Our spring job posting for a new core staff member netted 13 applications, and I spent the better part of a few weeks exclaiming, “I want to hire them all!” We have chosen to hire two people instead of just one for the fall, and we may have to find ways to include more of these other terrific applicants. I felt especially inspired by the number of alumni and former extended staff members who applied, along with a few new folks who knew about North Star from their own research.

Welcome to two returning friends as new Core Staff members for 2022-2023, Joshua Wachtel and Kim Chin-Gibbons. Joshua is a former core staff member, while Kim is a recent alumna.

Joshua was a member of our staff from 2010-2019. During those years, he co-led Band and taught classes called Math: From Counting to Calculus, Rebellions-Heresies-Dreams, Aikido, Music Improv, and many more. He also shared his expertise in Restorative Practices with our staff and helped us improve our conflict-resolution techniques. He enjoyed co-leading Community Meeting.

Outside of North Star, Joshua currently works on Communications for a program called Building a New Reality and runs music and education programs for children in Cummington and Worthington. He is a musician in his own right, most recently with the band Radio Free Earth. Joshua’s renewed availability to North Star comes at an opportune time, and we are all thrilled to welcome Joshua back to the team. We look forward to seeing how his specific classes and tasks fill out as we proceed this summer and fall.

Kim Chin-Gibbons was a member of North Star for four years (2015-2019), during which time she developed her considerable skills in music and photography. After North Star, she moved on to Marlboro College, which merged with Emerson College, where she focused on photography, music, storytelling, and marketing. She was a featured photographer in the This is Me: Portraits of Pathlight exhibition in 2019, and sang at the Newport Folk Festival with Lake Street Dive (through the Institute for the Musical Arts) in 2019. She has been part of several bands (Parlicium, Zoki, North Star Band), and currently performs with Sunset Mission. She has organized events with Laudable Productions and has been a Marketing Specialist with Double Edge Theatre. In her spare time, she has also worked at Downtown Sounds in Northampton. In Spring 2022, Kim won 3rd place in the @sheshreds media challenge by #1RAD. This fall, outside of North Star, Kim will be an apprentice at Healy Guitars. (By the time you read this, Kim will have a slew of new updates. I can’t keep up with her.)

Kim will work with North Star members on music and photography, for sure! She will also support North Star’s social media marketing. Her presence inside the building on a regular basis with her professional eye will improve our promotional efforts. We look forward to seeing what else we can cram into Kim’s time with us in the fall.

Beyond Joshua and Kim, there were several applicants who have much to offer our community, and I would love to find ways to include more of them. The first step to doing so is having our returning members and potential new members register for the fall! We are just opening up that process now. We are expecting to start with around sixty members… but a rush of registrations to sixty-five or seventy members would put us in a position of both needing more staff and having the funds to hire them! Please, register away, and I’ll be back in August with more updates. For now, Congratulations and welcome to Joshua and Kim! We feel fortunate to have them both on our Core Staff.