Board Election

KBUT is holding its annual membership meeting on Saturday January 12th at 5:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers at Crested Butte Town Hall. Members will elect three candidates to the KBUT Board of Directors and will also vote on ratification of a motion to increase the size of the Board from seven to nine members. Ballots will be available at the KBUT studios starting Tuesday January 8th for members in good standing. Ballots will also be available at the meeting. Votes can also be submitted electronically here.

The candidates running for election are: Alex Fenlon, Jeff Scott and Alissa Johnson. There is also a ballot question concerning expanding the size of the Board of Directors.

The Board of Directors will hold a regular meeting following the annual meeting. For more information contact KBUT GM Eileen Hughes at 349-5225.

Alex Fenlon is a long-time community radio fan, having grown up in a household surrounded by NPR and classical music. He has been on the KBUT Board of Directors for the last 5 years, serving as President for the last 2. Before his service on the Board, he started as a volunteer DJ in 1997, and was on the staff for 8 years. 

I moved to Crested Butte during the fall of 2010, and at the time it was important to me to become fully immersed in the Crested Butte culture before I considered in-depth volunteer positions on a board of directors. I've always believed that it takes six months to a year to learn a new job before you can begin to understand it, and I felt the same about moving to a mountain town like ours.
 
Now that I've been in Crested Butte for a couple of years, I'm ready to take a more involved roll in the community--one that goes beyond work and skiing/biking/climbing/doing anything outside. I'd like to join the ranks of dedicated locals who help make Crested Butte what it is through volunteer work, and I'd like to be a part of the KBUT board of directors because public radio has always been a vital part of my community. 
 
I come from Minneapolis, where Minnesota Public Radio is a community staple. It kept me company during my commute, around the house on weekends and during drives up north. My friends and I were some of the first in line for events like story slams and the open house for their new broadcasting station. You could say that public radio is in my blood--my dad is coming to Crested Butte for the first time this January, and the one thing he requested is a visit to KBUT. It was a comfort to move to a community where public radio plays just as strong a role. 
 
As a writer, I'll bring extensive experience in communications to the KBUT board. I have a marketing background, and spent several years helping nonprofit groups, the U.S. Forest Service and retailers like Target hone their messages. As an account supervisor and later a writer, I helped set messaging strategies and led teams of designers and writers to develop direct mail campaigns, online communications and other collateral. Among my projects, I helped Target conduct an audit of its community relations communications and fine tune messaging strategy, led a creative and editorial team to develop a magazine for college students with a distribution 1.1 million, and helped the Quetico Superior Foundation develop an online sister publication its long-time print publication Wilderness News. 
 
In 2008, I left marketing to earn my MFA in creative and professional writing from Western Connecticut State University. Now, in addition to being an associate editor atthe Crested Butte News, I'm a regular contributor to Canoeing.com and Wilderness News, and I just had my first piece published in the Wall Street Journal travel section. I'm also a writing mentor through Western Connecticut State University and offer online writing classes and writing coaching through my independent business Writing Strides. I look forward to the opportunity to bring those same skills to KBUT as well.