s role, although an official announcement on who it will be is still pending.
“I can say that this individual is going to bring a new dynamic and fresh energy and insight and perspective,” Self said. “There are some projects and decisions happening as we speak about the Commons venue and its future management, and trying to figure out some of those different aspects is a huge priority for me to set that person up well for success.”
Self plans to stay on for six months as Executive Director Emeritus, in order to ensure a smooth transition for her successor.
While she will miss many aspects of her time as executive director, Self said she looks forward to seeing what the Green evolves into and what the future holds for Cashiers as a whole.
“It will be exciting to see,” she said.
- By Carter Griegerich