By Saundra Keyes
Advertiser Editor

Over the next few months, you'll see The Advertiser campaign aggressively for increased voter participation in this year's elections.

As we gear up for that effort, I'm puzzling over the contrast between Hawai'i's low voting rate (the nation's worst) and the outpouring of citizen commitment we've found through inviting readers to join our editorial board.

The invitation, issued as we wrap up our first year of reader participation on the board, drew a flood of mail from volunteers whose life experience and community involvement inspire confidence in Hawai'i's future.

One volunteer, retired from the Marines and the Secret Service, wrote that he "loves to travel, but thinks that Hawai'i is the Greatest Place on Planet Earth and wants to keep it that way and improve it in every way possible."

Another, born in the Manzanar relocation camp during World War II, wrote, "Hawai'i is a place I 'learned' to love. This learning has taken me down many paths and given me perspectives and insight that I can share."

And another, who works for AIDS awareness, wrote simply : "I believe in community service."

As was true last year, our volunteers range from lifelong residents to recent arrivals. And once again, they offer a fascinating mix of experience and interests.

They include several graduate students, entrepreneurs, a fire captain, and teachers from public and private schools and universities. We also heard from an ecology professor who has lived in Alaska, Ecuador, Peru, South Africa and Costa Rica; a Punahou graduate whose company does government security work; a trial attorney with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; and a senior analyst for CINCPAC.

Volunteers include retirees from the military (a rear admiral as well as several who were enlisted), the National Security Agency, education, healthcare and a variety of other businesses.

One volunteer is home-schooling five children. Another, a semi-retired surgeon, does charity medical work in the South Pacific — one of the many forms of pro-bono service our readers described.

Volunteers also span the political spectrum. For example, one worked on this year's state Republican Platform Committee, another is a lifelong Democrat and another described himself as Libertarian.

As in the past, readers gave varied reasons for wanting to serve on the board.

One applied because he often disagrees with us and wants to set us straight. Another said "thoughtful, probing discussions with knowledgeable people concerned about our community

and our state" would be a welcome break from her solo law practice.

Many described themselves as news junkies, and most said they want the opportunity to make a difference.

"We do live on an island that seems to resist change with a passion," wrote one volunteer. "I'd like to see that changed."

Selecting participants from such an impressive group is excruciating: We want to invite everyone who wrote us, but must limit each panel's size to allow meaningful participation in discussion.

For the next rotation, which begins in July, we've invited six volunteers whose schedules allow them only to serve in the summer.

We'll continue inviting others, from both this batch of volunteers and those who wrote us in 2001, throughout the next year.

We can't wait to meet our new board colleagues. Among other things, we hope they'll help us focus on ways to increase that dismal voter participation rate.

This week we'll be saying good-bye to the volunteers who sat with the board in May and June. Besides helping us clarify positions on a range of issues, they were invaluable in helping us shape the process we will use in determining this year's election endorsements.

The volunteers were:

• Caroll Han, a retired history teacher with a strong interest in growth and development issues.
• Deborah M. Ching, principal in Ching Consulting, a marketing strategy and implementation firm, and vice chairwoman of the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services.
• Joanne Lundstrom, executive director and CEO of Mental Health Kokua.
• Rose Pfund, retired associate director of the Sea Grant program at the University of Hawai'i and organizer of the Asian Women's Caucus for the United Methodist Church.
• Michael Reilly, group pension resource manager for the Honolulu office of Guardian Life Insurance Co. of America.
• Richard "Dick" Rowland, president of the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, a "public policy think tank."