New Communications Director

I have some very exciting news to share with you all today – at our September 27th board meeting, we have a motion on the agenda to appoint a new board member into our Communications role! Rachel Bolton is new to our community, so I wanted to give everybody a brief introduction and give you a chance to send along any questions you have for her. Here is a brief write-up she shared with me:

“Volunteering to make a difference in my local community is important to me. Most of my volunteer time pre-covid was education-related – as the Chair of the King Edward parent council and with the WRDSB on their roundtable on equity and inclusion centred around poverty. Prior to that, I served on the Board for the Brant Historical Society. I’m looking forward to putting my skills to use at Kitchener Waterloo Little Theatre to connect with our local community as we re-emerge in this (almost) post-Covid time to rediscover live theatre and the joy of being together to share in the arts.

“My primary skill set is in organizational development, meeting facilitation, and strategic planning with a holistic and inclusive approach. I also have a diploma in Writing and Producing for Television through SAIT’s Cinema, Television, Stage, and Radio program and 5 years of experience in the industry. Through this experience, my work as a consultant in other organizations, and being successfully self-employed since 2005, I have a strong background and experience in meeting the priorities of the Communications portfolio.”

Rachel has already begun heading up our new Communications committee, and I’m really excited for the vision and expertise she brings to rallying teams to get work done. She also has experience in driving diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, which is something that will be invaluable for us this year as we undertake our own work in that area.

For anyone wondering how Director appointments work when someone is not elected at our AGM, our bylaws allow for the Board to fill vacancies by majority vote as long as we still have a quorum (50%+1) of member-elected directors. Directors appointed by the board only serve until the next AGM, at which point they must be re-elected by the membership should they want to continue. There is some precedent for this – this was actually how I first joined the board of directors way back in 2015!

I encourage you to send along any questions you have for our (potential) new board member to me (president@kwlt.org). All members are also welcome to attend board meetings – if you would like to meet Rachel (digitally, as we are still not meeting in-person), please email secretary@kwlt.org, and Monica will send you an invite. Our board meeting is on Monday, September 27th, beginning at 7:30pm.