Today is the deadline to vote for up to 9 candidates to the Cascade Bicycle Club board of directors.
If you're unsure about your choices or have questions, you can meet the 13 at a candidates forum from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Tuesday night (tonight) at The Brig (Building 406) at Magnuson Park.
You can fill out and drop off your ballot there, or send you ballot to Cascade Bicycle Club, 7400 Sand Point Way NE, Suite 101S, Seattle, WA 98115. The envelope must be postmarked by March 22 (that's today).
The election results will be certified by March 31 and results will be posted on the Cascade blog and the main page of the Cascade Bicycle Club website homepage.
Why vote
My dad used to say that if you don't vote, you don't earn the right to criticize the people in government. He also used to say vote early and vote often, but that doesn't apply here.
What does apply here, however, is that Cascade went through a huge amount of turmoil in October when the board terminated executive director Chuck Ayers, then reappointed him.
The legitimacy of the October board of directors election was called into question because some club bylaws weren't followed, and the election was delayed until March 22.
Future
A lot was said at the time about what direction Cascade should go: Grassroots advocacy? A tightly controlled staff? Support for those who “take the lane” and ride their bikes everywhere or for those who only participate in weekend recreational rides?
This is one of the best chances to decide the future of the club, as seven members of the existing board of directors say they will resign after the nine new board members are sworn in.
Candidate statements
To find out more about the candidates, you can read about them in the March issue of Cascade Courier, although there have been a couple of changes since then.
You can find the 13 names of current candidates and links to their candidate statements at the Cascade board election webpage. Note that Candy Castellanos and Chanel Reynolds have taken themselves out of the running.
Also, you can show up at the Candidates Forum tonight with your questions.
Ballots will be available at the meeting; there's also an online copy of the ballot
Recent Comments