David has been a professional marketer, political campaign strategist, volunteer fundraiser and community volunteer his entire adult life. He believe that volunteering within the community builds even stronger communities.
David began his first political volunteer efforts on a Congressional campaign in his teens and went on to manage races for several members of the US House of Representatives. He honed his technique in campaign management during the "wave" election of 1994 and has participated in several races since then for LGBT and LGBT friendly candidates for political office.
In his professional career, he has worked as a direct mail fundraising consultant for progressive causes and on a pro bono basis was responsible for the launch of the direct mail fundraising program for the national P-FLAG organization.
Later in his career, David became a marketer in the financial services industry where he specialized in business-to-business marketing for Barclays Global Investors, a subsidiary of the British bank.
David also served on the Victory Campaign Board of the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund. Within Palm Springs, and was one of the lead organizers of the citizen activist group that successfully campaigned to tear down the Magruder eyesore at the corner of Mesquite and Palm Canyon.
Reason for co-founding VRON-PS:
We are a community that depends on tourism and gracious hospitality extended to our tourists is key to our city's vibrancy and success. I believe there are collaborative solutions to virtually any political or social problem. However, I believe our elected officials have opted for punitive approaches rather than collaborative ones. We should foster communications, compromise and conciliation. Instead, what I see is a commitment to citations rather than collaboration and cooperation. That saddens me and I want to do something about it.
Moreover, the opponents of vacation rentals in Palm Springs have painted an inaccurate picture of the VR debate as one that is about local residents vs. "outsiders." Like many issues in the public domain, the truth is more complicated. Although not all vacation rental people are full time (nor are all the opponents of VRs), vacation rental owners represent a mix of full time residents, part-timers like myself who are enmeshed in the community, part-timers who have purchased property in Palm Springs with the intent of retiring here some day and a very few who have little connection to thecity. That's the truth and I want to start educating everyone about who is really part of the VR community. The notion that VR's are dominated by "outsiders" is false.
We look much like any other vacation community that has a mix of full time and part time residents. So, let's start working together, acknowledging the good intentions of virtually every resident and homeowner. Let's stop vilifying members of our community who experience and participate in Palm Springs in the many different ways that enables our community to prosper.
