Children’s Museum selects new slate of officers

The Children’s Museum of St. Johns recently announced to Historic City News its new slate of officers for the 2009-2010 fiscal year.

This core group will lead the organization, which was founded in February of 2007, through the completion of a rigorous strategic planning process and foundational organizational development and fund raising to accomplish the organization’s overarching goal-to become a bricks-and-mortar institution within the next two years.

Susan Connor, a professional fundraiser on hiatus to raise her two young children, steps up into the role as president of CMSJ. “Having been involved with CMSJ from the very beginning as one of the founding committee members and serving last year as vice president, my commitment to getting the job done is stronger than ever,” says Connor, who has a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Southern California and worked for more than 13 years as a fundraiser for major universities. “We have developed a tremendous amount of momentum and enthusiasm and attracted some very strong players to be on our team. We are perfectly poised to accomplish this project within a predictable time frame.”

Ben Platt, CPA, of the St. Augustine accounting firm of Kresge, Platt & Abare, was elected to serve as vice president of the board, which also means he will step into the role as board president for 2010-2011. Platt is a certified public accountant with a master’s degree from the University of Florida and is a managing partner of the firm, regarded one of the top accounting firms in the Northeast Florida area. “Now that we are committed to this project, my wife, my children, and I traveled to three different children museums over this past summer and it was a highlight of our visit to each location. We all enjoyed the experiences we had in these amazing facilities and it made me even more committed to getting this done here in our community,” he said.

The entire slate of officers for 2009-2010 is:

CMSJ Board of Directors Officers
Susan Connor, President
Ben Platt, Vice President
Renee Sickels, Secretary
Sue Lucas, Treasurer
Jennifer Koppman, Immediate Past President