Good-bye and Best Wishes Until We Meet Again
An Interview With Eric Ness
What is taking you away from beautiful Central Oregon and CONC?
Eric: A professional opportunity that pulled me out of retirement. It is difficult to describe the pull without getting into too much science. Suffice it to say that I’ve spent most of my professional career working with the material silicon carbide in many forms. One form I had never worked on is the current hot topic of silicon carbide wafers required to make high voltage transistors for applications in electric vehicles. I’ve read papers by the father of this technology, Robert Davis, whose graduate students started the company Cree, that first made LED light bulbs using silicon carbide wafers. This job is closely connected to such technology, but leverages much of the work I’ve done in my career. That is what caught my eye; the job description seemed to have been written for me.
Another reason to take this job is to have the opportunity to travel in Europe, and to learn German. I don’t know if I will master the latter, but I surely intend to do the former! I am living in Leipzig, which is only an hour’s flight from Prague, Budapest, Krakow, and others. Maybe I’ll also scope out ski trips for the club!
How did you become involved with CONC?
Eric: When I lived in Portland, I was a member of ONC-PDX. So even before I officially moved to Bend, I joined CONC. I was still working at the time, and commuting 2 weeks a month to Golden, CO. A request to take over the club blog was emailed to members, and I figured that was something I could do remotely so I took it over. It was a great choice, as I got to know other members through the blogs and then in person when I was in town. Everything I did with the club kind of went like that. The person leading the Crater Lake trip wanted to step down, and I took it over mostly because I did not want to see it fade away. Same with Methow Valley.
Through these activities I was invited to join the CONC Board. It was at a Board meeting during COVID that Jerry Sebestyen, who was then president, asked for someone to start Zoom Webinars. I volunteered, though I had no idea how to use Zoom for webinars. Thankfully, Jerry pointed to three or four others and said they’d help! And then Trish Nelson offered her expertise in setting up Zoom for presentations and it took off. What was great about that experience is that everyone pitched in with ideas or help. The vision was very broad in the sense that we brought in speakers such as Ed Weiser and Laura Seaver, as well as committee members making presentations.
This also led to a webinar asking Jerry to present his vision of where the club should be going. I think the process to create the webinar has helped us focus and grow. And none of these were my ideas; it was the committee that came up with them and made them happen. It was a lot of fun to be able to step back and watch this process grow.
What is your most significant accomplishment as CONC President?
Eric: As I said before, I don’t really feel I did things; it was always other volunteers. So rather than my most significant accomplishment, I see more developments in the growth of the club during my tenure. Using a committee to produce the webinars took the process off of one person’s responsibility and efforts, and spread the load across several people. But it also enabled more ideas to be presented and developed. After Jerry’s Vision Webinar, several committees were formed; Trail Maintenance, Hiking, Overnights, and Outreach. I was particularly happy with the Overnight committee, because the year before I had done three Overnights and it was a lot of stress. Overnight trips are to me, a very important part of the club, because this is when you really get to know other members. Spreading out the work was not just a life saver, but also the opportunity to try new ideas. In the past two years, Char Newman has mastered the process of setting up an Air BnB and organizing dinners. This year, George Wuerthner volunteered to lead a trip to Yellowstone, and Louise Brown put together the logistics. My contribution was mostly setting the dates for the committee to meet.
Some of the organizational changes made during my tenure are also significant. Moving to the Wild Apricot platform resulted from me asking an ad hoc committee to find out how our membership process worked. That committee spent a lot of time understanding and cleaning up the club’s member spreadsheet, and then also researching alternatives. The last change I effected was with our financial tracking. Eileen Woodward has been the Treasurer for as long as I’ve known, and she suggested to have Dennis Krakow go over the bookkeeping process with her. Dennis’ recommendations from that meeting led to transitioning to a web-based checking program, bringing in a separate co-Treasurer, Char Newman, and spreadsheet manipulator, Chuck Delcambre, to help align spending categories with the bank account entries. This is particularly important for any club to have their finances cloud or web-based for security and for multi-person checks and balances.
What advice would you give to club members about getting more involved?
Eric: My advice for anyone who wants to get involved is just to raise your hand! As an example, Laura offered to do a webinar on navigation, which then lead to me asking her to be on the webinar committee. She tells me this was the first committee she had fun with, which then led her to basically be the expert administrator for Wild Apricot. And Warren, in an email you said you wanted to volunteer for trail work, so I contacted you to do some work at Edison with Al Matson and me. That led to you and me backpacking over 340 miles in two years, and now taking over as President of the club! I can point to so many people, like Kelly Clemen, who is in charge of setting up hikes in the summer, and all of the leaders who have stepped up to lead a hike or two or more! This is what makes the club what it is.
And don’t get me started on trail work. Sue Sullivan and Bob Timmer know the trails by heart. Both have developed a dedicated cadre of volunteers that go out weekly to clean up the trails or perhaps to create new trails. Sue is so plugged into the Bend trail scene that she keeps in contact with four or five other organizations besides the Forest Service to ensure that anything we do on our trails is compatible with the other organizations that might be affected. This is very critical to how CONC is seen by other people in our community, and again makes us what we are.
What do you think are the highest priorities for the club in the next couple of years?
Eric: I’ve never considered myself a visionary, so I don’t tend to look too far into the future. I tend to look at what works, what adds value to our members, and where we might be falling short. I think we have a hole with international trips now that Shari is gone. We could use more ski outings to try to match the frequency Kelly has demonstrated with hiking. Now that we are not doing webinars, we probably should fill in with some live presentations followed or preceded by a social hour. We could always have more overnight trips, but we need to tailor them to what the club wants or needs. I was very happy this year with Crater Lake, as most of the people attending were new to me,which means that event reached out beyond the core group of retirees that are typically involved. And above all else, if someone says they want to help, the club must reach out and contact them. Ann Padget has initiated a new member coffee to help do this on her own initiative. Perhaps it is time again to send a survey out to our membership to learn what they’d like to see.
When can we expect to see you back?
Eric: I’ll be gone a maximum of two years; it really depends on how the project progresses. I don’t expect to be around this winter, but anticipate the following winter I will be back. We’ll just have to see.
