President's Message June 2015

Our Executive Director Marti Townsend has completed her mission with TOC. Marti brought just the right expertise and malama to The Outdoor Circle when she joined the staff three years ago. Her critical eye and inclusive working style have brought us through a restructuring of operations while maintaining a range of services and support to our nine branches. Both office and operations have been streamlined to work more efficiently and within budget. Marti is a person of passion and persistence. She made it fun to develop a distinctive Development Plan, and a learning adventure to take a public stand on county, state and federal statutes, many of which she can recite by heart. We extend a Circle-wide Mahalo for all she has contributed to The Outdoor Circle. 

Marti is now serving as ED for the Hawaii Chapter of The Sierra Club. We will miss her skilled competence and bright spirit as our Director and we are looking forward to her continued involvement as a member and volunteer. You can bet Marti will be one of the most quoted legal experts in future Environmental Court hearings!

The TOC Executive Committee has chosen Dave Cheever to serve as our Interim Executive Director. Dave brings years of non-profit board service and directorship to TOC. The Executive Committee will serve as the search committee to find Executive Director. We will be looking statewide. We invite you to submit names of likely candidates whom we can follow up with. We will be posting the job description and qualifications on our website and will be placing a public ad soon. 

Renee Nakagawa, our Administrative Assistant and Myles Ritchie, our Projects Manager continue to serve the canopy of branches from the office and the field. Myles is finishing the statewide mapping of the Hawaii collection of Exceptional Trees. The phone app for discovering Hawai`i's Exceptional Trees will be available soon. The branches have been helpful in this tree mapping project, and with Myles' scientific scrutiny, we have learned so much more about the trees that protect us. 

As we transition into second century of environmental stewardship, our Branches are ever busy with projects reflecting their community needs. You’ll learn more about the value of our Branch influence in this issue. Your membership renewals help to further the Branch beautification efforts. Thank you for your ongoing support of the branch work which in turn supports the overall health of our protective canopy. 

The TOC Board, with the help of Sanae Tokumura of Solid Concepts, have just completed an ambitious Development Plan. Now the exciting part will be to match funds with our projects! I hope this issue inspires you to up your commitment to the work we do. Your Kokua makes our work possible.

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Aloha,
Alexandra Avery
President of The Outdoor Circle