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Alabama Appleseed is affiliated with the national network of Appleseed Centers located throughout North America. Appleseed was founded in 1994 with the mission to develop and help sustain a network of state advocacy centers that address local issues and develop and promote practical, systemic solutions. Each state center operates independently with its own board of directors and sets its own advocacy agenda. Appleseed offers the state centers support in developing its organizational structure and processes and in a limited way with identifying national funding sources. Although new state centers receive some financial support from Appleseed during the first three years, it is the responsibility of each state center to develop and implement its own fundraising plan and to secure funding for its operations and advocacy projects. The organizing Board of Directors for Alabama Appleseed was brought together in 1999 and has been functioning since that date. The organizing Board consisted of a number of prominent and well-known Alabamians, including former Governor Albert P. Brewer, J. Mason Davis, former Chief Justice C.C. Tolbert, Jr., former Supreme Court Justice Janie L. Shores, and Dean Kenneth C. Randall of the University of Alabama School of Law. We now have a diverse and distinguished eighteen member Board of Directors from around the state, representing the legal, business, academic and non-profit communities. Birmingham attorney A.H. "Nick" Gaede, Jr., Vice President and General Counsel of BE&K, Inc., has been the Chairman of the Board since 2001. |