Dear Fireflies, In April, we sent out an open call for interest in joining the Board of Directors of Firefly Arts Collective. We received a number of enthusiastic responses, and invited five participants to meet with the current board to better understand how we operate. We have other interested candidates still to follow up with, and this is a process that we intend to repeat in the future as we encounter a normal progression of participation in our organization. We would now like to solicit community feedback on the current round of candidates under consideration for joining the Firefly Board. We also welcome feedback on current board members, to help keep us accountable to our community. For the participants listed below, please consider the following thoughts as you write us: 1) Do you feel that the candidate is well-suited for participating on the Board of Directors, based on your experience and our bylaws (http://fireflyartscollective.org/about-fac/firefly-bylaws/)? 2) What are some qualities in the candidate that would assure success as a member of the Firefly Board? 3) If you have worked with the candidate on a project before, what was that experience like? 4) Is there anything else you would like to share about the candidate? Our Board can be between 7 and 21 members, so any and all of the candidates could join our board. There's no need to rank candidates in your feedback, just tell us what you think individually. When considering your feedback, keep in mind that beyond the yearly camping festival, we are working to expand the year-round activities of Firefly Arts Collective. Firefly continues to collaborate with Somerville Open Studios and Figment Boston to bring more community art to our cities, and we are working to have a year-round gallery space available for displays and classes. We seek members who are excited not just in helping coordinate our festival, but who also have the time and energy to expand and strengthen our regional community. Candidates for July 2019: – Brian "Bendy" Endy – Jon Evans – Mike "Magneato" MacHenry – Carly "Yaycat" Nix – Zyler Vega Current Board Members (years on board, rounded): – Blake Courtney (8) – Jered Floyd (6) – Talena Gandy (2) – Frank Gerratana (2) – Brian Gowdey (2) – Liz LaManche (6) – Kendra Pugh (4) – Julia Sapashnik (2) – Dan Snyder (6) – Drew Van Zandt (4) Please send your feedback, particularly on candidates, to board@fireflyartscollective.org <mailto:board@fireflyartscollective.org> by Friday, August 16. (If you wish to send feedback anonymously, feel free to relay it through any board or community member that you trust.) We welcome feedback on the Board at any time. <3, The Firefly BoD Contact the Firefly Board of Directors at board@fireflyartscollective.org if you have any comments or questions.