Despite board exodus, VOIS alliance plans to continue

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Sattie Clark, founder and president of the VOIS alliance, said the business group will continue despite the en masse departure of its board of directors. 

The Voice for Oregon Innovation and Sustainability —VOIS — alliance, a chamber of commerce and policy advocate organization for sustainable businesses, saw the resignation of its entire board of directors this week, including a new executive director.

Sattie Clark, VOIS's founder and president, said she is working with advisers to build a new board of directors and continue to move the organization forward.

"Now more than ever it is time to focus on our key priorities: buying and banking locally, developing the ethic of social entrepreneurship and advancing policy platforms that advance sustainability," Clark, who is also owner of sustainable lighting fixture manufacturer Eleek, wrote in an email sent Friday to VOIS members and sponsors.

Friday's email struck a decidedly different tone than one sent by Clark to the VOIS community on Wednesday. In that message, she asked for support in the face of what was portrayed as a coup attempt.

"Unfortunately, it falls to me to let you know that the VOIS board is trying to force me out of the role of president and off the board completely for no good reason with no public discussion," Clark wrote in the email.

Clark asked her supporters to contact board members in her support and provided emails for Tom Osdoba, a consultant and former director of the Center for Sustainable Business Practices at the Lundquist College of Business at the University of Oregon; Laura Weiss, founder of the startup GoBox; Mickey Lee, strategic director of Carbon Concierge; Karen Wolfgang, owner of Independence Gardens LLC; Chris Dennett, a manager at The Regence Group; and Kristen Connor, vice president of Capital Pacific Bank.