At the end of 2021, I will complete my second two-year term on the board of streets.mn. My second term has been quite challenging, for several reasons. Between the effects of the ongoing pandemic, spending significant time out-of-state due to family matters, fighting a personal health issue, changing employment (twice), returning to college full-time and getting married this past May, squeezing in time for board work has been difficult. My second term on the board has been a struggle and I could use a break!
Instead of taking a break, I signed up for another two-year term. Why, some of you might ask? My answer is two-fold: First, I believe in the mission of streets.mn “To foster positive connections and inclusive conversations about better places in Minnesota”; and second, I believe streets.mn still has work to do fostering these positive connections and inclusive conversations. There are voices in Minnesota that are not a part of the conversation about better places in Minnesota and I want streets.mn to hear and amplify those voices.
This is where you come into the picture. We are currently in our board recruitment phase—the time of the year when streets.mn adds new voices to our board of directors for the next two years. Our board has determined streets.mn needs new voices on our board who have experience with volunteer coordination, brand management/social media, racial equity work, or website management. We also seek to broaden the racial and socioeconomic diversity of our board by adding folks from marginalized communities, who will bring differing perspectives on transportation and land use to the board of streets.mn
The never-ending pandemic saps us of our energy at a time when we need all our energy to fight for environmental, housing and transit justice. Leaders at the national, state, and local level are over-selling and under-delivering. When we ask for affordable housing, environmental action, and safe streets the powers-that-be are not listening. To make progress we must summon our collective energy and demand our voices be heard.
So, I ask for your voice. I ask you to apply to join the board of streets.mn and work with us to foster positive connections and inclusive conversations about better places in Minnesota. Together, our collective voices will be heard.
Application Extension
With the recent election season, we realized many people haven’t had a chance to think about applying yet. We’re going to extend the application deadline to Wednesday, November 17th.
If you’ve already applied, we’ll be reaching out soon!
Meet the Board
In addition, we’d like to invite you to two chances to meet the streets.mn Board! (And you’re certainly welcome to come even if you’re not applying this year.)
November 11th, 5-7 pm at Arbeiter Brewing in Minneapolis (3038 Minnehaha Ave, next to Moon Palace Books)
First beer on us! We’ll be meeting on the patio.
November 13th, 1-3pm Lunch in the Park at Mears Park in Downtown St. Paul
We’ll provide snacks and refreshments. The St. Paul Farmers Market is 8am-1pm if you’d like to stop by there beforehand as well.