With the major work, and pleasure, of the holidays over Fremont returns to our standard half-skitch-off-normal. January grey descends with the turn of the year, and brings a great deal of turning in the Chamber. Last November we began our nomination process and sent out ballots for member to vote on one "slate" of our Board. One-third of the Board runs for election each year, with each section serving three years, to guarantee a mix of new and seasoned faces around the table.

Nominations focus on finding officers. We need a President, three Vice-Presidents, a Secretary and Treasurer. 2005 proved one of the easiest for nominations when all those who served at the close of 2004 opted to continue on. Trust me, this is a singularly rare occurrence. Marco Tubic, our President, even agreed to serve a 3rd term, making him only the 3rd person to do so.

To Lead A Group?

The board meeting held at the end of December - on the last Wednesday and after Christmas - traditionally starts the term of service for both officers and Board members. At this time Board members can choose to take the helm of various committees for the coming year. The unofficial Board orientation materials state, "Most committees have a chairperson who is ultimately responsible and committee members who help out and are also interested in this subject. Some committees are year round and some are only put together for a specific project such as a committee to monitor a grant. At any given Board meeting a committee may be put together to address a specific topic - so attendance at all Board meetings is ideal if you want to keep from being volunteered."

Lately most active committees form ad hoc when an issue either appears too large to decide during the board meeting, or holds the interest of a small segment of the board. Other topics require continual attention and so have a standing, although not always active, committee.

"Land Use: This committee receives the most mail of any single entity in the Chamber. …Chairpersons on this committee were given to resigning late in the year. Something to consider." Transportation, parking and retail also have come together and fallen apart as interest has grown or waned. Our new oversight committee, intended as an aid to any office staff we may acquire and voted into existence at the November '04 board meeting, has been designed as a standing committee.

Some committees form at certain times of the year - nominations, awards and budget being the most recent examples. The committees called together recently over the issue of hiring a new Executive Director and/or Executive Secretary will serve for limited times, ceasing to exist once the work gets done.

Scout the Others?

If committees don't appeal, Board members may serve as representatives to other organizations in our neighborhood. Reps bring or share information at other meetings to keep us better informed and hopefully better connected. Being a representative may feel like more work, more meetings and more commitment - it is.

The Lake Union District Council meets once a month as a City advisory group and brings together representatives from area neighborhoods - Fremont, Wallingford, South Lake Union and Westlake. The Fremont Neighborhood Council represents residential interests in our community, meets monthly and allows only paid members who live within strict geographic boundaries (Fremont) to vote. The Fremont Arts Council ostensibly represents the artistic interests of Fremont, as varied and capricious as they may be. They meet monthly working in a consensus format to discuss a wide variety of topics, any of which might overlap those of the Chamber. We've also had representatives on the B.F. Day Site Council to help guide our elementary school.

To Serve and Protect Ours

All in all, the Chamber starts off the year busy - and continues so. The success and strength of our community hardly happens by accident. The help and enthusiasm of dozens of volunteers working together accomplish magic and miracles. Lenin doesn't light himself, nor does Oktoberfest just happen, and to get those things done your Chamber Board must work - even in January grey.

January 2005