The June elec­tion of FBA offi­cers and exec­u­tive board nom­i­nees may be anti­cli­mac­tic after the May 26 wine and cheese get together. Included in a crit­i­cal mass of past, cur­rent, and to-be board mem­bers, offi­cers, and com­mu­nity mem­bers were exu­ber­ant can­di­date intro­duc­tions, deserved acco­lades and fond farewells.

Clock­wise from top left: Bob Vogt and Lucia Pol­lock; Eliz­a­beth Elliott, Asher Cor­son, Joy How­ell; Joy How­ell, Ron Cocome; Vic­tor Cia­rdello, Jared Halstead

Out­go­ing FBA Pres­i­dent Joy How­ell hit the ground run­ning in 2005 with an ulti­mately suc­cess­ful cam­paign to pre­vent the White­hurst demo­li­tion. How­ell led the FBA through a non-stop onslaught of tumul­tuous cir­cum­stances— think new 20-year GWU cam­pus plan, West End land grab, his­toric Stevens School clo­sure, etc.—including a recent FBA appeal con­test­ing DC approval of GWU’s use of limit-busting PUDs to skirt cam­pus plan reg­u­la­tions. The gath­er­ing gave her a chance to be well thanked and repeat­edly applauded for her extra­or­di­nary four years of service.

How­ell also acknowl­edged and pro­fusely thanked out­go­ing VP Jacque­line Lemire for her invalu­able sup­port. Amongst her many other FBA tasks, Lemire co-chaired the inau­gural “Arts in Foggy Bot­tom” Sculp­ture Exhibit— which recently won the Mayor’s top award for Inno­va­tion in the Arts against stiff com­pe­ti­tion. Although end­ing her for­mal respon­si­bil­i­ties, Lemire will remain involved with FBA and is already work­ing on an in-depth retail sur­vey (dubbed “Paris in FB”), as well as col­lab­o­rat­ing with WE Library Friends on a series of “Fifties” movie screen­ings to cel­e­brate FBA’s 50th anniver­sary this year.

Out­go­ing imme­di­ate past pres­i­dent Ron Cocome was warmly thanked by How­ell who amus­edly noted that she often calls him “The God­fa­ther.” Dur­ing his tenure, Cocome led FBA efforts result­ing in the adap­tive reuse of the his­toric Colum­bia Hos­pi­tal for Women, includ­ing Trader Joe’s and Dis­trict Hard­ware, as new con­do­minium res­i­dences. Juarez Cir­cle and its statue of Ben­ito Juarez—a gift from the peo­ple of Mex­ico cel­e­brat­ing the open­ing of the Ken­Cen are pre­served thanks to Cocome’s efforts. In turn, Cocome acknowl­edged for­mer ANC2A Chair, FBA board mem­ber, and late-night, tree-watering part­ner Eliz­a­beth Elliott who con­tin­ues her count­less behind-the-scenes efforts for FB/WE and the District.

Chair for two years and cur­rently serv­ing as com­mis­sioner for ANC2A, Asher Cor­son , now at the ripe old age of 25 and prob­a­bly the youngest FBA pres­i­den­tial can­di­date ever, shared his top priority—to dou­ble the membership—for FBA.

Board can­di­date Vic­tor Cia­rdello made his FBA debut, and noted that he gave up his Alexan­dria, VA home to become one of the first Colum­bia Res­i­dences dwellers in 2006. He loves FB, the arts—especially theatre—and brings plenty of expe­ri­ence to bear from work­ing around the world in both pri­vate sec­tor and gov­ern­ment. How­ell intro­duced board can­di­date and neigh­bor Lucia Pol­lock and con­veyed her grat­i­tude for Pollock’s atten­dance at a mul­ti­tude of pub­lic hear­ings and her unfail­ing sup­port of the FBA. Pol­lock is look­ing for­ward to serv­ing the com­mu­nity in this new role, espe­cially through her inter­est in his­toric preservation.

Bob Vogt, long­time FB booster and FBA board mem­ber, once again stepped for­ward to serve but he minced no words in point­ing out that his wife Noreen is the one who really gets things done in the com­mu­nity. And her handiwork—flowers, plants and bushes—is every­where. Vogt empha­sized that as mem­bers of a com­mu­nity like FB—where every­thing we might need is at our fin­ger tips—“we each have a respon­si­bil­ity to give back.”

A hearty thanks and a thrilled wel­come goes to our out­go­ing board mem­bers and offi­cers and the ener­getic, enthu­si­as­tic slate of can­di­dates who are about to do just that. We invite the com­mu­nity to join us in kick­ing off the next half cen­tury of FBA. —FBN