2020 Co-op Board Elections - Meet the Candidates and Vote!

 Durham Bike Co-op - 2020 Board Candidate Bios

New Board Candidates

Willamina O'Keeffe: Hi! I'm Willa :) I've been a member of the Co-op for a few years and have enjoyed working with both soil and oil. I love gardening, reading, knitting, and riding my bike! Recently I tried camping for the first time and now I am enthusiastically planning my first bike packing trip. The Co-op is a special place that brings a lot of joy to folks and I'm ready to take on more responsibility to support operations. 

I'm excited to assist with both tactical and strategic needs. I've been co-coording the garden shop for a few years and recently began accepting donations on Sundays and co-coordinating Thursday night shops.

Hillary Porter: I've lived in Durham for 12 years, and I work in marketing in the tech industry. I enjoy noncompetitive bicycling and bike advocacy. I've volunteered with Durham Bike Co-op in a few different capacities, including bike helmet distribution for children and some grant writing support in the past, and now I'm organizing a new FTW community for femmes, trans people, women and nonbinary people. I also volunteer actively with Durham for All and the Durham People's Alliance on the Environmental & Climate Justice action team. I am part of the LGBTQ+ community.

I'm interested in helping diversify the board and make the Co-op a welcoming environment for people of any gender, race, sexuality, religion, and so forth. I would also love to help the Co-op become more broadly connected to the Durham community and support underprivileged members of our community who could use help being empowered with bicycles for transportation and for joy. I'm not a mechanic but am interested in learning more about fixing bikes :) 

Jen Swenson: I've always been a bike commuter, and have had various stints road biking, guiding tours, and mountain biking. I was meticulously taught junker bicycle mechanics in the late '80s at the UC Santa Barbara Associated Students Bike Shop [co-op] by a super cool hippy named Willi. Since then, I tinker on my bikes and was delighted last fall to take the sunday mechanics refresher courses taught by Dave Z. in prep to volunteer at the DBC. I believe every community and every able-bodied person could benefit by adding bicycles to their lives (along with necessary bike infrastructure), and I think biking is better if you are not intimidated by repairs.

I've lived in Durham for 14 years and after a year on sabbatical in 2018, I decided to adjust my priorities and try to fit more community-based work in my free time. The co-op stands for everything I think is cool about bikes, getting people biking, and fixing their bikes. I think I could contribute to outreach, grant writing, teaching basic mechanics, social media--and would be happy to be directed towards what is needed. The DBC seems like a great community of people to be involved with and I love the smell of old bike parts/grease/triflow/simplegreen!

Current Board Members Running for 2nd Term

Tim Smith, Treasurer: Tim moved to Durham from Spokane, WA in 2015 to be near his son and family. He joined the Co-op in 2016 and started volunteering as a bike mechanic for the Sunday shop, which he really enjoys. Before retiring, Tim served for 28 years as the Executive Director of the nonprofit Daybreak Youth Services in Washington state, which provides alcohol and drug treatment programs to youth in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. Tim’s career required that he learn the financial documentation and management of an organization from the ground up, and he oversaw the distribution and presentation of financial reports and analyses to the Governing Board. Tim thought that would be something he could do to support the Co-op in an additional way, while still working on his skills as a mechanic, and has served as Treasurer since 2018. 

Robert Walpole, Upfit Coordinator: Rob grew up in Australia and moved to the US in 1981, settling in Durham in 1986. He’s seen a lot of changes in Durham, the most significant being the revitalization of downtown. He found the Co-op shortly after it opened and is glad to be a part of the rise in cycling and is enjoying the increased bicycle infrastructure that’s come with the trend. 

Rob has been involved with the Co-op for almost 12 years and enjoys serving as a board member. As a lead mechanic, he has helped run open shop sessions and the consignment bike program. Rob is a professional carpenter and led the renovation of the new Co-op shop space. He wants to continue to serve as a lead mechanic and to provide facility upfit when needed. He would also like to teach more and is interested in running a bike mechanic class to teach more advanced skills.

How to Vote:

Voting runs from Nov. 30 - December 14 at 5 pm. 

Current Co-op members are eligible to vote. Due to the pandemic, we have extended the membership period. If you volunteered, joined, or renewed between March 1, 2019 and the present, you are considered a current member and may vote. 

Vote online here via google form. 

Download this ballot and email to development@durhambikecoop.org by 5 pm on Monday, December 14.  

Vote in person at the Co-op between 2 and 5 pm Sunday, Dec. 6 or Sunday, Dec. 13. (Masks required to enter the Co-op shop.) 

Vote by phone - please email development@durhambikecoop.org for the number and more information. 

Thank you for participating in our 2020 Board Elections! We will announce the results at our next meeting - 6 pm, Monday, Dec. 14.