Fairfield Cultural Alliance asks for public to elect new board members

FAIRFIELD — The Fairfield Cultural Alliance is inviting the public to help shape the future of the organization by electing new board members on Monday, June 5.

The group will hold a meeting at 6:30 p.m. that day at the Fairfield Arts & Convention Center, where all attendees of the meeting will have a chance to elect board members, who will then vote to fill the group’s leadership roles.

FCA President Denyce Rusch said her organization is making a special push to involve the public for this meeting because she and the other cabinet members of the group wish to step down from their positions, and they want to see fresh faces in the community take over their roles. Rusch has been the president of FCA for 14 years, and she’s tried to hand the torch to other people, but so far nobody else has stepped forward with a desire to be president.

Now, the group’s treasurer Jeff Fitz-Randolph, and its secretary Shanaz Kreider, have expressed their desire to step down from their positions, too. Paul Squillo is the group’s vice president.

“We’re stepping down from our executive posts, but if we’re needed on the board, we’d consider staying around for a while,” Rusch said.

Rusch said the FCA took a hit from the COVID pandemic, which forced the group to cancel its annual awards celebration and recognition of grant recipients.

“It was hard to get people to come out,” Rusch said. “We didn’t suspend all of our activities, and we tried to meet outdoors and give a few mini-grants when we had the money. But we weren’t able to hold our networking gala for several years, and we lost our momentum.”

The FCA leadership has been trying to attract new board members and hopefully new officers with a series of meetings in January, February and April.

“At the April meeting, we hoped we’d be able to elect new officers, but we didn’t have a quorum,” Rusch said. “The other two meetings were attended by 15-20 people who all indicated how much they wanted the FCA to continue.”

Rusch said that all members of the public will be able to vote for new board members on June 5, regardless of whether they’ve participated in any FCA events before.

“We’re trying to get people off the street who like arts and culture, who can show their support by coming to this one meeting and voting to have 12 board members,” Rusch said.

Rusch said that, if the group is unable to elect new leadership, it will need to begin having conversations with the city about how Fairfield can maintain its culture and entertainment district designation. That is something the FCA is responsible for maintaining through the state of Iowa, and with that designation Fairfield is able to receive grants and be included in tourism promotions through the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs.

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Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com