Regarding the opening for VP of PBS: a brief resume

Laura & Dave via pbs pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net
Tue, 31 Jan 2023 02:24:51 PST
Hi Robin
   Let's see here.  Apparently you know about the stint as a board member of the 
National NARGS, during what can only be described as tumultuous times.  If I 
thought that PBS was like that, I wouldn't apply for the position.  Jan Jeddeloh 
was on the board just before me, and can confirm the chaos.  Besides the board, 
I was also head of the By-laws committee, which was quite an active committee, 
as much of the controversy involved structural changes to the organization that 
necessitated changes to the By-laws.
   On a more local note, I was/am quite active in the local NARGS chapter, being 
on the board and taking a 2 year term as president. I was also a member of the 
Willamette Chapter of NARGS (I need to renew).
Beyond NARGS, I'm a member of the Alpine Garden Club of British Columbia, and of 
course the PBS.  I'm not sure of the year without going into the files, but the 
first BX I participated in was number 69 (I saw a tag on a plant just today from 
that offering.  A Cyclamen coum.)
   As to other qualifications, I was an audio-visual specialist while at the 
Univ. of WA, as well as a commercial projectionist.  Also in my youth I worked 
in prefab concrete, was a die maker in a swizzle stick factory (we made other 
things as well), did quality control in an electrical switch factory, did 
electronics assembly, crewed a yacht for a family for two summers, worked 
maintenance at a resort in Aspen, CO, and did some roofing and painting.
   During all the above, I was periodically taking classes at the various 
universities in the area.
   Then I decided to return to school full time, and earned a computer 
programming and systems analysis degree.  This lead to employment at the 
National Marine Fisheries Service (part of NOAA), where I worked for nine years 
(and consulted for another).  While there I was lead programmer on a number of 
projects, involving millions of dollars and a lot of fish.
   About a year after leaving NOAA, I enrolled in The Evergreen State College, 
intending to study restoration ecology, and botany in general.  In the second 
year, I met a young lady.  After a couple years we got married, had a child, and 
because she had an incredible learning opportunity to be part of the creation 
and launching of a major database system for the state's Dept. of Social and 
Health Services, I became the stay at home dad.  The arrival of a second child 
four years after the first cemented the roll.
   We were/are active in community events, especially the Procession of the 
Species, an area wide celebration of the natural world through art, music and 
dance, and culminating in a many thousand procession through the streets of 
Olympia, watched by many more thousands.  It empowered a vast number of people 
with the awareness that they /could/ be creative and /could/ do art. I also 
tutored math in the local elementary and junior high schools, something I had 
started doing at the colleges earlier.
   More recently, I've slowed down some (being 76 will do that to you), and 
worked around the house more; tending plants, putting off putting a new roof on 
the house, and helping the kids with houses and cars.
   Of course, we /have/ been studying Ukrainian for the last nine months, and 
plan to go on an archeological dig in Greece in July (and look at plants, of 
course).

I hope this give you a better picture of who I am and what I can bring to the 
PBS.  I have great admiration of the organization, and would enjoy being able to 
contribute to its continued well being.
Thanks, Dave Brastow, Tumwater, Washington.

P.S.  Robin, we've met and chatted many times at various meetings and events.  I 
was the one with the long, long (now grey) beard.


_______________________________________________
pbs mailing list
pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net
http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…
Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>
PBS Forum https://…


More information about the pbs mailing list