I wrote up the below note, printed it out, and gave it to next-door Commissioner and current ANC Chair Noah Smith to use as a flyer for his re-election campaign in 2B09, the district just to the east of ours:
———————–
Hello Neighbor! My name is Will Stephens, and I serve as the Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner for Single Member District 2B08, which is right next door to your district (2B09). I have served on the ANC for over 7 years, and I served as Chair of the Dupont Circle ANC for over 4 years.
I am writing to ask you to re-elect Noah Smith for your 2B09 Commissioner. I have never campaigned or gotten involved in any ANC race outside of my Single Member District before, because I didn’t think it was my place. However, Noah has been such an excellent member of the ANC that I volunteered to help him.
Noah first got involved with the ANC as a community member, volunteering to serve as one of our two non-Commissioner “Public Safety Liaisons” – to help us build and maintain better relationships with the police, to help provide public input on criminal cases, and to help the ANC focus on public safety more broadly, including pedestrian and traffic safety. Noah then ran for the open 2B09 seat when former Chair and Commissioner Ramon Estrada retired. He proved himself to be a workhorse on the ANC, including holding a series of public meetings about the 14th/U liquor moratorium and being the founding chair of our new Transportation and Infrastructure committee, among many other projects and duties. I also asked him to stand as Vice Chair for our January 2014 officer elections.
I recently decided to retire from the ANC, and I am not running for re-election on Tuesday. In anticipation of retiring, I stepped down from my Chair position in order to allow Noah the opportunity to learn how to manage the ANC for the last few months of 2014. I only did this because I had absolute faith in Noah to competently and professionally manage the organization, run meetings, and serve as a voice of reason and compromise in bringing disparate opinions together through the ANC. I believe he would continue to make an excellent Chair or other officer in the next ANC, as well, if his colleagues chose to elect him.
I hope that you will re-elect Noah Smith to be your 2B09 Commissioner this Tuesday! — Will Stephens
Will Stephens - Commissioner 