Meet Jim Clark
When did you start volunteering with NPO?
October 2019
Tell us a little about yourself.
Computers have always fascinated me and I started programming over 35 years ago on an Atari 400 and currently work as a network/systems administrator. Volunteering is important to me and this is my second year helping to teach computer science to high school students in Lake Stevens, WA as a Microsoft TEALS volunteer.
Since 2009 I have also been a volunteer for the Citizen's Wildlife Monitoring Project and maintain wildlife cameras year round deep in the Cascade Mountains that have documented wolverines, wolves, and other rare and amazing wildlife. For the past decade, I've also been a 50/50 shared parenting father to two children now ages 17 and 15.
What inspired you to get involved with NPO?
Parents need resources and help to understand our family law court system. Fair and equal treatment of parents in divorce and subsequent custody and child support hearings is vitally needed and is what is truly in the child's best interest. Parents need equally protected access to their child(ren) and every child needs equally protected access to their parents.
My personal goal is to reform our courts so that equality is the starting point for all court orders instead of most restrictive, extreme, and one sided custody and child support orders that are so damaging to families.
What is your position in your NPO chapter and what are some of your duties?
What are some lessons you've learned from your volunteer work?
Change takes time. Our efforts and the things we do today often takes a lot of time to take root and sprout. The political process for legislative change is complex and understanding how to be effective is vital to helping other parents sooner than later
What advice would you give to volunteers working toward family law reform?
Since family law court reform is the goal, try to think strategically about how to get a bill across the finish line. Here in Washington, we generally have decent bills introduced by the issue is getting committee hearings and moving bills forward.
What is the political process and who is making the decisions? What is needed to motivate them to act? What resources are available to get (credentialed) people to committee hearings on short notice when progress does happen to ensure shared parenting bills pass?
For parents, what resources can we provide them to help them understand the family law process? How do we keep everyone involved so when progress clicks forward, we are all ready to act? Finally, what can you do to help such as write editorials, contact legislators, help with web site tasks, Facebook posts, etc.?
