Spring has often been called the sea­son of renew­al, and we’ve always thought it’s as good of a time as any to recal­i­brate and reor­ga­nize. To that end, each March, before we file our year­ly report with the Sec­re­tary of State’s office, our board holds its annu­al meet­ing. The prin­ci­pal busi­ness of this meet­ing is the elec­tion of NPI’s direc­tors (for terms of two years) and offi­cers (for terms of one years).

NPI’s 2017 annu­al meet­ing was held ear­li­er today. At that meet­ing, we reelect­ed four of our cur­rent board mem­bers (Robert Cruick­shank, Rick Heg­dahl, Essie Hicks, Mario Brown), added a new board mem­ber (Diane Jones) and bol­stered our Advi­so­ry Coun­cil (reap­point­ing Kath­leen Reynolds and appoint­ing Marisa Peloquin).

In addi­tion to being elect­ed to new terms on the board, Rick and Diane were unan­i­mous­ly cho­sen by their fel­low direc­tors to join NPI’s lead­er­ship team as Pres­i­dent and Vice Pres­i­dent-Sec­re­tary for 2017–2018, suc­ceed­ing Robert Cruick­shank and Gael Tar­leton, respectively.

Robert and Gael each ably served NPI for three years in those roles, and I deeply appre­ci­ate their ser­vice and stead­fast com­mit­ment to our orga­ni­za­tion. Robert and Gael remain an inte­gral part of our team and I know they’re as delight­ed as I am to see Rick and Diane step­ping up to take on these impor­tant responsibilities.

Rick and Diane will be work­ing close­ly with NPI Trea­sur­er Gar­rett Havens and I to keep NPI rolling for­ward at a time when the right wing con­trols our fed­er­al gov­ern­ment. (Gar­rett was elect­ed to serve a full term as Trea­sur­er of NPI today as well; he’s been doing a won­der­ful job for us since tak­ing on the role last year.)

NPI Pres­i­dent Rick Heg­dahl (Pho­to: Lin­coln Potter/Samaya)

Rick­’s expe­ri­ence and wis­dom will be invalu­able in ensur­ing NPI con­tin­ues to grow, flour­ish, and expand its work. These are dif­fi­cult days for our coun­try, and an effec­tive resis­tance needs insight­ful research and imag­i­na­tive advo­ca­cy. NPI is com­mit­ted to rais­ing Amer­i­ca’s qual­i­ty of life by lob­by­ing for the enact­ment of leg­is­la­tion based on the log­ic of our nation’s pro­gres­sive val­ues and principles.

Last year, Rick cel­e­brat­ed ten years of involve­ment with NPI, hav­ing joined our staff way back in 2006 after he returned from deploy­ment in Kuwait.

Rick served in the Navy for twen­ty four years as Pet­ty Offi­cer, par­tic­i­pat­ing in Oper­a­tion Noble Eagle with Mobile Inshore Under­sea War­fare Unit 101 (respon­si­ble for pro­vid­ing sea­ward secu­ri­ty in Puget Sound) from 2001–2002.

After vol­un­tar­i­ly extend­ing his tour of duty, he deployed with Naval Coastal War­fare Group One and Mobile Inshore Under­sea War­fare Unit 106 to the Port of Ash Shuai­ba, Kuwait in sup­port of Sea­ward Secu­ri­ty Oper­a­tions for Oper­a­tion Iraqi Free­dom from Decem­ber of 2002 until July 2003.

In April 2005, he was again recalled to active duty, re-trained as an Inshore Boat Unit with MIUWU 101, and deployed to Kuwait. In March of 2006 he returned home, start­ed a home remod­el and repair busi­ness, and retired from the Navy.

Rick now serves as a Nation­al Field Orga­niz­er for VoteVets.org. He has expe­ri­ence orga­niz­ing sup­port for a broad array of pro­gres­sive caus­es — from renew­able ener­gy devel­op­ment to nuclear non­pro­lif­er­a­tion. Through his work with VoteVets, he helps vet­er­ans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan con­tin­ue to be involved in strength­en­ing their coun­try through activism and pub­lic service.

Rick was instru­men­tal in the plan­ning and exe­cu­tion of NPI’s very first Spring Fundrais­ing Gala in May 2008, as well as the sev­en suc­ces­sive galas we’ve held.

Rick­’s good humor, hos­pi­tal­i­ty, and opti­mism have often boost­ed our spir­its and helped keep us on track as a team. He is a tremen­dous role mod­el and a depend­able leader. NPI sim­ply would­n’t be the orga­ni­za­tion it is today with­out Rick­’s con­tri­bu­tions; I thank Rick for all he’s done and look for­ward to work­ing with him to take NPI to the next lev­el at a cru­cial junc­ture in our nation’s history.

I am also very hap­py to have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to work along­side Diane Jones, our newest board mem­ber and NPI’s Vice Pres­i­dent-Sec­re­tary for 2017–2018.

Diane is a vet­er­an elec­tri­cian with decades of involve­ment with IBEW. For ten years, she also owned a com­mer­cial salmon troll per­mit and spent many sum­mers fish­ing in south­east Alas­ka. She has orga­nized sup­port for a num­ber of pro­gres­sive caus­es through the Jef­fer­son Coun­ty Democrats.

In 2015, Diane served as cam­paign chair/coordinator for WAmend, work­ing with NPI Advi­so­ry Coun­cil mem­ber Steve Zemke to qual­i­fy Ini­tia­tive 735 to the Leg­is­la­ture. The cam­paign was suc­cess­ful, and last year, I‑735 appeared on the Novem­ber bal­lot after the Leg­is­la­ture took no action on it.

Vot­ers over­whelm­ing­ly approved I‑735, mak­ing Wash­ing­ton the eigh­teenth state to go on record in sup­port of a fed­er­al con­sti­tu­tion­al amend­ment declar­ing that cor­po­ra­tions are not peo­ple and mon­ey is not speech.

Diane joined our Advi­so­ry Coun­cil last sum­mer and has attend­ed near­ly every event we’ve held in the past year. We are thrilled to have her as part of our team.

Diane exem­pli­fies a great many of the traits we val­ue high­ly at NPI. She is an excel­lent lis­ten­er, long term thinker, and prob­lem solver.

Most impor­tant­ly of all, she is a doer — a per­son of action. She has a track record of get­ting things done. She is one of the very few activists around who has led a suc­cess­ful, most­ly vol­un­teer sig­na­ture dri­ve for a statewide initiative.

Con­grat­u­la­tions to Rick and Diane — and on behalf of NPI’s staff, oth­er board­mem­bers, and com­mu­ni­ty of sup­port­ers, thank you for step­ping up. We are for­tu­nate to have you as part of our lead­er­ship team.