2010 Board Candidate Statements
Statements of Candidates for the CMCM Board of Directors (2010 election)
Members will elect two of the following three candidates for a three year term on the CMCM Board:
Statement of Flor Emert, San Rafael, CA
Statement of Bill Sims, Sausalito, CA
Statement of Charles Smith, San Rafael, CA
Why do you want to serve on the CMCM Board of Directors?
I want to continue my service as Vice Chair of the CMCM Board and go forward with outreach in the community, creating opportunities for people and communities to tell their stories on our public access channels. I will persist in the development of our funding model while building alliances in the community that will support the mission and vision of CMCM. My ultimate goal is to support our staff in serving the community, increase the professionalism of our producers through continuing education programs at CMCM and continue outreach into the diverse communities of Marin.
What relevant experience do you bring to this board position?
I was born in Puebla, Mexico and I have been a Marin County resident for more than 25 years. I am a community activist who has helped and educated immigrants through journalist pieces in different media. I produce “Nuestras Voces” TV program (Community Media Center of Marin & Novato Public Access TV). My background is in human resources and administration holding management positions in different industries. My company, Campos-Emert Enterprises, a certified woman and minority owned business, supplies promotional products and marketing services to small businesses, organizations, schools, non-profits, special events and government offices. I have received several recognitions including the 2008 Latino Business Leadership Award by the San Francisco Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the SF Business Times.
What is your vision for CMCM and how will you achieve it?
My Vision for CMCM - Continue to provide quality content for our local cable access channels. Expand with new Technologies as they develop and keep pace existing media technology. Work at placing media on the web and expand “media” to include audio, blogs, streaming, and online delivery of media via social media and new developing technologies. I also see CMCM as an education hub that provides “Media” and “Media Literacy” training to Marin residents and the business community as new technologies and demand develops. As we get comfortable and settled in our center at 819 A St. we can begin to look at integrating satellite locations in the county by working with cities and towns that are installing video systems in town/city halls and assist other neighborhood communities interested in offsite hubs.
Why do you want to serve on the CMCM Board of Directors?
I first became involved in the effort to establish community media in Marin when CMCM was just a dream. Years of activism by many dedicated people preceded my involvement and laid the foundation.
I’m immensely proud of all that Michael and the CMCM Board have done over the past couple of years to build on that foundation and bring that dream to fruition. After little more than a year of operations, CMCM has an excellent facility and top-notch equipment; we offer more classes and have more members and more equipment usage than many long-established media centers. Michael has made CMCM a nation-wide model of what can be done in a short amount of time and with limited funds.
The baby is out of the cradle and is beginning to flex her muscles. I hope to stay around long enough to help raise her into a confident, self-reliant, and talented young adult who is capable of giving Marin the kind of community media that it needs and deserves.
What relevant experience do you bring to this board position?
My most relevant and rewarding nonprofit experience has been working with Michael and the CMCM Board over the past several years to realize our mutual dream of a vibrant and successful Community Media. The CMCM Board is a wonderful mix of talented individuals who work well together as a team and work to support Michael. I think it takes such a mix of diverse talents working smoothly together to help guide an organization as complex as Community Media.
While on the Board, my own contribution has been mostly on legal and financial issues. I helped negotiate the basic access provider agreement with the MTA that secured our initial funding and started us in business; I drafted our Conflict of Interest policy following IRS guidelines and prepared the successful application for IRS recognition of our 501(c)(3) status; working with others on the Finance Committee, I helped formulate the Investment Policy Statement that guides our investment decisions; and I’m currently part of a team working with the MTA to secure long-run, sustainable funding for CMCM.
What is your vision for CMCM and how will you achieve it?
In the short term, our most pressing need is to establish sources of long-run, sustainable funding. Make no mistake about it, without such funding, our vision of CMCM will inevitably grow narrower and more stunted. Michael and the Board are actively working with the MTA to transition from a local to a state video franchise - a step that would provide the necessary funding for a more expansive future. We are also working to increase memberships and community support and to increase nonprofit and government use of our services and leverage this into increased foundation grants.
Once our basic long term funding is secured, our vision of CMCM becomes more expansive. We have already created a healthy and mutually supportive community environment for producers and we’re getting more and more very good things on the air on the public access channel. Our public affairs programs such as debates and forums are creating more community interest and involvement. We need to do more work to promote effective use of the government channel, and of course, we need to promote the fledgling education channel and help it realize its full potential.
It’ll take a few years, but it doesn’t take much imagination to see CMCM attaining recognition as a valuable community asset – an essential part of the commons – a vibrant artistic, informative, and public affairs programming, vastly increased viewership, thousands of members and individual supporters – an intellectual and artistic community center for Marin.
Why do you want to serve on the cmcm board of directors?
I wish to help to place the organization on a better financial footing and recruit more members for cmcm.
What relevant experience do you bring to this board position?
I am a former president of the Marin county labor, council AFL & cio, Marin cope, golden gate computer society, Marin county democratic central committee, president of IATSE Local #166. I worked with helping to create the Marin R,O,P vocational training program in Marin during the 1970's
What is your vision for cmcm and how will you achieve it?
To build a stronger membership basis by having booth's at the marin county fair and the Sausalito Art Festival and by finding contacts with the well to do of marin's financial grant community.