Roger,
What are the expectations of a board member? In person meetings? Or is online-only or online-mostly good enough? If the latter, I will volunteer myself as an at-large board member candidate.
Regards,
Mike
Expectations are occasional social events and some rare board meetings. But mostly online, and often in these public forums. Shall we toss your hat in the ring?
Do it. I have to have twenty characters so I here we go.
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At-large for all.
Can the candidates share some background with the group at some point? My suggestions:
- Age
- Housing status (renters vs. owners)
- Household characteristics (children vs. none, married vs. single)
- Council district
- Personal message
I see the above as optional, but Iām interested in electing a diverse board and would like to have a better understanding of who is on the ballot.
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I second @NatalieGauldinās suggestion, perhaps adding occupation to the list of suggestions.
I really think itās critical for us to endeavor toward as diverse and representative a board as possible. With the utmost respect of folks whoāve worked very hard to get the organization this far, we remain D9āand particularly Hyde Parkāheavy.
ā¦said the guy who lives in D9
I agree. We should aim for geographic diversity, and shouldnāt have 3 members from Hyde Park. At the moment, we have 14 people nominated for a total of 7 positions. Are there any interested FAN members from districts that arenāt represented by somebody thatās already been nominated?
Oh, and here is my info:
- 28 years old
- Homeowner
- No kids, soon to be married
- Hyde Park, District 9
- Engineering Scientist at Applied Research Labs
Iāll work on putting together a message if I decide to run. Iām thinking it might be good for the Hyde Park nominees to get together and choose one of us to run.
If geographic diversity is a primary goal, maybe the 4 board positions should be geographically distributed? NW, NE, SW, SE of the center of the city?
Just a suggestion; maybe too late to be of use.
I love the idea of including our backgrounds and not just a fluffy bio. I believe diversity is important. Maybe we should add ethnicity?
Anyway, my info:
- 47 years old
- Homeowner
- Married with one cat
- Downtown, District 9
- Technology product strategist
- Caucasian male
Personally, Iād like to see FAN move towards mirroring the 10-1 representation, but I donāt think weāre ready yet. Also, Iād want to avoid seeing someone pressured to sit on the board because they happen to be the one person who lives in NW Austin.
ETA: I feel like geographic diversity is important, but it is equally important to me to see at least one renter on the board.
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@brwittstruck Still need to know for which positions youāre nominating Kristen and Philip!
- 31
- Homeowner
- Married + toddler + 2 dogs
- Rosedale, D7
- Technical writer/ trainer
I feel the same way, but about D7.
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The electorate will sort it all out when they vote!
Evan GIll
- 26
- Single
- Renter
- Central East Austin/D1
- Attended UT for grad school (class of '14)
- Investments analyst
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Please withdraw my nomination from the ballot. I will not vote for myself with the number of openings, given the experience & contributions of other candidates.
I will continue to serve, with the same enthusiasm, in other capacities.
Roger,
I havenāt had the chance to consult with Kristen and Philip about what position theyād like to entertain. As such, Iām happy to nominate them both for At Large Board membership.
B
Philip,
I hope youāll reconsider your decision to withdraw. I think our membership will benefit wildly from the diversity of candidates and I think weād benefit from your service in this regard.
B
Roger,
Do our by-laws preclude us from electing the full Board at large and then following up with elections of Officers from the Board slate?
Iām in agreement that we should aspire to the very relevant 10-1 distribution. Realistically, we may not be there yet for this first Board but I hope we will consider the need to reflect Austinās political structure and aim for that in the future and now, to the best of our ability.
B
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Iām not sure whether the by-laws preclude that method, though they certainly donāt prescribe it. I myself would also prefer a method that elected the full board and subsequently selected the officers. Weāre going to need to update the by-laws soon.
I would support that method as wellāI get the feeling no one wants to run for specific positions for fear of stepping on toes (alternate theory is that being Secretary is a lot of workā¦).