Meet the Candidates for the TCOTC Board of Directors
The following members are candidates for the TCOTC Board of Directors. Members will elect two candidates to the board on January 12. Board members serve 3-year terms and meet once per month.
Bryan Dunn
Bryan has been a member of TCOTC for three years. He volunteers with the agility course setup crew and trains in obedience, rally and agility. He’s the president of the Hennepin Heelers 4H club, which trains at TCOTC most Sundays. This would be Bryan’s first experience serving on a board.
What would Bryan bring to TCOTC?
“I believe I can bring the viewpoint of a junior in the dog agility world to help the club be more supportive and involved with the junior dog trainers in our community. I am the president and a junior leader of the Hennepin Healers 4H club and have had experience teaching and supporting the youth in our community, and would like to see their interest in dog sports grow through the support of TCOTC. Also, as a youth member of TCOTC myself, I believe I can bring my own personal viewpoints and experiences as a junior handler who is involved in many different activities at the club.”
Heidi Fisk
Heidi has been an active TCOTC member and competitor in the agility community for the past 17 years, having taken agility classes with dogs Libby and Doobie. Heidi started teaching at TCOTC in 2014, first as an assistant for the Puppy Agility class and later teaching the puppy agility class and competition level classes. Heidi was promoted to lead Puppy Agility instructor and oversaw the program until spring 2020. Heidi has also chaired numerous Agility trials, been on almost every agility trial committee or volunteered for a trial in the past ten years. She also was a member of the committee that oversaw the remodeling of the club entry way and have volunteered to be on other club committees. She was a board member at St. Paul Dog Training Club for 3 years and was on the board of a professional Learning association for 8 years, serving as program chair, VP, President, Past-president, and Newsletter editor.
What would Heidi bring to TCOTC?
“I bring a lot of skills and experience to the board:
Founded and owned a successful, global online business – an association of 100,000 eLearning professionals. The association provided many different benefits to its membership and I was responsible for the strategy, production and staff management of these activities including:
- Producing both face-to-face and online events. We produced dozens of online events each year from marketing/lead-generating promotions to multi-day, multi-track educational events. The face-to-face events ranged in attendance from 100 to 8,000 attendees.
- Development and production of monthly research papers and reports, newsletters, magazines, white papers
Besides overseeing the above I was also responsible for
- Developing the overall strategy for the company
- Overseeing and managing budgets
- Hiring and development of both employees and contractors
- Managing vendor relationships
- Contracting hotel and event production
- Overseeing the strategy, design, and development of both online and mail marketing
- Setting strategy and implementation of membership development
- Creating the strategy and overseeing the design, development and production of all association publications including weekly e-newsletters, research, white papers, conference materials, seminar materials, and other documents.
“Before I founded my own company, I worked for 30+ years in the Tech industry and learning industry. I also worked for a NFP arts organization, a small start-up company, and a Fortune 250 company.”
Anitra Francis
Anitra has been a Monday night desk volunteer for more than four years and an Agility Assistant for the past two years. She was elected as an alternate board member in January 2020 but almost immediately became a full board member after a resignation created a vacancy. She has also served on the board of a nonprofit called Corgi Pals that assisted corgi owners with unplanned emergency veterinary services.
What would Anitra bring to TCOTC?
“Having been an active member taking classes for over a decade, serving as a volunteer for almost half of that time, participating in the Obedience side as well as the Agility side, as well as serving in the administrative and customer service aspect at the front desk, I believe that I have a well rounded perspective on the club’s current and future outlook and goals. Serving on the board for 2020 has been a challenging and unique experience that threw me into the deep end so to speak, therefore my experience with that has only deepened my dedication to TCOTC and its success, as well as the success of all of our members and their canine family.
“My career experience also serves as a beneficial viewpoint on the board. I work FT as the Small & Herding Breeds Coordinator for Secondhand Hounds, a local dog and cat rescue, and have been with them for almost 10 years now. It is important to me that there are services such as the ones TCOTC provides to dogs and their families to help them be successful. Finding dogs their forever homes and successfully keeping them there is an essential service for dogs in need. For full disclosure, TCOTC is one of several local training facilities that does offer a discount to our adopters and has offered training to our foster homes in the past.”
Meera Kannan
Meera became a volunteer obedience assistant after training her dogs Satchel and Lilo at the club beginning in 2017. She has taken her dogs through a number of Obedience classes and also completed the Flyball program. Meera works for the Minneapolis Public Schools as a Minneapolis Kids Program Coordinator. She was the Assistant Director at local, nonprofit Montessori preschool from 2013-2017, where she attended board meetings as well and gave input to families as decisions were made. She has also volunteered with other nonprofits, serving from 2012-2014 as part of the Special Events Committee for Girls on the Run and working with other volunteers to plan the yearly Silent Auction and Annual Gala. From 2015-2019, Meera was a Foster Coordinator with the dog rescue No Dog Left Behind, where she matched incoming dogs with appropriate foster homes and worked with other volunteers to bring dogs into rescue from local shelters.
What would Meera bring to TCOTC?
“Since my first class at TCOTC in 2017, I recognize what a special place the club is and how important it is for the dog community in the Twin Cities. I am always recommending to new adopters and to friends that they take classes at TCOTC. Beyond making sure that puppies are born in healthy environments and given enough time with mom, I truly believe that training, particularly with positive reinforcement, is the best thing we can do as dog owners, and TCOTC provides that opportunity for our community.
“Being on the TCOTC board will allow me to provide my perspective as someone who attends classes and as someone who works as an assistant trainer. I am also a strong advocate for dog training and for positive reinforcement as a training technique.
“Additionally, I have worked in education for over 10 years, and there are a lot of similarities in education and in dog training, particularly when considering what is most effective. Positive reinforcement is what works with dogs, but it is also what works with humans in the classroom.
“Both of my dogs play flyball, and we practice with our team at TCOTC. Flyball tournaments are held at the club as well. This will allow me to bring a perspective as someone who is using the club outside of classes too.
“Lastly, in training classes, at flyball tournaments, and at other dog sporting events, I am often the only person of color attending and/or participating. People of color have dogs too though, and many have adopted new pets during the pandemic. They need access to quality training, which TCOTC provides, but often, minority families are unaware of the classes. I would like to see how TCOTC can expand its reach to make sure all families are included.”
Anne Scanlon
Anne has been a member of TCOTC for five years, and has been a student in various classes, most recently agility, for the last two years. She started volunteering a little right before COVID hit. She works as an Occupational Therapy Assistant for ProRehab. She has been an active member of WHAM Board (Women’s Hockey Association of Minnesota) and served as Staff Liaison for City of Shoreview – Slice of Shorevie. She is President/Owner Minnesota Women’s Summer Hockey League.
What would Anne bring to TCOTC?
“I have a background in customer service, program development for Recreation, and skill development for individuals recovering from significant health issues. Within my previous career budget management was a key portion of my job, creating revenue and maintaining current streams of revenue. This required the ability to adapt to current community and social needs for new and innovative programs. I am an individual who thinks outside the box and is driven to a accomplishing goals. COVID has changed our world – adapting and reinventing how we interact with friends, family and community has taken on a whole new meaning. I am continuously working to increase personal/social interactions while maintaining safety with my family and friends.”
Julia Torgersen
Julia has been an instructor in agility at TCOTC for about 12 years. She has volunteered for trials in agility and obedience in many different facets. She worked for a time as Facility Manager and has also volunteered to help with facilities at the club, including updating the agility equipment inventory, ensuring that equipment has been repaired, shoveling, taking out recycling, cleaning when done as a group and may other odds and ends. Julia also regularly gives her own time to help students find a venue they enjoy for competing, and helping them with skills before and after class times. Julia has served on a number of boards and currently serves on the Croix Valley Tracking Club board.
What will Julia bring to TCOTC?
“A fresh outlook, a willingness to promoting working together as a team, knowing that we have pet handlers as well as competitive handlers that both need to be treated with respect and dignity.”