Talking with the Assistant Executive Director

Introductory note: We are proud to have Geoffrey McQuilkin as our new Assistant Executive Director. Geoff has been working with the Committee since 1990 in a variety of positions from Intern to Bookstore Manager to his most recent position of Communications Director. In this interview, fellow staff members got a chance to ask both serious and candid questions of our good friend in his new position.

How did you first hear about Mono Lake and the Mono Lake Committee, and how did you first get involved?

I first heard about the Mono Lake Committee when I was ten and I cut the article out of the LA Times that showed the landbridge being blown up to protect the nesting gulls. I remember having it on my wall for years. At some point after that I actually joined the Committee and I remember my parents giving me a Mono Lake poster for Christmas one year. My first trip to the Basin was in 1987. My friends and I wanted to go hiking in Tuolumne Meadows and somehow, amazingly enough, Tioga Pass was open on June 1. We drove up there and it snowed two feet on us so we hiked out and went to Mono Lake instead.

I met the Committee staff for the first time when I was in college and volunteered to work on the Bike-a-thon in 1988.

How long were you pronouncing "Mo-no" as " Ma-no" until someone corrected you?

I’m sure until I first came into the Information Center.

What would you like to see happen in the long term for the Committee?

Well, I think that one of the interesting things about the Committee is that we’ve always been a single-issue group focused on Mono Lake. And of course there are plenty of issues within that, but we’re not trying to find answers for all of the diverse environmental problems out there in the world. That gives us a lot of opportunities to look deeply into the issues at Mono Lake and adapt to the situation as things change here. So I see more education work on our part, but also more sharing of information about Mono Lake with people, and having the Committee be a center for gathering scientific research, writing, people’s experiences, and putting them together on the Website and in our publications, and in the summer programs. I also see us holding on to the political power that comes from being a grassroots membership group. We have to have all those people’s voices ready to stand behind the lake as future problems become clear.

What things are you working on right now that are moving us towards those goals?

Probably the biggest thing has been the Website and all the potential it offers to power a restoration clearinghouse effort. Now I think we’re now at the point where we’ve got the expertise to do some really neat things. No one else is really going to be keeping track of the various restoration reports and information in a centralized way so it’s up to us.

What are your new responsibilities as Assistant Executive Director and how are they different for you and the Committee?

Before I was primarily working on the Newsletter and other communications projects, and while I’ll still be doing some of that, it won’t be as hands-on. Overall, I’m responsible for the operation of the Lee Vining office, where most of our staff are located, and helping Fran where needed. Right now I’m more internally focused on just making sure that the Committee is running efficiently, that our programs are working successfully, that our budget is balanced, and that we’re making the best use of members donations. As the year goes on, and those projects are completed, I hope to see that focus grow outward a bit more.

Describe one of your favorite kinds of days in the Mono Basin.

Summer time, summer days, of course. Living in the Mono Basin has gotten me interested in weather because you can see so much weather, you can see so far, and you can see things coming. Those are great days when you can watch the clouds build up over the lake and turn into an afternoon thunderstorm.

How did you get to be such a nice guy?