Candidate 3, Craig Levine, London Centre

Craig LevineI am passionate about astronomy and all areas of science, and have been for as far back as I can remember. Sharing that passion is a source of joy in my life, and my joy was amplified 10-fold over 16 years ago when I discovered a like-minded group of people in the RASC. I have always been a "roll up the sleeves and pitch in" type of person, and within a year of joining the Halifax RASC centre, I took on the role of Secretary, and worked my way through various positions until I became President for two terms, 2005 and 2006, before my move to London. The accomplishment that I'm most proud of from that time was the formation of several outreach and observing committees and building a strong culture of volunteerism that empowered the membership to shape the committees and their activities. Rather than centralizing committee leadership with the Executive, we put those with ideas in charge and supported them with whatever resources they needed. The centre continues to have a great dynamic where people flow from committees into the Executive, with the burdens shared over many people, vs. previously where it was a small and exhausted core handling all chores. Several now-former National Presidents and Handbook Editors were invaluable mentors and I credit them for their welcoming of a newcomer to the organization, their guidance, for twisting my arm (literally!) into putting my name forward as Centre President, and for supporting my ideas.

When I moved to London in 2006, I found a welcoming Centre and some familiar names and faces. When I saw that there was an opening for the role of Representative on the National Council, I put my name forward and I've held that role for almost 3 terms. On the National Council I am currently on the Publications Committee, the IT Committee, and have been asked to be a trustee for the Guest Public Speaker Program.

An accomplishment that I am very proud of is my role in divesting the Society of our Toronto national headquarters property. I was asked to be on the Property Committee when I questioned in Council why we were property owners and landlords as we have no expertise or competence in that area. Our headquarters had been neglected over many years and it had fallen into disrepair and was severely damaged by a deranged tenant. For my report to the Executive, I researched the real-estate and rental market and did a cost-benefit analysis of continued ownership vs. leasing office space, brought in an expert from the London Centre to estimate repair costs, and recommended that we sell at its full market value as-is. It sold before it was listed in the MLS real estate listings at the asking price, resulting in the Society freeing itself from a liability and our financial foundation sitting on solid ground.

I want to build on my experience at the Centre and national levels to further grow and nurture our pool of volunteers and expand our visibility on the national and community stages. By engaging our members who want to actively participate in outreach activities or take their unique talents to the committees at the National level, we can build a culture of participation that is welcoming and creates a real sense of community. Now that the tumult that was our process of becoming compliant with government regulations for non-profit organizations is almost behind us, we are in a unique position to focus on who and what we are as an organization. We must engage with our membership, with the individual Centres, and with the general public to grow the organization so that it reflects not only the needs of each Centre and will of the membership at large, but also our historic goals of the advancement of astronomy in Canada

Since my early 20s, I have filled executive roles for several organizations including President of the Dalhousie Arts Society, a granting umbrella organization, at Dalhousie University; President of the Political Science Graduate Student's society, also at Dalhousie; Founding member of the Dalhousie Public Interest Research Group, and a half dozen more. I would like to take my experience, energy and organizational skills and give the role of member of the Board Transition Committee the attention, time, and passion that it requires. Thank you for your attention and consideration.

If you would like to contact this candidate please go to www.rasc.ca/contact/candidate4.

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