Continuing DTC’s holiday tradition, we “adopted” a family that is less fortunate than ourselves through the United Way.  The family submitted a wish list and DTC lawyers and staff members delivered!!  Gift tags were distributed throughout our Exeter, Portsmouth and Meredith offices.  We are happy to be a part of making Christmas more enjoyable for this family.

For more information on how you can adopt a family or volunteer through the United Way click here: www.uwgs.org

The Jimmy Fund has partnered with Coinstar to fundraise for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.  DTC staff and attorneys donated their spare change and collected $84.42.

Coinstar and its “Coins that Count” program are helping to support lifesaving research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.  You too can help the Jimmy Fund and donate your spare change today.  Visit a Coinstar machine to donate to the Jimmy Fund or a charity of your choice.

For more information and to learn more about Coinstar visit https://www.coinstar.com/donatecoins

On Saturday, March 2, 2013, Attorney Jessica Ecker and her husband Sonny, along with a number of other members of Seacoast Kiwanis club and UNH Key Club volunteered their Saturday evening to make and serve concessions at the UNH/UMass Hockey Game. The hard work put in by the volunteers makes money for the club in the form of a portion of the concessions sold and 100% of any hard-earned tips. Those dollars turn into scholarships for local well-deserving children, as well as contributions to other organizations in need such as The Salvation Army, NH Special Olympics, NH SPCA, Seacoast Family YMCA, Pease Greeters, Maine Children’s Cancer, Camp Sunshine, and NH Public TV. The night ended on a high note as UNH shut out UMass 4-0!

Katherine B. Miller, Esq., is stepping down in March 2013 when her term on the Exeter Regional Cooperative (“Coop”) School District Board ends. “I have served for eight years on school boards: six years on the Exeter Elementary School Board and three years on the Coop Board. They have been wonderful years, and I have the highest respect for my fellow Board members and the administrators who run our schools, but it is time to retire from that service,” she says.

For astute individuals who do the math, six and three add up to nine years of school board service, not eight. Responds Kate: “For one year, I served on both Boards. That was a lot of night meetings!” Kate has been involved in the hiring of the current Superintendent, Michael Morgan, the Main Street School Principal, Steven Adler, the principal of the Cooperative Middle School, William Furbush, and, most recently, the new principal at Exeter High School, Sean Kiley. Speaking of those hires, Kate comments, “I am incredibly proud of what we have accomplished in SAU 16 over the past eight years. I firmly believe that we have, overall, the strongest team of administrators since I became involved with the schools, when my oldest child began second grade. He is now a junior in college! We are fortunate as a community to have excellent schools and dedicated administrators, teachers and staff. By the same token, these educators are blessed to work in districts that support these schools. In the end, the children are the winners, and so are we. Our local economy will grow stronger, the more effectively we educate our youth.”

As to why she is stepping down, Kate responds: “My term on the Coop Board ends in March. Because of work obligations in the evenings with non-profit boards and municipal select boards and city councils, I am finding it challenging to make time for the demanding schedule of school board meetings. I also have two teenaged daughters at home, and it is important to be there, too.

Although she is not seeking reelection to the Coop School Board, Kate is not retiring from elected office altogether. She is seeking election as Moderator of the Coop School District, a position held for fifteen years by DTC partner, Charlie Tucker. Says Kate, “I would like to continue to contribute to our community and to our excellent schools. As Moderator, I would preside over the deliberative session of the Coop School District Meeting each February and the balloting session each March. If elected, I pledge to do my best to run these meetings in a fair manner, following the excellent record Charlie left after fifteen years.”

Charles Tucker Will Not Seek Re-election after 24 years as Exeter Town Moderator and 15 years as Moderator of the Exeter Region Cooperative School District.

Here are a few words from Charlie on his experiences:

“I have thoroughly enjoyed this civic endeavor. When I began, we were operating under the traditional form of Town Meeting, where all was done at one long Saturday session, or, sometimes, several evenings in a row.

We then transformed into the SB 2 form of local government, and we adjusted. During this time we went from the old lever action mechanical voting machines, to paper ballots read by hand for one year, to paper ballots read by machine.

If I did a good job, I owe it largely to Everett Holland, who was the Town Moderator before me, and who I watched at Town Meetings from 1972 until his retirement. He ran a very efficient and fair Town Meeting, and was a great teacher by example. He gave me a 1915 copy of Robert’s Rules of Order, which has been passed on from Moderator to Moderator, upon my election, with the advice to never open it! He said that two rules were enough: only one amendment on the floor at a time, and, be as fair as you can be.

As important, and as enjoyable, is the Moderator’s role in “running” the voting process for every election. Fortunately I had Linda Hartson, and now Andrea Kohler, as Exeter Town Clerks, who both very efficiently organized the election process. I was more of a figurehead, than a director, of what went on, but wore my best dark suit so as to project some semblance of authority when our procedures were questioned by the voters – one citizen sincerely believed that our vote counting machines could be manipulated by evil people using electronic devices from the parking lot, for example, and, at the primaries the lack of education in civics was always apparent among registered Republicans who wanted to vote in the Democratic primary, and vice versa. Calming them down was my job.

The biggest, and most memorable, meeting was my first meeting as Moderator of the Exeter Region Cooperative School District where the main issue was voting to build the Cooperative Middle School, in Stratham. The meeting was held in the PEA field house, as the biggest room in town at the time, and there were over 2000 citizens, plus teachers, students, and others, in attendance. The meeting went very well, and the vote, although close, was over the 2/3 majority needed to pass, and the school is now a reality.

I will certainly assist my successors in any way I can, and will miss doing this civic duty. I hope to continue to serve Exeter in lesser roles in years to come.”