2022 Reston Association Board Election: Meet Glenn Small

Voting in the 2022 Reston Association Board of Directors election will run from March 1 through April 1. This week, we will begin posting profiles on each of the candidates. The complete election schedule is available online. All races are uncontested, but a 10 percent quorum must be met.

Featured here is Glenn Small, who is running for an at-large seat. The profiles are in a Q-and-A format. With the exception of minor formatting edits, profiles are published in unedited form. Each candidate had an opportunity to answer the same questions in their own words. 

How long have you lived in Reston? What brought you here?
I have lived in Reston since 2007, the year my wife and I got married and bought a home here. My wife grew up in Reston and teaches at South Lakes High School. Even before we bought our home, we enjoyed the pools, tennis courts and trails of Reston.

What inspired you to run for the board? (Note: If you are currently on the board or have held a previous position on the board, emphasize why you are running again). 

I suppose the idea for running and potentially serving on the RA Board had been brewing for some time, with just the thought that the RA Board has a tough job with many new and ongoing challenges and serving on the Board is a way of giving back to this great community. I decided to run after seeing that it looked like there was a need for qualified candidates this election cycle.

What are three of the biggest concerns you have for Reston?

My concerns align with my goals which include: 1) Understanding the fiscal challenges of RA and working to help address them, such as aging infrastructure; 2) Promoting outreach and transparency to our membership, seeking to engage and involve more of our members in using and benefiting from RA and Reston but also in serving the community; 3) Identifying ways to protect recreational and open space.

If elected, I will bring an experienced, common-sense approach, first seeking to understand more deeply how RA operates, and then identifying ways to be helpful while respecting others and looking for ways to involve and include the most perspectives to help drive us to better decisions and better plans that will serve all of us.

What do you hope to accomplish by being on the board?

My overall goal is to get immersed in the board to understand more specifically what the current and future challenges are and then to be a voice for helping to address those challenges. The more we involve people and a diversity of perspectives in our problem-solving approaches, the better and more sustainable will be our solutions. That’s the kind of mindset and approach I would bring to serving on the board.

How will your personal or professional experience help you in your role with RA?

As a consulting executive and business owner, I work with non-profit universities and colleges to help them achieve transformational change in rethinking and reimplementing systems and processes to serve their constituents. As an RA Board member, I would bring the skills and perspectives of improving operations and identifying and resolving our toughest challenges, keeping our members’ interests top of mind. My approach will be active and engaged, always seeking to understand and address our members concerns.

Photo via Glenn Small