It is Group Ex Com election time, and we have three fine candidates for the committee. Watch your mailbox for your 2013 Executive Committee Ballots. Below are candidates statements and photos (will also be in the ballots).
Jenna Contuchio
I have been involved in environmental activism since high school. That youthful passion has grown into determination as an adult.
I co-founded Plastic Police in 2010, under a local 501(c)(3) non-profit, dedicated to ridding our waterways of marine pollution by cleaning the streets.
I am an active volunteer for Coastal Watershed Council, Marine Life Studies, Ventana Wilderness Alliance and NOAA.
I recently became a Sierra Club member after talking with members and visiting the site and am excited to find another group of dedicated volunteers with similar principles.
I am interested in becoming a multi-faceted leader of the local group. I bring my broad range of experience from land to sea and I have a strong background in communications.
I feel each aspect of the Sierra Club ties into the next by providing data to help improve legislation. I think my primary contribution will be water related.
Mike Guth
I look forward to the opportunity to continue to serve on the Executive Committee, and as the Group's Conservation Chair. I have been active in the areas of coastal water quality, coastal lagoon conservation, riparian corridor protection, storm water runoff management, and land use planning for many years.
Although the struggle for resource conservation is a broad one, and I do work pro-actively to shape policy, the battle is often fought defensively on a project-by-project basis. I regularly review and comment on project proposals in order to ensure better compliance to the County's environmental regulations. This type of oversight can be quite effective.
I serve or have served on numerous County and regional Boards and Commissions. That experience, my passion for protecting the environment, and my background as an attorney have combined to empower my personal contributions. I ask for your support as I seek re-election to the Executive Committee.
Saskia Lucas
I am a life-long environmentalist who has worked on many initiatives that promote sustainable living. I wish to use my organizing and non-profit program development and management experience and skills to further promote the protection and enjoyment of the natural world as part of the local Sierra Club leadership.
Most recently I founded the new Santa Cruz Open Streets event which temporarily closed West Cliff Drive to automobiles and transformed the road into a street park. The event's goals are to create more public spaces for people to engage in active and sustainable living and learn resources for doing so on a regular basis.
Previously I worked for six years at Ecology Action where I developedand ran the Bike Smart! Youth Bicycle Safety Education Program.
I am an avid practitioner of simple living to reduce consumption, I am an avid bicyclist, enjoy home composting and drying clothes on a line.