The NERFA Board of Directors is proud to announce our slate of nominees for the 2025 Board election. This also opens up a period of 60 days when other good standing members of FAI who are affiliated with our region can self-nominate to run for election (details below).
There are currently 3 board positions that will be filled this election. In accordance with our bylaws, the board is putting forth a corresponding list of candidates to fill these 3 openings. These include one seat that was not filled by appointment after the resignation of members of the previous Board. Another of those seats had one year remaining at that point and has been filled by Ron Olesko. The third seat is currently held by Sarah Craig of Caffe Lena, also fulfilling the remainder of that term, so it is available again for a full term.
This year, the NERFA Board of Directors has served as the nominating committee as required by the current bylaws. Our nominees are:
Cliff Notez – multimedia artist, musician, filmmaker, and community advocate and founder of HipStory, a digital media production company
Naomi Westwater – singer-songwriter, cultural curator, faculty member of Club Passim and Not Sorry Productions, founder of the event series “Reclaiming Folk”
Rees Shad – singer-songwriter, producer, former owner-operator of Sweetfish Recording Studios, keynote speaker at 2025 SERFA conference
Ron Olesko has put forth his intention to file as a self-nominated candidate for a full term, as well. This will automatically ensure that we will have a proper election this year, administered by FAI.
Additional nominees can also be submitted by the membership (membership in FAI) with letter(s) of support from at least ten (10) members in good standing, received no later than Sunday, September 7, 2025 (60 days ahead of the annual regional conference.) These 10 nominations must be from 10 unique memberships, and any candidate must also be a member in good standing of FAI. Contact Tisha Naipaul at FAI to submit letters and for more information – tisha@folk.org. Or, to submit nominations, you may fill out a form here which goes to Tisha.
Details on the election itself, which is open to FAI members who affiliate themselves with the Northeast region, will follow at a later date.