Variety Experience: Belinda is one of the co-founders for the National Capital Region Tent (11). As such, she helped with all aspects of establishing the new tent including the appropriate paperwork, recruiting Barkers and volunteers, interacting with other tents for suggestions on bike sources and fundraising. She worked with the other founders to establish relationships with doctors and physical therapists in order to connect with the community of children with mobility issues. She chairs the Grants and Giving Committee and is well-known to Variety families as being kind and warm to children and adults alike. Belinda has abundant empathy toward families in need and takes time to make sure they get through the process. She is the first to welcome the children and the last to be ready to leave. According to Belinda, her “favorite function though remains the interaction with our Variety kids. I love meeting them as they are all amazing and they inspire me to work harder to help more kids.”
Professional Experience: Belinda brings extensive knowledge of the theatre industry as well as long-term relationships. Examples of her high-level professional experience in business, government and philanthropy include:
- Serving as the liaison between NATO and its affiliated state and regional movie theatre associations.
- Chairing the NATO Regional Unit Task Force, where leaders of the affiliated associations collaborate with NATO executives to share information and coordinate policy.
- Directing the policies of state and regional movie theatre associations involving state government affairs; manage a strong and visible grassroots network to give movie theatre owners a powerful voice to help develop, advance, and implement local, state, and federal legislative and regulatory objectives that benefit the cinema industry.
- Providing guidance on the establishment of NATO affiliated associations, including strategic planning, membership development campaigns and best practices.
- Organizing and leading an annual affiliated association’s summit, as well as several other annual meetings held at NATO affiliated associations.
- Speaking to the general public and other business enterprises about the movie theatre industry, and provide press relations for the affiliated associations.
- Monitoring, analyzing, and prioritizing state and local legislative and regulatory issues affecting the industry, including ADA, tax initiatives, minimum wage, health care and other industry concern
- Consulting with industry leaders to determine the impact of policy issues on business practices, operational costs and efficiencies, and profitability.
- Developing and executing advocacy strategies to achieve policy objectives through educating public officials and their staff.
- Preparing communications for movie theater owners and operators, including legislative and regulatory updates, magazine columns, newsletters, white papers, and grassroots action alerts.
- Serving on the Brave Beginnings Neonatal Committee, a program of the Will Rogers Motion Pictures Pioneers Foundation
Belinda is very excited to expand her reach beyond Variety DC into the global arena. She is willing to travel to any event, especially where there are children included. She has attended the Variety and Variety International conventions to learn all she possibly can from other Variety volunteers.