Bio
Merchant seaman, student (BA,BLS,UBC;MBA,SFU), lecturer (English & Commerce), librarian and library director, partner in a cottage-industry software house, bus-owner and driver. Presently involved with two NGOs, one Canadian and one American. Avocations include show-jumping, ocean cruising, and solo climbing. Intellectual interests include writing and occasionally publishing short stories (God bless you, Mother CBC!), learning new languages and compilers, and the economics of underdeveloped societies. Divorced, 1973. Sensibly, never re-married. Retired. Age, 66.
Skills
Organizational-systems analysis; marketing; raising money and budgeting it; setting quantifiable and realisable goals and objectives for the short-, middle- , and long-terms. A flair for language, and a passion for it. A careful regard for everyone I meet until they prove themselves self-serving. Considerable experience of working for organizations run by volunteer boards.
Politics
I have been described as "so far to the right that he has come all the way round to the left".
Functions Board Members should perform
Board members should, conjointly with the Executive Director, determine the middle- and long-term goals of the organization, and assist the Executive Director as necessary with the short-term planning which will move the NCF towards those goals. Board members should thereafter maintain a watching brief on progress, but should seldom intervene. Board members should, simultaneously, maintain a constant and watching brief on the views and needs of the membership, through the mechanism of the SIGs; and a brisk awareness of movements and opportunities for advancing the NCF within the larger environment, such as the present Smart Capital project.
Why I want to be a Director
I believe that the NCF is just beginning to enter its early maturity, and that the promise it contains for the years ahead warrants my support. I believe that my experience and training can contribute to the realization of that promise; and enable me to promote a larger view of the organization than many, including some among the membership, at present hold. This will afford me considerable satisfaction.