Presented below are the nomination statements submitted by each candidate for the Dark Clouds GBC Board of Directors election. The statements occur in the order they were submitted and are unedited. If you purchased a share of the Dark Clouds, you will receive voting instructions via an e-mail sent to the email address you submitted with the purchase.
List of Nominees: (click to read nomination statement)
Teresa Petersen
Aron Marks
Kate Thersleff
Janelle Wilson
Robert Chall
Jake Rueter
Nicholas Bisbee
Abraham Opoti
John Louis
————————————————————
Teresa Peterson
I’d like to help the Dark Clouds maintain their identity through the coming growth and changes. I want to maintain the “clever is better than vulgar” attitude. I’d like to help new people get involved and be a part of this amazing group as we support our team. I want to promote our inclusiveness. I want us to continue to give back to the community.
————————————————————
Aron Marks
I’d like to serve on the board to see how it works and to be more active in the local market. I’m presently an at large board member of the TC Jacks Soccer Club, an LGBTQ allied 501c3. Thank you for your consideration.
————————————————————
Kate Thersleff
I am passionate about soccer in MN and have been a Dark Clouds member and season ticket holder since before the MLS announcement. I want to bring the things I have learned working with other organizations to the Dark Clouds to help us grow in a positive manner. It is necessary to have people who are interested in tackling the non-sexy tasks of: filing official reports, how to properly scale our group and deciding what metrics we will use to help track membership but these are things I am passionate about and have been advocating for for the past year. I would like to start creating easily accessible institutional memory so that we can look back at the long history of soccer supporter-ship in MN and remember it instead of it becoming lost as we grow.
————————————————————
Janelle Wilson
Over the past few years, my stake in keeping this supporter’s group loud and diverse has greatly increased. With my increased stake has come increased involvement in the game-to-game running of tifo and gameday capo duties. I would like to continue that involvement by serving on the Board of Directors and helping to ensure the direction we take in the future is in line with our values as a group and on track to be the loudest and best respected supporters in whatever league we’re in.
————————————————————
Robert Chall
Using my ability to build dynamic interpersonal relationships, manage groups, and actively cultivate grass roots movements I intend to help grow an unrivaled soccer atmosphere in the community that I love. Stemming from my experience as a Game Day Operations Czar I will come prepared with a familiarity of, and an appreciation for the organization and its constituency. I would be honored to elevate my involvement with the Dark Clouds at such a pivotal and exciting time in our history.
If elected, I promise to behave myself at matches – no promises on the bus ride home though 😉
————————————————————
Jake Rueter
Over the past year I have developed a great respect for the way that the Dark Clouds have continued to give back to their community, connected soccer fans to one-another, and supported professional soccer in Minnesota through its many iterations. The next few years will bring rapid growth and change for both the club and for the Dark Clouds. As a recently-joined, active member of the Dark Clouds I will bring a fresh perspective to the board, focused on maintaining the historic strengths of our organization while establishing a climate that welcomes and encourages new Dark Clouds to become engaged members of the organization. My work on the marketing and communications committee has shown me the reach that our organization has when connecting people to service events, social outings, and organized support. I would be grateful for the opportunity to use the lessons I have learned through this work to help guide the organization on a path that welcomes, engages, and empowers new and long-term members alike as part of a culture that does good work and celebrates soccer in our communities.
————————————————————
Nicholas Bisbee
As one of the founders of True North Elite I obviously have a huge passion for our club but also for supporter culture. While it is known that my main focus is creating and fostering the most intense matchday atmosphere, I do have an intense desire to see active support for MNUFC grow in our community as well. Being a board member would help unite our supporters groups and have us continue pulling in the same direction.
————————————————————
Abraham Opoti
I love the Dark Clouds and I want to help ensure that the DCs have a board stocked with people who are deeply invested in the growth of the DCs beyond membership rolls.
————————————————————
John Louis
I have been a proud United season ticket holder for 2 seasons and am a lifelong MN soccer fan. I was active in MN youth soccer growing up and have followed semi-professional and professional soccer in MN throughout my life. My first experience with professional supporter culture was in Portsmouth, England, where I did youth outreach work for Portsmouth FC in the early 2000s. I was amazed by how the football club was so deeply ingrained in the city’s culture and resident’s identity.
I believe I have a lot to contribute as a Dark Clouds board member. I have nonprofit management and community organizing experience. As such, I bring skills and experience in uniting people of diverse backgrounds around a common cause. I’ve organized large-scale community events and currently work in a communications profession.
This is a critical time for all United supporters to band together to support the transition to MLS. We are now entering the “big leagues” of supporter culture. I believe we need to build on the foundations of what the Dark Clouds have already developed and continue to nurture the relationship with the front office and other supporters groups in the Twin Cities and around the state. I am eager to help expand the Dark Clouds community work and match day experience. Thank you for your consideration. We Are United, Never Divided!
————————————————————
(Photo courtesy Jeremy Olson)