The Fisher Poets Planning Committee
Jon Broderick made the first phone calls in 1997 that resulted in the FisherPoets Gathering so he's been part of the organizing committee since the beginning corresponding with fisherpoets and press, building the schedule and now helping manage the fisherpoets.org web page. A former school teacher, he's been a commercial salmon fisherman since the '70s and, with his family, runs a set net outfit in Bristol Bay each summer.
Doreen Broderick likely didn't know what she was in for when she married a fisherman in 1980 but she's stickin' and stayin' from gillnetting in Southeastern Alaska to setnetting in Bristol Bay. She's a school teacher and coordinates volunteers and runs the Gearshack for the FisherPoets Gathering.
Ned Heavenrich joined the committee in 2012 and, among his contributions, organized the Silent Auction for us. He and his band, the Brownsmead Flats, local favorites, also covered the sound at a couple of venues for the FisherPoets Gathering. Ned's a retired educator who spent 12 younger years fishing the West Coast from Baja to Washington.
Hobe Kytr knows more about the commercial fishing history of the Lower Columbia River than anyone else we know. A former educator at the Columbia River Maritime and director of the Ilwaco Heritage museums, he now works for Salmon For All, advocating for commercial fishing interests on the River. Hobe was instrumental in getting the U.S. Library of Congress to recognize the FisherPoets Gathering as a Local Legacy in 2000.
Florence Sage, long active in the Astoria cultural scene and retired from the Social Sciences faculty at Clatsop Community College, has been on our organizing committee from the beginning. She's kept our books, managed public relations, scheduled program and written a lot of copy for us.
Jay Speakman hosts the Story Circle at the FisherPoets Gathering and has been our venue coordinator on the committee for most of a decade. He's fished commercially in Maine and Alaska. He and his wife Diane own Sesame and Lilies, an interior design shop in Cannon Beach.
Jamie Boyd, our program designer, joined the FisherPoets planning committee in 2012. Jamie has been a part of Astoria's arts community since 2004, as a founding member of Studio 11, a board member of the Astoria Visual Arts and a gallery aid at Clatsop Community College.
Pat Dixon helps manage social media, photography and the fisherpoets.org website. He's curator and web designer of our on-line anthology "In the Tote." Pat, now a professional photographer, is a former educator who gillnetted salmon for twenty years in Cook Inlet, Alaska.
