GV Board Elections 2017: Nevin Thompson
This is me with my two sons in Japan.
My name is Nevin Thompson and I have been nominated as a community staff representative in the upcoming Global Voices board of directors elections being held March 16-20, 2017 (later this month). I first joined Global Voices in July 2005 as a volunteer writer, focusing on Japan, and I have been amazed and astounded by our growth since then.
I now work as a social media manager and Japan Editor, and also have recently joined the NewFrames project.
Staff Rep: Why Nevin?
I hope you'll consider voting for me as staff representative on the Global Voices Board of Directors. There are a couple of reasons why I would be a good choice:
1. Facilitate Communication
Thanks to the various roles I play at Global Voices (in the newsroom, on the social media team, etc.) I have a good understanding of the challenges and opportunities presented by Global Voices for staffers.
I also come into contact and work with just about everyone on the team, and have developed good relationships and lines of communication with those people. This helps with communication and problem-solving.
2. Help Global Voices Achieve Its Full Potential
I have worked with non-profits and non-profit boards since 2004 and currently sit as a board member of a non-profit society in Victoria, British Columbia, where I live.
I have experience with fiduciary oversight and understand how non-profit societies operate. My experience with project development, project planning, and managing the needs of funding partners, while staying true to the core values and mission of Global Voices, will also be helpful in the role of staff representative.
Finally, my experience and ongoing mastery of web-based communication will help inform decisions about how to make sure more and more people around the world are reading Global Voices.
What Nevin Does at Global Voices
Since September, 2014 I have worked as Japan Editor for Global Voices. I also help manage social media for Global Voices, notably the daily email newsletter and Facebook, and recently joined the NewsFrames team.
Besides working with Global Voices I also work as a marketing consultant and copywriter, mostly serving tourism and technology clients.
Nevin's Professional Background
Moving between Japan and Canada over the past couple of decades has allowed me to change careers a couple of times. I started out as a high school social studies teacher, and later went on to work with community non-profit boards and then in government as an economic development consultant. Much of my work involved identifying ways government funding programs could help solve specific community problems, writing proposals to unlock funding and then working and guiding the projects to completion.
Along the way I worked as a writer (I even translated television scripts from Japanese into English for a while) before becoming a freelance marketing copywriter and web marketer in 2010. While I have learned an awful lot about online marketing over the past six or seven years, my work allows me to live almost anywhere, including Japan, where I spend about three months a year with my family.
My LinkedIn profile and more details about my professional history can be viewed here.
Get In Touch Before You Vote
Once again, Global Voices board of directors elections will be held on March 16-20, 2017 (later this month). You can contact me directly on my contact page, befriend me on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter at @nevin_thompson.
13 comments
Lovely knowing more about you, Nevin! Good luck :)
Thank you, Gohary!
Good luck, Nevin
Thank you for the comment, Aparna!
I loved this proposal!
Thank you, Laura. Good luck to you as well!
Help Global Voices Achieve Its Full Potential and Facilitate Communication, Two fundamental points to be cultivated in this profile.
Good luck dear Nevin!
Thank you, Lully!
Hi Nevin – here is a question that I’m posing to all of the candidates, as a way to encourage discussion during the last couple of days of campaigning:
1.) If you are elected board member, what would be the most critical challenge facing Global Voices that you would make your top priority to help address over the next three years? And why do you feel like addressing this challenge is especially important for our community?
Hi Eddie,
Thanks for the questions. To answer:
1.) If you are elected board member, what would be the most critical challenge facing Global Voices that you would make your top priority to help address over the next three years?
I think the most critical issue facing Global Voices over the next three years is funding. As you know, GV has received funding from a variety of partners over the past 10+ years, and funding is never permanent, but must be renegotiated, or identified and secured, over time. This is the same for any non-profit organization that I have worked with.
As conditions change, so does the nature of funding. For example, Global Voices started out as a community of “bridge bloggers.” Fast-forward ten years, and it’s not blogs so much anymore, as people around the world telling and sharing stories on social media.
As conditions change in the media landscape, conditions change for our community and Global Voices as an organization, and for our funding partners.
The challenge is ensuring we secure funding while maintaining a focus on our core mission of “reporting, translating, defending, empowering and connecting.”
That is another challenge non-profits have: balancing the needs of funders while maintaining true to the mission of the community itself.
I have worked with various non-profits over the past decade or so, and have experience helping organizations maintain that community focus.
2.) And why do you feel like addressing this challenge is especially important for our community?
In an era of potentially closing borders, increasing nativism, censorship (by both nation-states and social media platforms), lack of accuracy in reporting (aka “fake news”) and other issues, Global Voices is more important than ever before, I would argue.
We continue to play a vital role in “reporting, translating, defending, empowering and connecting.” Indeed, our volunteer writers still regularly break stories, and provide much-needed context about other stories.
So, making sure we continue to find a path forward (a challenge and responsibility of any non-profit board, anywhere) is critical to helping our community continue with its important work.
Does this answer your questions?
Yes, Nevin. Thanks for your feedback.
Hi Nevin,
Inspired by Eddie, I thought I’d ask all the candidates a question too.
I was wondering if you have any thoughts on how Global Voices can scale the trust we’ve built internally in our community to larger audiences outside of our community, so we can make more of the world look like GV?
I don’t think there are any right or wrong answers to this question. In fact, I’m not sure I have answers myself (!), but would love to hear any thoughts that it inspires.
Best,
Sahar
Thanks for the question… unfortunately I was not able to turn my attention to it before campaigning ended!