Its hard to believe a whole year as gone by; here it is april again and the self-nomination process has begun for electing USFT's new coordinating committee (CC). As I remember well my process of deciding whether or not to nominate myself, I'd thought I'd share some of my thoughts on what it was like being a member of the CC for you all, in case you were like me, and not quite sure what its all about.

Highlights:

Transition Summit in Nicaragua. This was an incredible experience all around. I loved meeting up with all the other newly elected CC and talking about fair trade, that type of dialogue I always wish was going on in my classes but almost never is, when you are really engaging each other and the world. Seeing how my values could be translated into my work, what solitary can means and how incredible the cooperative movement is -- this was all great. Plus being there with the CC meant we all bonded and collaborated on what we wanted to do this year and how we could make it happen. I returned home empowered, what a wonderful feeling.

Redesigning the USFT website. This was my one big project for the Fall semester. With a lot of help from the whole CC in vision and implementation, it was launched in October, just in time for Fair Trade month, when our national coordinators and a friend and student leader from Nica traveled around the country working with the grassroots, visiting campuses. I spent a lot of time on the project, but because I had the support of the CC, we managed to come up with something I am really proud of. Accomplishment was a great feeling.

Attending the Fair Trade Action Network conference in Helsinki, Finland was a fantastic opportunity to meet and network with Fair Trade activists from all over Europe. USFT is committed to building partnerships and dialogues, and being able to attend this conference helped me to share what it is USFT does and learn from others committed to the same mission elsewhere. I returned with new friends, new ideas, and new connections.

Regional Convergences. Helping out with and attending the Mid-Atlantic regional convergence in April was again, wonderfully rewarding. When you help to plan an event like this, sure the work can be stressful (like, where are 100 people going to sleep and what are we going to feed them and where are they going to come from?) But these questions, due to the hard work of an amazing team of people from the CC and colleges in DC, fell into place. And when they did, the result felt so sweet. It was work I could really dig- bringing people together to talk and learn and meet each other plus learning about myself in the process.

Hiring a new National Coordinator
This process really helped me learn about how to run an NGO sustainably. Transition in any organization is necessary and challenging, but I think that the CC did a great job in deciding on the hiring process, seeking out candidates, and finding someone for the job. Andrew, our new national coordinator is awesome, and its been great participating in the transition process and bringing in new people to the USFT fold.

So I could go on and on about other amazing things I got to do as a member of the CC but I'll stop now and say,

NOMINATE YOURSELF, just click here, and I can't wait to meet you.

-Meghan, webmaster flash