2023 Annual Meeting

Minutes of the June 22, 2022, Annual Membership Meeting via Zoom

Call to Order: Vice-President Candice Wilson called the meeting to order at noon. After welcome and introductory remarks, she turned the meeting over to Robin Barker, Membership Chair.

Election Report: According to the club bylaws, a quorum of 10% of active members is required. At the time the ballot was delivered, active membership was 361, with 41 ballots cast via email.

The Minutes of the 2021 annual meeting were approved.

The following persons were re-elected to the Board of Directors:
Maureen McCarthy
Jayne Freudenberger
Tanya Baumgart
Ray Dellecker
Zach Nordwell
Forrest Longman
Kay Sardo

There was one write-in vote for Chris Roselli.

Meeting Adjourned: The meeting was adjourned, and the regular program commenced.

Submitted by Gayle Helgoe

Board of Director Candidate Biographies

First Term

Jane Bright: Jane Bright is a graduate of Brandeis University and was a lifelong resident of Massachusetts until 2015 when she and her husband moved to Bellingham. It was the grandchildren.

Professionally she spent 28 years in executive positions in Human Resources at The Gillette Company and then at Fidelity Investments. Following retirement, she co-founded HealthLink, a regional environmental group formed to evaluate the high rates of multiple cancers in her community and assess the impact of living under the pollution of a coal-burning power plant. Following several years of advocacy with the State while acquiring a thorough understanding of the health effects from pollution, the State adopted the toughest pollution standards for coal plants in the nation. She received recognitions from both Governor Mitt Romney and the MA State legislature for her volunteer work. During her advocacy, her professional retirement ended, as her husband recruited her to run the business side of his software development and website company.

Since arriving in Bellingham, Bright has volunteered on numerous committees. She was elected President of the South Hill Neighborhood Association, serving for several years, and is still actively involved in upgrading the safety of train crossings across the Port and City. A sailor by marriage, she is active at the Bellingham Yacht Club where she has been elected to the Board twice. She joined the Bellingham City Club Program Committee several years ago and will assume the chairmanship in May of 2023.

She has been politically active in Bellingham, seeking to understand how laws and jurisdictions work in WA vs MA as well as to fulfill her commitment to civic responsibility and community. Bright believes it is important to leave the world a better place than you found it.

Junga Cha: My life and legal career have been focused on advancing the civil rights of people of color, women, people with disabilities, and other protected classes of people against employers, institutions, governments or corporations. I have always been passionate about justice and civil rights for people, bringing the strength and wisdom of my mother and ancestors to bear.

Discrimination and violations of a person’s civil rights are never easy matters. Your legal advocate should listen to your individual needs, understand the critical ways racism or discrimination has caused harm in your life, and be able to educate the court and others on why it requires redress. I use my legal knowledge and experience to help guide my clients through our legal system and get results. Through the lens of my life experience growing up in an immigrant family and understanding of systemic racism, I put the legal system to work to get justice for my clients. Through my work, I meet people with rich life experiences and courageous stories. I love getting to know each of my clients and am truly honored that they share their stories with me.

In the broader community, I volunteer with various community groups in Bellingham and serve on boards. Working with my community is important to me because when we lift from the bottom up, we lift up everyone. In my community work, my earnest dream is to build a better world together.

The outdoors and nature call to me all year round in the Pacific Northwest, so you may see me with my partner and eager wolf pack of three dogs on Two Dollar trail, the Chuckanuts, Mt. Baker, Galbraith Mt., or the horse trails at Lake Padden. Though honestly, I am not sure I would go out into the rain, as much, if wasn’t for the dogs’ imploring, sad eyes.

Natalie Knops: Natalie Knops, born and raised in Bellingham, received her Bachelor of Arts from Scripps College with a degree in Environment, Economics, and Politics. While at Scripps, she studied abroad in Vietnam, Morocco, & Bolivia researching climate change and the politics of food, water, and energy. After graduation, Natalie began her work with the National Student Leadership Conference (NSLC), an educational organization that prepares high school students for future careers through experiential academic programming and leadership workshops. She created and developed the NSLC’s Marine Biology program, actively serves as an academic advisor for all NSLC programs, and builds and develops relations with NSLC’s domestic educator network. In addition to her work with the NSLC, Natalie worked as a Professional Bread & Pastry Baker at The Mazama Store while living in the Methow Valley. She is passionate about building learners’ academic engagement in educational contexts and the importance of interpersonal skills in teacher-learner relationships. She enjoys cross-country skiing, mountain biking, running in the Chuckanuts, and filling her camera roll with pictures of her two cats.

Allison Roberts: Allison grew up in Huntsville, Alabama and Burien, Washington, before moving to Bellingham in 2002. She graduated from Western Washington University with a teaching degree. She has worked as a middle school teacher, a coordinator for the Youth and Government program, and was an assistant during various legislative sessions. A bit of a generalist, Allison has done everything from selling World Book encyclopedias door to door to teaching preschool, planning educational exchange programs for international students and writing letters for budget analysts at the Governor’s Budget Office. She is passionate about connecting people to each other, to new information, and to solutions. She served on the Board of Directors for Wild Whatcom for six years. Since 2011, Allison has been a co-owner of Peak Sustainability Group, an environmental consulting company her husband, David Roberts, founded in 2011. Now semi-retired, you can find Allison in her garden, playing piano, making art, camping in an A-frame trailer, and exploring trails on her electric bike.

Second Term

Nina Nancarrow: Nina Nancarrow attended the University of Puget Sound where she studied foreign language and international affairs. While there, she discovered a passion for the French language which led to international travel and friendships spanning three decades.
She moved to Bellingham in 2007 with her son, Colin, when he was in first grade. She met her husband, Matt, and his daughter, Genevieve, at a neighborhood potluck shortly after arriving. She quickly became involved with the Lowell Elementary School PTA and its “Green Grass” campaign.

Nina worked for many years as a full charge bookkeeper for several local companies and went on to run her own bookkeeping business. In December of 2021, she accepted a position with Corvus Energy as the Office Manager / Bookkeeper for their new manufacturing facility in Bellingham.

She and Matt enjoy cooking, reading, traveling, and long walks through the South Bellingham neighborhood where they live and work.

Candice Wilson: Candice Wilson is Executive Director of the Lhaq’Temish Foundation, formerly known as Lummi Nation Service Organization, a tribally chartered 501(c)(3) non-profit. The foundation’s mission is: ‘Nilh Xwenang Tse Schelangen Este Nexw Xwlemi’ (this is our way of life in Lummi) – a healthy, giving, and prosperous community to strengthen our people through cultural, social, and economic abundance.

Candice is the former Tribal and Community Liaison to the North Sound Accountable Community of Health and served on the Lummi Indian Business Council for nine years as an elected official for Lummi Nation, serving three of those years as the Vice Chairwoman. Candice has a bachelor’s degree in Tribal Governance and Business Management from Northwest Indian College and is currently is pursuing her Master’s in Public Administration at Seattle University.

Third Term

Jim Britain: Jim Britain has a BA from WSU, a JD from Duke University, and a LL.M. from Temple University. He and his wife Pat have lived in Bellingham since 1995. Before that, Jim was on the faculties of University of Dayton Law School and New England School of Law, a judicial clerk for the Chief Judge of the US Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit and practiced in the litigation department of the Cincinnati law firm of Taft, Stettinius & Hollister. He continues to engage in the full-time practice of law in Bellingham as an attorney with Barron Smith Daugert PLLC. Jim was President of the Whatcom County Bar Association and Chairperson and Board member of LAW Advocates, which provides free legal services in civil matters to those in need. He has also been the President of, and Board member with, the Whatcom Symphony Orchestra. Jim joined the Board of Directors in 2018.

Gayle Helgoe: After graduating from Western Washington University, Gayle earned her Masters in Library Science from the University of Illinois. Following a career of thirty-five years at the Bellingham Public Library, she retired in 2005 as Assistant Director. With a research interest in local history, she is the principal author of the website, https://www.fairhavenhistory.com. Community involvement includes past president of Soroptimist International of Bellingham, board member of the Whatcom Literacy Council, and memberships in the YWCA, Whatcom Museum, Whatcom County Historical Society, Friends of the Library, South Hill Neighborhood Association and the Whatcom Horticultural Society; and national memberships in the Nature Conservancy, the Sierra Club, Southern Poverty Law Center and Planned Parenthood. She has been a member of the City Club since 2000.