Board Member Ballot - 2024

For terms of service January 1, 2025 through December 31, 2028
Member Verification

Note: you must be a current American Whitewater member to vote on this ballot. Your information is requested below to verify your membership status.

Your member number is usually printed on any mail you receive from American Whitewater and is on your account page if you're signed into the AW website. How to find your member number.

If you have questions regarding your membership number please call AW Membership Director, Bethany Overfield at 1-866-262-8429.






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Board Member Ballot
As required by the American Whitewater bylaws, the Nominating Committee of American Whitewater is responsible for the process of identifying, recruiting and nominating diverse, highly-qualified nominees for the board. This is done by a thorough review of incumbent, self-nominated and recruited nominees. All nominees are assessed against selection criteria set by the board.

The American Whitewater Board of Directors can have a maximum of 12 independent directors. Directors serve three-year volunteer terms and are elected by a majority vote of active American Whitewater members. For a nominee to be seated, the majority of ballots cast must be affirmative (for). Any nominee who fails to receive a majority "for" vote will not be seated and the position may be filled by board appointment until the next election cycle. Based on nominee qualifications, the committee strongly recommends a "for" vote for all nominees.

Deadline for submitting electronic ballots is December 15, 2022, midnight PT. Thank you for your participation in this important election process. You must be a current American Whitewater member to be eligible to vote for directors.

Darcy Gaechter
Darcy
In 2013 I kayaked the Amazon River from source to sea, and I have been fortunate to spend more than half of my life kayaking and traveling around the world in pursuit of this sport. What this has taught me is that each community and culture has a different relationship with their rivers and different views of the best methods to protect their rivers (both in the US and abroad). Working with locals, trying to understand their relationship with rivers, and finding ways to integrate that with my own world view has been one of the more rewarding aspects of this sport for me. All rivers are under some type of threat and the people closest to them are tasked with protecting them. It makes sense that I should try to do everything that I can to support this effort, and I see engagement with American Whitewater as the best way to do that in the US. I bring to the table more than twenty years of experience owning and operating Small World Adventures in Ecuador and making connections with paddling communities throughout the USA and the world. I have worked with the Ecuadorian Rivers Institute for these two decades to protect the rivers of Ecuador. More recently I’ve been helping the Yaku Churis—an Indigenous youth kayak club and
leadership development program in Ecuador—to advance their program and mission. I look forward to combining my MA in environmental history with my real-world experiences to bring a different perspective to the important work that AW does.

Andy Held
Andy

My life has had two threads that have been constant since my teens: whitewater and volunteering. AW is the way to stitch them together – to support the rivers I love by strengthening the organization that works to protect and restore them.


Professional experience:

•25 years in the software industry, including 13 years at Microsoft. Roles included engineering, engineering management and General Manager responsible for all aspects (including P&L) of Microsoft’s Digital Imaging business. Managed team of 100, mentoring and developing my direct reports across many engineering and business disciplines.

•Chief Technology Officer for Seattle area software companies: Activate Corp and Talyst, Inc. Board of Directors of Digital Harbor, Inc.

•Sole proprietor, Andy Held Photography, a custom portrait studio, 2002 - 2012

•Environmental Educator, 2014 - 2020



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