FOCI: Continuity & Change

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI) has a new President, is getting prepared to launch out in new directions and is also trying to raise $30,000 by the end of the month. The first two of those announcements may be interrelated, the third definitely is not. It is a result of two large contracts coming to an end, more on that later. First, Mike Moore has been one of FOCI’s members for decades and is now taking on a more active leadership role.

Mike Moore: “I hadn’t really been that involved in FOCI before, except that FOCI and the Watershed Sentinel were at one time very closely aligned, and I’ve been a proofreading editor for Watershed Sentinel for quite a few years. I joined the FOCI board in December 2021, so I’m coming up now to three years. I joined because I was getting out of the Misty Isles and having more time to pursue naturalist activities. I was really excited about all the projects that FOCI does in the forest, on the ocean, and on the beaches. It’s a pretty cool thing that they’re doing.”

Cortes Currents: Now you’re the president of the board.

Mike More: “I’m the new president.”

“It’s not a big upset or anything like that. Our AGM was in December. At our board meeting in January, when we elected positions, the board said that because we were just embarking on a process with Andrea Fisher (of board development, education, and defining the structure of FOCI), we would keep that course under Max Thaysen until it was finished. We finished that process in early summer and are still working on the final touches, but Max was happy to step back and I was happy to step forward. Nobody has left the board. Everybody is really happy and energized with how things are going.”

Cortes Currents: Have there been any changes in direction?

Mike Moore: “This is an excellent question and that’s just something that we’re coming to grips with.”

“FOCI has done a really great job in monitoring the local environment, in enhancing the local environment, and in educating people about our local ecosystems. We work with parks, both at the regional and provincial level , to maintain Mansons lagoon and the regional parks all over the island. We’ve got the longest continuous data set for foreshore monitoring. We’ve embarked on some wonderful projects like the Dillon Creek Wetlands Project and the Western Screech Owl Project.”

“We have all this stuff going, but it feels like it’s all pretty local and the world is changing. There’s this feeling that we want to have a bigger voice, a bigger input. We’re just coming to grips with that. That’s what this five hour meeting was this weekend. We’re pretty excited about where we can go. We are just in that revisioning process and we can’t actually make those decisions ourselves as a board. We want to involve our Executive Director, Helen Hall. She’s away at the moment and she’ll be back mid month, but we’ve done some preliminary work on that. We’re really excited about where we can go and stay relevant and vibrant as an organization.”