30 | BALANCING THE SCALES | July 19, 2021
KFTC 2021 (VIRTUAL) ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING Friday, July 30 – Saturday, July 31 KFTC Executive Committee nominations continued...
Nominees for the Kentucky Coalition Board The Kentucky Coalition is the tax-exempt sister organization of KFTC. It supports leadership development programs and other charitable activities of KFTC. The KC board includes the five members of the KFTC Executive Committee plus three additional members elected by KFTC’s membership at the Annual Membership Meeting.
AT LARGE MEMBER: Ebony O-Rea is a long-time member of the Jefferson County Chapter. Ebony serves on the Leadership Development Committee and digs in on Annual Meetings, where she’s helped plan workshops, facilitate, and participated in panels. This year, Ebony has also been active in the Organizational Change Initiative work, and was recruited to the Synthesis Team where she helped craft KFTC’s Big Hairy Audacious Goal and Vivid Description. Throughout the OCI process, Ebony has helped many of us imagine and envision the next KFTC. Ebony identifies as a Black Woman.
To be eligible for one of the three elected positions on the Kentucky Coalition board, a person must be a current member of KFTC, may not be an employee or immediate family member of an employee of KFTC or Kentucky Coalition, and may not serve more than four consecutive one-year terms. The Leadership Development Committee considers all nominees and recommends a diverse slate of three qualified candidates, taking into account a diversity of characteristics including gender, age, race, income, educational backgrounds, place of residence, level of involvement in the local chapter and statewide organization, and issue interests. Desired qualities for the KC Board include the list of traits used for the Executive Committee, plus: people with prior experience on the KFTC Steering Committee or Finance Committee, people committed to thoughtful stewardship of resources, and people who do not currently serve as their chapter’s Steering Committee representative. That last item is not legally required, but it is desirable. The following members, in addition to the Executive Committee members, currently serve on the KC Board: • Ezra Dike is in his second term. • Joy Fitzgerald is in her first term. • Matthew Gidcomb is in his first term. Kentucky Coalition Board nominees Joy Fitzgerald has long been active in social change, and joined the Kentucky Coalition Board after serving out her term as Shelby County Steering Committee Representative last year. She continues to be an active member of the Shelby County Chapter and many other local
organizations and efforts in Shelby County. Joy has supported candidate forums, building alliances with local People of Color-led organizations and community support efforts, and has anchored the local Pride celebrations in Shelby County. She has served one year on the Kentucky Coalition. Matthew Gidcomb became active with the CKY chapter in late 2014, during the campaign to raise the local minimum wage. He helped start the CKY chapter’s Energy and Equity Committee that works on issues related to Just Transition. He is also a member of the statewide NET committee. He also helped establish the local chapter’s Action for Democracy team. At the chapter level, he has helped shape the local electoral strategy and candidate endorsement process. He has been an active participant in helping draft and shape the local voter guide questionnaire, and is very passionate about the KFTC voter guide. He consistently supports voter registration drives and canvasses and is very passionate about that work. He can always be counted on to help put up chairs and help clean the room during meetings. He’s a software developer and worked on a project with former colleagues to develop a website registry of local arts and culture events and programming. Matthew has served one year on the Kentucky Coalition Board. Shannon Scott is a member of the Wilderness Trace Chapter, and has served out three terms on the Steering Committee. Shannon also serves on the Leadership Development Committee and the NET committee, and has been active in OCI. Shannon has put a lot of great work into maintaining and growing the Wilderness Trace Chapter by experimenting with social media and anchoring the chapter’s facebook page. She’s helped with voter registration efforts, fundraising, phonebanks, textbanks, and keeping chapter members and others tuned into local events and alliances to build and grow from.
