It's a busy place. When the Chronicle called there were deliveries, people making inquiries about floats in the Christmas parade, phones ringing, accounts being paid and bills being sent out.
"There's pretty much too much to do. We could quite easily use a fourth full-time person [in the office] and they would be busy, but we just can't afford it," she said.
Mainstreet Wanganui morphed out of the former Wanganui Retailers' Association back in 1991. "The retailers and the retail association got wind of the fact that the council was planning a big redevelopment in the CBD. They were going to be affected and they needed a seat around that table," Ms Goodge said.
The redevelopment happened in 1992-93 and Mainstreet Wanganui became an incorporated society in 1993.
It has three active committees, about 10 full-time staff and its members are the 240 retailers who rent space from the owners of CBD buildings. The owners pay the Wanganui District Council levies that are Mainstreet's main source of income.
Member retailers are in the main four blocks of Victoria Ave and the side streets extending one block from them. There are also 23 voluntary members who pay $50 a year and whose businesses are outside that area.
Mainstreet communicates with members through a popular six-weekly newsletter, Facebook, the monthly morning meetings of its The lowdown on Mainstreet Wanganui
I hope that they feel we are working for them.Elise Goodge,
marketing and promotions managerthree committees and by generally being out and available.
"Some of them send an email if something's bothering them or they will just drop in. I hope that they feel we are working for them," Ms Goodge said.
Its business promotions committee organises events that will bring people into the CBD. Ms Goodge now has a list of nine events that will happen every year - such as a Christmas festival in December and heritage event in January. But she said there were always extras.
"We nearly always run an activity in school holidays, to get the families coming in."
At the moment, the promotions budget simply pays the wages for herself and Geoff Follett. Money for promotion costs comes from donations and from extra earnings such as Ritchie Minnell directing traffic or Mainstreet supplying extra hanging baskets.
Ms Goodge's aim is to make promotions self-funding and she'd also like more retailers to be more consistently involved.
The projects of Mainstreet's design heritage committee have varied, depending on who was on it and what they thought was important.
One group put together a brass rubbing trail to educate visitors about the city's historic buildings.
The current committee is mindful of changes to the rules about earthquake-prone buildings.
It is helping council put together a list of buildings which, although need strengthening, are essential to save.
By going to meetings with peers in similar organisations elsewhere, Ms Goodge has discovered that Mainstreet Wanganui has a unique feature.
"We are the only town centre organisation in the country that has managed to secure town maintenance in the CBD.
"A lot are very jealous," she said.
And she gets to hear a lot about town centres where businesses are losing out to bypasses and big box retailers setting up on the edge of town.
Wanganui was lucky.
"We've got a really supportive council, retail precinct and community. Not many other towns have all three."
Mainstreet Wanganui's staff know all too well that the recession is making business tough for many retail members.
"It's horrible when someone closes their doors because we know how hard they've worked," Ms Goodge said.
A year in, it's the relationships she's enjoyed the most in her job.
"I've got to meet a lot of really neat people in a really short time. That has been cool," she said.
