DRUUMM Elections 2022
As a community ministry, we uphold a democratic process where members elect our leadership. DRUUMM holds elections each year to vote on members to serve on our Steering Committee, our highest governing body. Per our bylaws, a nominating committee was formed and candidates have been proposed for the vacant positions. We are grateful to our Nominating Committee chaired by Rev. Sangye Hawke and including Isaac Castro, Rev. Sana Saeed, Rev. Ranwa Hammamy, Rev. Michael Crumpler, and Ayanna Kafi.
Voting opens on April 30th, 2022 and closes on May 30th, 2022. Members can vote via a unique poll that will be sent to your email address on file. You can also login to our member portal at druumm.wildapricot.org and cast your vote there. You must be a current member to be eligible to vote. If you have not received or cannot access your member ballot, please contact our DRUUMM Administrator at [email protected].
The following members have been certified eligible have graciously agreed to serve and the DRUUMM Nominating Committee recommends your vote in support. Members are also permitted to write-in candidates.
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Vice-President & President-Elect: Esperanza Garza-Danweber
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Treasurer: Kate Goka
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GA Coordinator: Verdis Robinson
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Communications Coordinator: Karin Lin
With gratitude for your participation.
PDF Candidate Guide: https://tinyurl.com/DRUUMMCandidates
VICE-PRESIDENT & PRESIDENT-ELECT
Esperanza Garza-Danweber, San Antonio TX
Esperanza Garza-Danweber is a mestiza tejana who works as a school librarian in her hometown of San Antonio, Texas. She joined First UU San Antonio in 2009 and since has served in many capacities including church Board of Directors. Esperanza joined DRUUMM at GA 2019 and while she loved being a part of the Organizing Project Advisory Board for three years, she is even more humbled to join the Steering Committee. Her hobbies are chasing after her three children, reading, gardening, singing, and playing the guitar.
TREASURER
Kate Goka, Brisbane CA
I live in the SF Bay Area with my wife and three kids. I grew up with a white Unitarian Universalist mom and a Japanese Buddhist dad and remember learning about Harriet Tubman at our UU fellowship Sunday school as well as bowing at the Buddhist altar in my grandmother’s house in Japan. As an adult, I’ve practiced meditation in various settings and recently committed to jukai or formal practice to take the Zen Buddhist precepts. I had a long break from Unitarian Universalism but found my way back when I worked as a religious educator at a UU congregation near my house. I’ve been on the steering committee of the Asian/ Pacific Islander Caucus of DRUUMM for the last three years and have co-created curriculum for Beloved Conversations for families.
COMMUNICATIONS COORDINATOR
Karin Lin, Cambridge MA
Karin Lin (she/her) is a lay leader at First Parish in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she co-chairs the Racial Equity Team and convenes the BIPOC caucus. She has been an UU for twenty years and is a longtime member of DRUUMM. Karin is co-author with Rev. Nancy Palmer Jones of the book Mistakes and Miracles: Congregations on the Road to Multiculturalism (Skinner House, 2019). She is the mother of two teenage daughters and works as a software engineer in the field of natural language processing.
GA COORDINATOR
Verdis Robinson, East Montpellier, VT
Verdis LeVar Robinson (he/him or they) is the Lenora Montgomery Scholar of Excellence at Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago, where he is a candidate for a Master of Divinity and is a Candidate for the Unitarian Universalist ministry. He is currently completing a ministerial internship at the Unitarian Church of Montpelier, Vermont. Verdis was a confirmed local minister in the African American Holiness-Pentecostal tradition prior to joining the First Universalist Church of Rochester, New York, in 2008. Verdis has served as a Worship Associate/Coordinator, Lay Preacher, Committee on Ministry, Choir Member/Soloist, Religious Education Instructor, and a member of the Social Justice Team.