Kinetic Universe Board Transition

To Our Kinetic Community:

First of all, thank you for the hours of conversation that many people have shared with our volunteer facilitator, Jess. Your passion, enthusiasm, and deep caring for Kinetic history came through strongly and your desire for the race to thrive into the future based on inclusion and mutual respect is clear. “Kinetics” is an expansive culture, with something for everyone who is willing to contribute to an evolving positive culture of artists, engineers, mechanics, technicians, officials, volunteers, characters, supporters, and fans who do it all for the glory. All this exuberance and creativity requires robust leadership and management to provide the structure for our Kinetic events. 

We are in a time of transition with an opportunity to honor our legacy and create our future through re-imagining our leadership and management. 

This process started when Jess was invited a few months back to “help us.” She undertook the task of conducting extensive listening sessions with many people engaged in Kinetics. Jess heard not only your stories, but also heard your feelings. Some of the feelings go back many years and in some cases include a sense of unfairness and disrespect. She learned we are a community that glorifies heroic effort, and true to that culture, Jess is facilitating our efforts to 1) heal old wounds and 2) build a strong, sustainable, and equitable organization worthy of continuing the work Hobart began more than 50 years ago. If we succeed in these two goals, a sense of respectful community can be restored, and the heroic efforts to put on the race will be replaced by broader teamwork and management. The heroics can occur out on the race course as we compete for glory.

Right now a small transition team has assembled and we are meeting regularly. We are responding to a number of urgent legal, financial, and organizational matters.  It’s not glorious work, but it begins rebuilding the platform for a glorious race. We’re still waiting for the IRS to respond to our latest communications with them. We applied for COVID relief money and are investigating other grant opportunities. We’re still working to capture knowledge from the folks who have been doing the heroic work, before they completely burn out. We are also developing the framework of the leadership and management structure.

There is much more work to be done before a professional organization is up and running. We are striving to accomplish as much cleanup as we can during this transition stage so the new board can focus on the future. We will be coordinating a process to establish a new active board and management team. The new organization will have the responsibility of maintaining transparency between our board and our racing community, keeping you informed as we move forward. We must invite, honor, and encourage positive participation from all Kinetic stakeholders including the racers, the Queens, the Lab, the Museum, volunteers, businesses, schools, service clubs and organizations, our host communities, race fans, media, law enforcement, and many more. When there is an offer to help and collaborate, we need to ensure that there’s a mechanism to put that help to best use with due respect. There must also be policies, procedures, and rules that are clear, fair, communicated well, and understood, so we can have glorious fun together.

This is a time of renewal and as we move forward together we ask for your patience as we work through the process of creating a new organization. We’re also asking all of you to be kind with each other and to be supportive in your words and your actions.

You all can be a part of our shared future. You have important ideas and skills to contribute to kinetics. Stay retuned for updates and how you can help.

Sincerely,

The Transition Team

Members of the Transition Team

Jenette Kime - Goddess Jen-O
My deep connection with the race began in 1969 when I stood on my dad’s shoulders watching that first race down Main Street. I’ve been to every race except one ever since. I’ve volunteered since 1978 in roles such as planning committee member, registrar, MetaHead Judge, scorekeeper, Head Timer, Racer Liaison and fundraiser. I hold an MBA, am a professional organizer, work in education, and own a small business. 

Steve McHaney
I am a professional civil engineer and I have spent my career building successful businesses and leading non-profits through organizational transitions. I have been a fan of the race since the early 1980’s. I have been an engineering judge and spent the final hours of Monday afternoon of race weekend compiling results in the loft above Hobart’s gallery as he put the finishing touches on the grand champion trophy. I am also leader of the three-time grand champion TriloBike team.  My goal is to help the race thrive into the future by creating a robust professionally run organization that leverages the talents of individuals while staying true to our heritage and our mission.

Jennifer Thelander
I have worked in nonprofit fundraising, specializing in events, for over 13 years. I’ve served on a number of Boards, including being one of the founding Board members of Humboldt Roller Derby. In 2010, I was crowned Rutabaga Queen Dinah Might and moved to Portland, Oregon shortly after. Since relocating, I’ve organized large, multi-day music festivals, developed fundraising plans for small nonprofits, and attended Kinetic races in Port Townsend and Corvallis, while visiting Humboldt for the Rutabaga Ball and Kinetic Grand Championship whenever I can. I am committed to ensuring the sustainability of Kinetic Universe and building a set of procedures with achievable goals for the next group of Board members and volunteers.

Robert van de Walle
I’m a project manager and Captain of Team Pineapple. Although I’ve only been racing since 2014, I fell in love with our shared history as I helped Dawn Thomas uncover lost decades of the race when she wrote the Kinetic Kompendium. I’ve facilitated change and growth for both businesses and NGOs. I have a particular interest and commitment to increasing funding for our entire Kinetic community.

Jess Pettitt - Resource to the Transition Team
As a person relatively new to Kinetics, I am honored to be able to serve as a facilitator and connector to support the Transition Team.  In 2018, I volunteered as Merch Maven for this event. I didn’t know much about the role, and got an on the job crash course in selling t-shirts and swag and answering questions from Kinetic Fans for three days from Arcata to Ferndale.  I travel for a living delivering diversity training and mediating tough conversations. This has helped prepare me for the many discussions I have had with the Kinetic community. It has been a pleasure learning the rich history including opportunities for improvement. I look forward to further supporting the Transition team during their work to build a new effective organization.