Historical Commission Chairman Nears End Of Second Term
Falmouth’s Historical Commission is preparing for a reorganization of its board in summer 2022.
Chairman Edward J. Haddad is currently serving his second five-year term, which will expire in June 2022. Town bylaws limit members of volunteer committees to two consecutive five-year terms. However, after leaving a committee due to term limits, candidates are eligible to return to the same committee after one year has lapsed should they choose to do so.
“As of right now, I would say yes, I would come back because I really enjoy doing it and I think what we do is valuable to the town,” Mr. Haddad said. “It works out well. I do a lot for the board because I’m retired, because I have a lot of institutional knowledge, so it’s actually easy for me to do a lot of this stuff. That’s why I don’t mind doing it. I don’t mind being the chairman, not because I want to be the boss but because it’s easy for me to do it. Most of the other board members work, they have young families, and it would be a lot harder for them. For me it’s easy to do so I don’t mind doing it.”
Mr. Haddad joined the Falmouth Historic District Commission in 2006 when it was a regulatory board that was separate from the historic commission. He served as chairman of the Historic District Commission during the merging of the two boards and was appointed chairman of the new historical commission that serves Falmouth today by the select board in 2012. Mr. Haddad has served as chairman ever since, bringing his tenure to a total of 16 years at the end of his term next June.
Prior to his retirement, Mr. Haddad worked at New Balance Athletic Shoe and served as their vice president of Intellectual Properties and Licensed Products. He did contract work around the globe, which included the management of trademarks, patents, and counterfeit control. When he and his family bought what initially started as a weekend house in Falmouth in 2004, he quickly fell in love with the town and was looking for ways to get more involved. He soon saw parallels between his career at New Balance and the function of the historical commission.
“To me, doing the historic district has very similar things, because it’s images and trademarks,” Mr. Haddad said. “It’s the enforcement of trademarks to ensure consistency and a brand image. [My work] seemed similar to what they were doing with the historic districts, because it’s all about image and branding. The two seemed very similar to me, and that’s why I was attracted to that. It was something I knew.”
With Mr. Haddad’s imminent absence now less than one year away, the historical commission is working to reorganize to fill the hole the chairman will leave behind. One suggestion raised by board members was the idea of having two co-chairmen, as opposed to one chairman, supported by a vice-chairman. Current vice-chairman Christian Valle said that if two co-chairmen positions were created, he would be more interested in filling one of those positions rather than taking on the sole role of chairman.
“I think we should look into co-chairs,” Mr. Valle said. “I’d be happy to take it on but it will be different. I will be relying on my board members a lot more.”
The other option for reorganization would be to choose a new chairman sooner rather than later, which would allow that individual time to shadow Mr. Haddad and learn the ropes from him before he departs the commission next June.
Mr. Haddad, who lives off-Cape during the winters and travels to Falmouth for meetings, said that he thinks the best tactic would be the latter.
“I don’t know the real benefit of [co-chairs],” he said. “Maybe if it was a very large committee, that might work, if people are absent a lot. But we’re regulatory, so for the most part, most people make the meetings. If I couldn’t make it, for example, we have a vice-chairman and he can take over. I don’t see the benefit of a co-chair, I don’t quite understand what the difference or the benefit would be as opposed to what we do right now.”
Although the board expressed half-jokingly a wish to petition for Mr. Haddad to stay, the only viable option is to find at least one person to take over the role of chairman who can work as hard as their predecessor.
“My only hope is that whenever I go off the board because I’ve been doing this for so long, is that the board just continues running exactly the same with that same commitment. They’re going to have to step up because I did a lot of the stuff for them because I was able to because I had the time,” Mr. Haddad said. “I was able to do a lot of things behind the scenes that they never even really knew about because I just handled it. That’s probably going to be their biggest challenge when I leave the board. We have a great board, they’re really dedicated, they really have committed to what our mission is and what we’re doing and they believe in it. And that’s important, you have to believe in what we’re doing and they do.”