As I’m writing this, it’s my last week serving on the board of CSTA. I was first elected to the board in 2014. I was elected as incoming chair in 2016 and served as chair for two years. As chair, I led the search committee which successfully recruited Jake Baskin to become our executive director.
It’s been six wonderful years. Here are some thoughts about what makes CSTA so great.
Full Story
As I’m writing this, it’s my last week serving on the board of CSTA. I was first elected to the board in 2014. I was elected as incoming chair in 2016 and served as chair for two years. As chair, I led the search committee which successfully recruited Jake Baskin to become our executive director.
It’s been six wonderful years. Here are some thoughts about what makes CSTA so great.
“CSTA has a working board.” This statement is about serving on the CSTA’s board. It vastly understates the depth of people’s commitment to CSTA. I’ve come to realize that many people have decades-long contributions to CSTA! To name just a few: Fran Trees was the volunteer chapter relationship manager from the beginning of CSTA until just recently. J. Philip East was part of the conference committee, including serving many years as program committee chair and ultimately conference chair in 2016. Pat Phillips was the founding editor of the CSTA Voice and led its production until just last year. Deborah Seehorn was chair and then co-chair of K-12 Standards for Computer Science teams (2011 and 2017), chair of the board of directors, and served as interim executive director for five crucial months. And there are many more people who have made contributions just as lasting and impactful.
CSTA has not only a parent, but grandparents. Chris Stephenson founded the organization in 2004-she is CSTA’s parent. But behind the scenes, there are two individuals who are CSTA’s grandparents: Jane Prey and Bobby Schabel. Both are leaders within ACM (its parent organization) and the chief advocates for CSTA within ACM. Both were essential in securing the original funding which created CSTA-and keeping it renewed. It’s fair to say that this support is the bedrock of CSTA’s success. Both also coached me in many ways while I was chair, and especially during the ED search process. Bobby and Jane both joined the board in 2017, where they have been sharing their deep organizational expertise, knowledge of the CS Ed community, and personal warmth to guide us.
It’s crucial to ask people to contribute. I nominated myself to serve on the board because Chris Stephenson asked me to. I figured, well, if Chris asked me to, then I must be qualified. So I applied, I was advanced to the ballot, and I was elected. Two years later, Dave Reed, who was chair at the time, encouraged me to run again. I was reelected (and then voted by the board to be incoming chair).
As chair, one of my roles was to ask board members to be on different committees. Nearly always, people said yes and then proceeded to do amazing jobs. On the Nominations and Elections committee, we recognized the power of encouraging others to run to join the board. Many if not most of the people who are now on the board were encouraged to do so by a trusted colleague.
As CSTA grows under executive director Jake Baskin’s leadership, we now have staff support to grow volunteer opportunities, and bring more people into service roles beyond the board of directors. See the new Engage with CSTA web page-it’s a central location that lists many of the ways that CSTA members and CS education advocates can engage with the organization. Sign up there to contribute to CSTA!
Change is good. Because I care so much about CSTA and enjoy learning from everyone on the board, It’s sad for me to be rotating off. But a healthy organization needs to develop new leaders, and bring in new perspectives and energy.
I am honored to have been able to contribute to CSTA, and I know that CSTA is in a great place and has an even greater future.
Yours,
Fred Martin
P.S. See you in Chicago for the 2021 Annual Conference!
My seven conferences:
- Pheasant Run Resort, St. Charles, Illinois (2014). This was a suburban property that had various buildings added to it over time. As a board member, I was there for a whole week, and by the end, I felt like I was living there and knew all the nooks and crannies.
- Hilton Conference Center, Grapevine, Texas (2015). We had a wonderful reception hosted by the computer science department at UT Dallas!
- Town and Country Resort and Conference Center, San Diego, California (2016). We shared the resort with an astronomers’ meeting and got to pose with space suits in an exhibit hall!
- Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace Hotel, Baltimore, Maryland (2017). We enjoyed a beautiful, upscale hotel on the waterfront.
- CenturyLink Center, Omaha, Nebraska (2018). We were in the hometown of Prof. Dave Reed of Creighton University. He was past-chair at the time and welcomed the board to his home for a lovely evening.
- Phoenix Convention Center, Arizona (2019). Phoenix in July-the WiFi password was “ItsADryHeat.”
- CSTA’s First-Ever Virtual Conference (2020). I had the same feeling I have at every CSTA conference-too many great people to meet and wonderful sessions to attend, and not enough time!
My six years: 2014-2020
CSTA’s five executive directors:
- Chris Stephenson (founding, 2004-2014)
- Lissa Clayborn (acting, 2014-2015)
- Mark Nelson (2015-2017)
- Deborah Seehorn (interim, 2017-2018)
- Jake Baskin (2018-present)
Fred Martin
Board Chair 2016-2020