Board Beginnings and Bon Voyages

Thursday this week is the final meeting of the current board of directors of the Kansas City Irish Fest. We say goodbye this year to two of our number as they head off into by-law required retirement. Our directors serve 5 year terms, with the exception of the founders whose retirements have been staggered (not unlike our founders) so that they didn't all leave at once taking all those years of bullsh...experience with them. I will be the last of those staggering founders to ride into the sunset next year at this time after our 8th annual festival.

So why do we dump perfectly good directors after 5 years? I mean it's not like we're old exactly...relatively speaking. And in most cases it's not like we're dying to retire either. This job is occasionally a lot of fun. Of course since we're in charge, we could change the rules if we wanted to and appoint ourselves for life. But we don't. The reason is simple. We want the best for the Kansas City Irish Fest. And the best means new ideas, new thinking, new blood. The surest way for our event to get stagnant would be to keep all the same people making the decisions year after year after year until eventually we're just doing things a certain way because that's the way we've always done it.

This Thursday we say slán to one founder, Ed Follis, and one of our first elected directors Mary Alice Beebe. Their insight, wisdom, experience and leadership will be missed, though both will certainly stay close to the Irish Fest family. And we say fáilte to our two newbies, Mindy Johnson and Craig Duke.

Mindy come to us from within the ranks. She, along with her sister Marsha, has been running the ever expanding Boulevard Stage for years. She brings not only that long experience to the board room, but also an invaluable voice from the entertainment side of the fest. Mindy also significantly lowers the median age of our little band which is is certainly a good thing. She's energetic, smart, creative, a hard worker and will be a huge asset to the board. Her only downside is an apparent weakness when it comes to dealing with dead animals found backstage, which happens more often than you might think. In spite of that, we're thrilled to have her joining us.

Craig Duke is a Belfast-born Kansas City, KS firefighter. I've known Craig for many years, and he's been active in all things Irish in our town for a long, long time. Though he's worked as a volunteer at the feat, he'll provide a valued "outside" perspective, as well as the logistical and organization skills that a fire battalion chief calls on every day. He also expands greatly our public safety capacity which can't be valued enough as we grow over 100,000 patrons a year. Our first Nordie, Craig finally ends the Dublin dominance of the board, too. He also knows more jokes than any man alive, which can come in handy when you need a laugh to get alert for a 7:00 AM board meeting.

We'll say a proper farewell to Ed and Mary Alice a little later. In the meantime, please join me in welcoming Mindy and Craig to the Irish Fest board.