Two new names and faces will join the Video Club Board of Directors following the election of Jonathan Williams as President and Lili Green as Secretary at the “Shaping Our Vision” General Meeting on October 19. Two familiar names and faces – Vice President Tom Nash and Treasurer Bob Kulpa – will continue serving when the 2024 slate takes office on January 1. Longtime club Secretary Joan Carman will also continue on the Board in the new position of Hospitality Director.
Steve Carman conducted the election. Winding down his ninth year as President, Steve will remain on the Board in the new position of Past-President, making him available to assist Jonathan as needed.
Well done, Steve! What a lot of growth and change you’ve guided us through!
Jonathan Williams
Originally from Washington, D.C., Jonathan Williams moved to California in 1967. He earned a degree in comparative literature from USC and went on to a career in business, later earning a Master’s in Finance from Cal State LA. He traces his business career through four phases, explaining that his “first career” was in small business management, his second in accounting finance, his third in business consulting, and his fourth in project management. Whew! Let’s hope some of that rubs off on the Video Club.
For the past month, Jonathan has been conducting one-on-one interviews with longtime club leaders. “Our next step,” he says, “will be to bring them together and lay the groundwork for next year, setting priorities and a direction.”
Jonathan and Shahin, his wife of 48 years, moved to Laguna Woods Village last March from Glendora, where they had lived 45 years in the same house. The charm of Laguna Beach beckoned him, and he already knew about the Village because a relative had lived here – but Jonathon acknowledges that the main attraction was “the kids and grandkids.” Two of the couple’s daughters live with their families in Newport Beach. A third daughter lives in Florida.
Above, Jonathon operates a camera during “Seeking Online Adventures” shoot last summer.
Jonathan comes by his lifelong love of cameras naturally, having shared his dad’s hobby of photography, but it was an invitation to create a corporate video from a colleague working at SoCal Edison that ignited his interest in video. “(Making that video) was a fantastic experience,” he recalls.
Since joining the Video Club, Jonathan has become a reliable presence on Video One Productions shoots for the club’s monthly television shows. He served as a camera operator last summer during the shooting of “Seeking Online Adventures,” the club’s fifth Short Dramatic Film, and he has also become active in the Camera Club.
Jonathan and longtime member Sheryl Martin are currently planning the content for a new five-session class, offering “five easy steps to creating your own ‘Living Legacy Video,’” to be held early next year. Sheryl, who now lives in the desert at Thousand Palms, often visits our area and stays active in the club via VidOne Zoom meetings.
Lili Green
Our new club Secretary, Lili Green, is a native Californian who attended a three-room schoolhouse in Camarillo, “back when there were orange trees in Ventura County.” She’s also traveled widely and supported herself as a classical musician and videographer. After studying international relations at UCLA, she moved to New York City, where she studied violin and viola and worked as a freelance performer. She later studied music in Germany, then moved to Italy. Here she met her husband, who worked for state television in Rome. Together they created independent TV productions and short films for state TV. In the 1980s, she also wrote radio scripts and docu-dramas.
Returning to the US, over the past 30 years Lili earned a Master’s in Communications from the University of Iowa (“theoretical stuff,” she explains), and then moved back to Ventura County where she played music for a living. Her next move was to Washington state, where she joined a community orchestra, taught music, and helped start another community orchestra for amateurs and students.
At left, Lili answers questions at the Video Club table during the 2023 Village Clubs Expo in May.
In 2022, Lili left her home on the Olympic Peninsula (where, as they say, “you can’t get any more northwest”). She was looking for a “creative environment” and she decided on Laguna Woods Village. Her mother’s aunt had lived here years ago, and she was familiar with the Rossmore approach to retirement. As a member of the Video Club, Lili has been making videos and serving as a Tuesday Lab Supervisor. She’s also attending the Democratic Club, working out in a Village fitness center, and taking an Emeritus class in creative writing.
We’re not sure how creative our meeting minutes will be – but Lili is definitely up to the task!
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