[nfbwatlk] Fw: Great City's New Executive Director

[Jacob Struiksma]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Joshua Curtis 
To: jacobstruiksma at gmail.com 
Sent: Monday, May 11, 2009 12:48 PM
Subject: Great City's New Executive Director


Hi,

My name is Joshua Curtis - I'm writing you today to introduce myself as the new Executive Director of Great City. As you have undoubtedly heard, our founder and former Executive Director Michael McGinn has thrown his hat into the Mayoral race. We all wish Michael well in his new endeavors.

As an important stakeholder of Great City, I wanted to thank you for your continuing support and to let you know how we are growing as an organization.

If we haven't yet met, please take a look at my bio here. I have been involved with Great City now for over three years as a volunteer, board member, and co-chair. As Executive Director, I'm dedicated to seeing Great City continue its role as a groundbreaking, vital, and effective voice in Seattle's diverse group of stakeholders.

We have an incredible amount of work to do in the coming months. While there are going to be a lot of opportunities for Great City to forge new and innovative paths, I wanted to let you know what my first priorities are going to be:

  1.. Coalition Building: Under Michael's inspired leadership (and the hard work, expertise, and vision of our volunteers), Great City has met with some major successes including the Seattle Parks Levy and we will continue this work. While our Green Infrastructure and Streets for People campaigns are building and maintaining momentum, a priority of mine will be to re-energize the Leadership for Great Neighborhoods (LGN) campaign. LGN has the capability of playing a vital role in the Multifamily Zoning overhaul, the Neighborhood Plan updates, and the city's ongoing efforts to encourage the creation of housing for all income levels.  
  2.. Community Engagement: While we've had our successes and have earned the respect of many in the downtown community, Great City is still largely unknown in the neighborhoods. We need to reach out to the communities in which we live. One of my goals will be to engage the various neighborhood councils and groups in order to let them know about our ongoing efforts and what we have to offer. Being part of the neighborhood dialogue is vital for our continued success, and programs such as the Neighborhood Assistance Program will play a key role in this engagement.3.      Economic Stability: We are in a very challenging fundraising cycle. Many in our community have been affected by the economic downturn and Great City has not been immune. One of my major goals will be to ensure the ongoing financial stability of our organization. I will:
    a.. Trim expenses as appropriate to ensure our "ship continues to be a tight one". 
    b..  Cultivate our existing donor base by showing the value that Great City brings to the table. 
    c.. Continue to bring in new "investors" by reaching out to new sectors of the community. 
    d.. Create ongoing fundraising events (our signature Summer Street Scene serves as a good example) that allow us to engage the public with innovative, fun, and educational events year round.  
    e.. Develop an overall fundraising strategy that allows us to diversify our funding sources to see us through both the boom and the bust cycles.

These are of course a general overview of some goals - we will have many other opportunities to grow and change as an organization. I will be reaching out to many of you in the coming weeks to discuss Great City and where we are going. You are the heart of our organization, and it's largely due to your volunteerism, vision, and financial support that we are where we are.  

I am easily reached via mobile phone at (206) 853-8571 or by email at joshua.curtis at greatcity.org. 
Before signing off, I also wanted to invite you to a unique, exciting event that includes tours of Thornton Place and a cinema opening that we have coming up on May 18th. See here for details.

Best,  
Joshua Curtis
Executive Director, Great City




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