Nominee for Election to the Nominating Committee

The Star Island Corporation members directly elect members to the Nominating Committee. The Board of Directors submits the slate for that committee to the Corporation members.

The Board of Directors, at its December 2017 meeting, received the recommendation of the Committee on Appointments proposing one Corporation member who will be serving a second term on the Nominating Committee. The Board voted to accept this recommendation. The nominee is:

Tristan Boyer Binns (Yoga) for a second, three year term.

The Board of Directors, at its March 2018 meeting, received the recommendation of the Committee on Appointments proposing one Corporation member who will be serving a second term on the Nominating Committee. The Board voted to accept this recommendation. The nominee is:

Jill Brody (Arts, LOAS 1) for a second, three-year term.

The Board of Directors, at its April 2018 meeting, received the recommendation of the Committee on Appointments proposing two Corporation members who will be serving a first term on the Nominating Committee (eligible for a second term starting at the Annual Meeting in 2021.) The Board voted to accept this recommendation. The nominees are:

Nick Dembsey (IA) for a first, three-year term,

Rodney Lowe (AS 2) for a first, three-year term.

Respectfully submitted,

StarIsland Board of Directors

Biographical Sketches of 2018 Nominees

Tristan Boyer Binnshas been coming to StarIsland since the early 1980s, as part of the LRY/YRUU youth conference, later as staff for the conference. Over the years, she has tried to join the Arts conference (1998. The year the ferry couldn’t get out to the island for days!), been welcomed to YAC, and joined the Rasamaya Yoga Teachers’ retreat. Tristan has co-chaired the Yoga Retreat since 2010. She’s been the yoga teacher briefly for IA, and also journeyed out to teach yoga to the Pelicans, volunteer, and just relax. (Professionally, Tristan is an Iyengar yoga teacher.)Even while living inEnglandfor 20 years, Tristan often made the journey back to her spirit’s home.Tristan and her husband Andy moved back to theBostonarea in 2009. They have two teenagers who have been coming to Star since 2007. The kids are greatStarIslandambassadors and have worked on a number of Star projects and volunteered themselves.

Tristan became Corporation member in 2013, and created a walking tour ofStarIslandwith Corporation member Tamra Carhart and the kids during the summer of 2014, working with the Island Heritage & Artifacts Committee and Conference Services Committee as well asislandstaff. Recently she created a scavenger huntwith her daughterClary for Vaughn for all visitors to use, and has helped with the SEA Star educational school visit program and the Brookfield/Marine Lab refurbishment project. There is nowhere on this earth she would rather be than on East Rock, looking out to sea.

Jill Brodybegan her love affair with StarIsland in 1981 when she was asked at the last minuteto fill in as the Senior High workshop leaderat LOAS 2, by the minister of the church in Attleboro, MA, where she was DRE. The following summer she returned, and also started attending LOAS 1, where she has been a conferee ever since. Along the way from then to now, she shed one husband, met and married Herb Emers (LOAS 1 conferee since 1968, who died in 2015), continued leading the Senior High group for a total of seven years, started attending Arts in 1999, chaired both Arts (2004) and LOAS 1 (with Herb in 2007), joined the Corporation with Herb in 2004,was the Arts Registrar (2007-2013), was asked by the island to help create a new conference on creativity during the last week of August (2012-13), recognized after two years that that conference might not have a long shelf life, and with John and Irene Bush is still shepherding the September Chamber Music Weekend into its fifth blissful year. She also serves on the Nominating Committee for the Corporation, about to begin her second term.

Jill's three children grew up as conferees, two of them becoming Pels, with one of whom (Nola Kopfer) now attending LOAS 1 with her two young children. One of Herb's three children, Charlie Emers, along with his wife, Anne McPherson and their two grown daughters, also attend LOAS 1. Jill has advanced degrees from AdelphiUniversity, HarvardDivinitySchool and the ArtInstitute of Boston. In addition to her documentary and oral history projects, she has started to write fiction, drawing her characters from her own widowhood, as well as from teenage girls who are just exploring the worlds that they find themselves coming of age in.

Nick Dembsey has been attending IA since 2002. At that time, given his unique background in Fire Protection Engineering, he was asked to provide informal advice to the SIC, continuing through 2007 when he served on the Island Opened Late Committee. In 2008, Nick became a member of the Corporation. He has served on the Strategic Facilities Planning Committee from 2009 to 2014. He has served on the SIC Board since 2012. In 2009, Nick joined the IA committee and in 2011 he served as chair for IA’s “Water as a Resource and a Right” conference.

In the non-Star world, Nick is Professor of Fire Protection Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, a Registered Professional Engineer, and a Fellow of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers. He works closely with the fiber reinforced polymers industry to improve the fire performance of their architectural products. Nick is an editorial board member ofFire Technology, the peer-reviewed journal of the National Fire Protection Association and he also serves on the editorial board of the peer-reviewed journalFire and Materials.

Rodney Loweand his wife Sally Russell first discovered Star though friends who kept saying “Trust us, you’ll love it.” They did, and after getting of the waiting list for All Star 2 with less than 24 hours notice they took their kids, Chris and Bethany to the island for the first time in 1993. They all had a great week which is not easy for a family with an introvert, an extrovert and 5 year old girl and 14 year old boy. So they became regulars and eventually chaired the AS2 conference in 2003. He became a member of SIC in 2004 and has been a member of the Development Committee for several years including chairing the committee in 2007.