Presenting your 2024 leadership candidates
Earlier this month, we announced that the CoCo was soliciting candidates for its fifth annual elections. Any CoCo member residing in North America was eligible to be a candidate and run for election for the Board of Directors or Executive Director. This year, there are three open seats on the Board.
I’m pleased to present for your consideration the candidates who have offered their ideas, energy, and leadership to better our Scrabble community. Below are your 2024 leadership candidates and their statements seeking your vote.
Candidates for Board of Directors
David Whitley
I'm proud to be seeking a seat on the CoCo Board of Directors. I look forward to using my time and energy to support the CoCo's goals of growing our community and providing first-class events that reinforce the bonds we all share. Thanks for your vote!
Peter Armstrong
I'm Peter Armstrong of Portland, Oregon, and I’m running for reelection to the CoCo board. I have served as a board member in CoCo since its beginning. I served as treasurer until recently, helping with the initial 501(c)(3) status, general and tournament accounting, and account security. Recently I served as co-director for CSW divisions of the 2024 Word Cup in Albuquerque. Through my board position, I helped make decisions on strategic partnerships with WGPO.
I am running again because I continue to strongly support the reasons for which CoCo was founded. I value diversity, environmental sustainability, and providing a playing environment that is free of harassment and discrimination. I support finding creative ways of getting new members involved. I also support strategic partnerships with WGPO when they are in the best interest of CoCo and CSW in North America. Most importantly, I enjoy the unique experience and challenge of tournament Scrabble and the community it fosters. I want to preserve these experiences for our current and future CoCo players.
Rob Robinsky
As a CoCo Board Member, I have worked to facilitate increased opportunities for the Scrabble community to play the game we love. This has involved directing and supporting others to direct successful local tournaments in the Washington DC metro area as well as working to organize and direct the 2024 Word Cup in Albuquerque. I have also worked to encourage and increase accessibility for players to attend and enjoy tournaments, and fully support nascent initiatives like the CoCo Scrabble Access Fund that was implemented this year.
I have frequently said that, as a young adult, I took a great deal from the Scrabble community to grow into who I am today - from friends and mentors, directors and organizers, and the collective generosity and knowledge of our community. To this day, I remain indebted to the Scrabble world and believe that I can continue to offer my experience and ideas to further grow the game. Additionally, I believe that I am in a position where I can work to build bridges to continue to connect players across organizational, lexical, and geographical divides. There is far more that connects the spokes of the Scrabble wheel than that divides us, and I believe that my work with CoCo allows me to focus on those connections and strengthen them.
Candidate for Executive Director
The incumbent Executive Director, Jennifer Clinchy, is running for that position once again. Here’s her statement:
In the past year as Executive Director, I've focused on strengthening the depth and breadth of the CoCo team. I've trained new volunteers and directors to ensure that a handful of people aren't shouldering the burden of keeping it all going. We've welcomed energetic new volunteers like Nits Chagti and Tony Boyle, and the ideas they've raised - from grant funding to lexicon update automation and more resilient luggage tags - have invigorated everyone, including me.
My proudest accomplishment this year was launching the CoCo Scrabble Access Fund. This new initiative aims to broaden the socio-economic diversity of our player base by reducing financial barriers to access. Separately, I collaborated with Nits to establish the CoCo's first local partnership, co-hosting monthly Scrabble meetups with the DC Public Library System. (Nits did nearly all the work here!)
That's the theme of this evolving Executive Director role. As our nonprofit matures, I'm working more and more with talented volunteers who are enabling us to expand far beyond what Evans and I could do alone as the original founders. Part of why I'm so excited to see new volunteers join us is because I look forward to the day when a new leader with fresh ideas and vision takes charge. Until then, I'll continue to support our directors and volunteers and execute the vital grunt work that keeps this special community going for everyone who likes to play Scrabble.
Vote!
The hundreds of CoCo members around the world will receive a unique link by email from ElectionBuddy, our online voting system. All votes are anonymous. You will have about 12 days to cast your ballot. After voting closes, we’ll announce the results of the election here and introduce your new leadership team. Make your voice heard and cast those ballots!
(P.S. If you think you should have received a ballot today but don’t see it in your email inbox, check your spam folder. If you don’t see it there, contact us at info@cocoscrabble.org and we’ll check if an internet monster ate your ballot or if we lack a current email address for you.)
