Vote in the 2009 Board of Directors Election
Posted March 20th, 2009 by vikkid in Board of Directors, Front Page, NewsMeet the candidates, watch their videos and read their statements.
The 2009 Access Tucson Board of Director Candidates are Cynthia Dickstein, Carl Hanni, Libby Hubbard and Martha McGrath.
Ballots were mailed out to all active members on March 19th. If you do not receive a ballot by March 26th, please let us know so we can be sure to get one out to you.
In order for your votes to be counted, the accounting firm DeVries CPAs of Arizona must receive your ballot either through the mail or in person by 5pm on Tuesday, April 7th.
The results will be announced at the Annual Meeting and Volunteer Recognition Event at Access Tucson on April 9th.
Occupation: International Exchange Specialist
Employer: Retired
Membership in Professional Organizations:
New England Society of Newspaper Editors
Involvement with Community Organizations:
Committee Work – Social Venture Partners
Why do you wish to serve as a Director of Access Tucson?
After serving for the past four years as a Director of Access Tucson, I have an even greater understanding of and respect for the mission of Access Tucson. I am committed and election again as a Director would allow me to continue to offer my support.
What expertise or special qualifications do you possess which you feel would be important to Access Tucson?
In the past years as a Board member, I’ve been serving on several committees. I’ve headed up a task force to create People for Access Tucson, which will work with the Board on community advocacy and fund-raising. I am currently President of People for Access Tucson. I’m also on the Executive Committee and the Board Affairs Committee.
For more than three years, I’ve been the host of the Access Tucson show Political Perspectives.
As for my background, I worked in private sector, nonpolitical international, cultural and professional exchanges from 1979 until 2005. I’ve initiated and facilitated exchanges in such diverse areas as print journalism and television, women’s issues, medicine, education, law enforcement, fire fighting, architecture, real estate and physical fitness.
For many years I was the president of the Organization for International Professional Exchanges, Inc., a private, nonprofit organization based in Cambridge, MA, and I served as the Director of the foreign exchange program of the New England Society of Newspaper Editors Foundation (NESNE) from 1984 until a couple of years ago, when I resigned because of the difficulties of living here in Arizona and working in New England.
With NESNE, I worked to organize the first professional exchange between US and Soviet journalists in the early 1980s, an exchange which I directed annually until it ended in 1996.
In 1998 I went to Tehran for two weeks, where, representing NESNE, I met with appropriate government officials and newspaper editors to negotiate the first official exchange between American and Iranian journalists since the seizure of the US Embassy in 1979. American organizations and foundations which supported NESNE in the US visit of the Iranian journalists included Harvard’s Nieman Foundation, Brandeis University, the Boston Globe, The New York Times, Ploughshares and the Open Society Institute.
In 1989, I organized an American/Soviet Women’s Policy Conference in the USSR. Among those US women who participated were politicians, including Senator Deborah Stabenow, environmentalists, directors of women’s programs at universities, and prominent activists and advocates for women’s issues on both the national and grassroots level.
I’m also a freelance writer who has published most frequently in the Boston Globe newspaper. Before my career as an international exchange specialist, I worked in advertising and public relations and as a hospital administrator for Mass Eye and Ear Infirmary and Harvard Medical School.
Occupation: Music Publicist/Owner-Operator of Mod Media Publicity
Employer: Self employed
Membership in Professional Organizations: None
Involvement with Community Organizations:
Some nascent involvement at The Loft, minor but increasing involvement with KXCI, some involvement with MOCA. Lots of ad hoc, one-off projects with various local artists, writers and musicians. I’m also known at Casa Libre, the Arizona International Film Festival, Etherton Gallery, and the Poetry Center at UA.
Why do you wish to serve as a Director of Access Tucson?
To further the arts in Tucson, serve the arts community, be involved in a viable organization and broaden my own horizons.
What expertise or special qualifications do you possess which you feel would be important to Access Tucson?
Decades of working directly with artists (musicians, filmmakers, writers, visual artists) in a wide variety of capacities and relationships. I managed and booked an arts space in Bisbee from 2001-2004, worked for the annual Artquake Festival in Portland, Oregon from 1993 to 1996 and was professionally affiliated with the National Poetry Slam in the 1990s. I have decades of work in the music business, and have also been affiliated with various publishing, writing and poetry ventures over many years. I have a minor in Film Studies from American University, wrote film criticism for several years in Portland in the 1990s and currently write a film column (”Indie Watch”) for the Tucson Weekly.
Occupation: web designer
Employer: A.P. Hubbard Lumber Company
Membership in Professional Organizations:
Society for Utopian Studies Member 1990-1994
Spectrum Fine Arts and Literary Magazine
UMass Amherst Arts and Photo Editor 1986-1986
Involvement with Community Organizations:
1999 Arcosanti Community Council
1998-1999 Town Meeting Member, Amherst, Massachusetts
1993 Member of the Chancellor’s Civility Commission
1988/87 UMass Arts Council member
1988 Organizer, fundraiser, etc. for Paolo Soleri Conference, Amherst, MA.
Why do you wish to serve as a Director of Access Tucson?
For the past two years I’ve been the producer of Lovolution Village, a TV show about the need to build ecological cities. I’m very grateful for the opportunity to create programming and to inspire the public. Producing this program would not be possible without Access Tucson. It is one of the few places I know in Tucson that I consider to be run by democratic principles. I’m impressed with the quality of the staff and the efficiency of the organization. I would like to make a contribution to this organization that has given so much to me. I would also like to know more about the workings of the organization so that I can be more effective in encouraging others in the community to become more actively involved, not only in developing programming, but also its organizational direction.
What expertise or special qualifications do you possess which you feel would be important to Access Tucson?
On the list of Board Job Description it says that “the board sets strategic long term goals for Access Tucson.” I have a doctorate in Future Studies from the University of Massachusetts. My mind is oriented toward futurist thinking about how we can create a more reasonable and loving world. Presently, the future of non-commercial TV is threatened when our time calls for the voice of the people to rise up and be heard. It can not be heard without public access TV. I would like to see more orientation towards building TV on the Internet so that we can bring the local and the global consciousness together. My Internet skills might be helpful in making sure Access Tucson has a more prominent Net presence.
Occupation: Producer
Employer: The Bunny Show
Membership in Professional Organizations:
Alliance for Community Media
Involvement with Community Organizations:
Comadres, 2005 through present.
Barrio Hollywood Neighborhood Association, Secretary, 2001 through present.
Fiesta Grande Street Fair, 2002 through present.
Lawrence Intermediate School, Site Committee Chairperson, 2004-2006.
Voices, Inc., 2004, 2005.
TPAC Public Art Committee, 2005 – present.
Barrio Hollywood Historical Mural Project, Curator, 2002 through present.
Hermanos Unidos Encontra de la Pared, Cofounder, Douglas, 1994, 1995.
MEC Crystal Apple Award, Wild Oats, 2006
LULAC National Presidential Citation, 2005
TUSD Certificate of Honor, 2004
University of Arizona, Outstanding Student, Political Science Department, 1998.
State of Arizona, Commendation, for design and implementation program to track health variables in TB study in Douglas State Prison, 1988.
Why do you wish to serve as a Director of Access Tucson?
Access Tucson is facing many challenges and needs a board of directors with CREATIVE VISION and THE WILL TO FIGHT TO PRESERVE ACCESS TUCSON’S INTERESTS. I possess skills that include creative marketing, legal training (JD), producing and outreach to community organizations give me special insight into the challenges that face Access Tucson. Additionally, my enthusiastic support of, and belief in, the principles of Access Tucson and Community Media provide me with a wonderful vision of what Access Tucson can be.
As a board member I will actively work to:
• Resolve challenges facing Access Tucson
• Increase Access Tucson’s Recourses
• Fight to protect Access Tucson’s Interests.
As a board member my first priorities will include:
• An Assessment of recent legislation (Cox) and report on coming cuts
• Creation of 2009 business plan.
• Development of a consistent advertising/PR campaign to enhance Access Tucson’s image in the public
• Fundraising for adequate Access Tucson equipment, staffing & programs.
• Improving communication and the exchange of ideas between board, staff and producers.
• Improving outreach in the community
What expertise or special qualifications do you posses which you feel would be important to Access Tucson?
I feel that my skills in creative marketing, my legal training, my involvement with many community organizations, and my enthusiastic support of and belief in the principles of Access Tucson and Community Media will give me special insight as a board member and will help solve some of these challenges.
My experience as an Access Tucson TV Producer, (2005, 2006), gives me first hand knowledge of the limited resources, technical problems and programming challenges that staff and producers deal with every day, and as a board member I will actively seek to raise funds to provide Access Tucson with the resources it needs.
My vast marketing skills can help enhance Access Tucson’s image in the community. For five years, as the City Marketing Manager at Wild Oats Markets, I created and implemented yearly citywide marketing plans. This included creation of all press releases, copy for ads, photography for ads, for both print and radio media. My marketing expertise includes:
• External Communications including newsletters, brochures, calendars, press releases.
• Marketing Plans aimed at developing new markets through outreach to community groups.
• Photography, copy, placement of both print and radio ads.
• Website Content & updates.
• Fundraising, Event Planning & Implementation.
• TV, Video Production & Promotions.
• Outreach to Community Organizations in Tucson, with extensive connections in the Spanish-speaking markets.