Communtiy Compass
Community Compass
Community Compass is a service of OITM. GLBT organizations from around the state are invited to provide briet — 200 words or less — descriptions of recent or upcoming activities and events. Send your submissions to us by email by the 15th of the month.
Cooperative Christian Ministry
Yes, it’s true, we can be GLBT people of faith.
Cooperative Christian Ministry at UVM and Christ Church Presbyterian are co-hosting a Sunday Lunch & Learn Series February 6, 13, 20 & 27, March 5 & 12 from 12-2:30pm featuring The Erotic Comtemplative, a video series that explores the spiritual journey of GLBT Christians.
This is a course of study, challenge, and reflection on the themes "The Truth of Our Experience, Revisioning Sexuality, Exodus and Awakening, The Desert and the Dark, Liberation, and The Road from Emmaus."
Christ Church Presbyterian is located on the UVM Redstone Campus underneath the green water tower. This is free and open to the public. For more information call Rev. Christine Leslie at 656-3882
Mountain Pride Media
Mountain Pride Media would like to thank all our new subscribers to Out In The Mountains and the individual donors who helped us raise the $4,000 needed to match the Samara Foundation of Vermont challenge grant we received in June 1999. We are grateful to the board and executive director of Samara for their continued support of our organization.
We had a wonderful year in 1999, with five new board members joining the organization as well as a new Web editor and designer and a Web consultant and trainer. We also have a whole host of volunteers, new and long-term, who helped make this past year successful.
In 2000, we will continue to keep you connected by enhancing our Web site, continuing the Green Mountain Tour, finishing our partnering projects with Vermont Cares, Outright VT, and the VCLGR, and maintaining the VTPRIDEnet listserv. As Out in the Mountains enters its fifteenth year in publication, you can count on it, as well.
A quick reminder that The Green Mountain Tour will stop in Chittenden and Rutland counties in January. We look forward to meeting you as we travel throughout Vermont to share our goals for 2000 and beyond. This is also a great opportunity for you to let us know what more we could be doing.
Samara Foundation of Vermont
Samara Foundation is planning to hire a halftime Administrative Assistant/Executive Assistant. See our ad in the classifieds of this issue for more details. The Gill Foundation has selected Vermont as one of its Year 2000 InCommunity Training sites, with Samara Foundation selected as the host organization.
Our next granting cycle will begin with a March 1, 2000, deadline for submission of letters of intent. Non-profit organizations with a 501(c)(3) IRS designation are eligible to apply. Applicants are encouraged to contact Samara prior to submitting a letter of intent. Granting guidelines and applications will be available after January 5.
Based upon the letters of intent, the Samara Grants Advisory Committee will invite full grant applications to be postmarked by May 5, 2000. Year 2000 grant awards will be announced at the Vermont Gay Pride celebration in June.
Since the first grant awards in 1998, Samara has granted over $30,000 to ten non-profit organizations serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities throughout Vermont.
Our Scholarship Advisory Panel will be convening in January to formulate guidelines and design an application and selection process for the Year 2000 high school scholarships. If you have an interest in being involved with the Samara Scholarship Advisory Panel, please contact Bill Lippert, Executive Director, P.O. Box 1263, Burlington, VT 05402-1263, 802-860-6236, info@samarafoundation.org.
Theatre on a Shoestring
Theatre on a Shoestring is very excited about the new millennium and is planning some exciting things for the year (see ad in this issue).
In late May or early June, TOAS will present the musical "Side By Side By Sondheim." Auditions will be held in March. We hope that many people turn out to audition for the show as well as many behind-the-scene personnel, i.e., pianist (possibly small stipend), lighting, publicity, etc. The show is tentatively scheduled to benefit Women Helping Battered Women and the Women’s Rape Crisis Center.
TOAS is also looking for a qualified bookkeeper who could volunteer their time for approximately 10 hours a month. If you’re interested in these positions or if you need to contact TOAS, please email us at info@theatreshoe.com. Make sure you visit us online for the most up-to-date information on the Vermont theatre scene at www.theatreshoe.com.
Vermont Freedom to Marry Task Force
Amid the excitement of finally receiving the long-awaited Supreme Court decision and the flurry of activity surrounding it, VFMTF has been extra busy.
Also in December, the Bennington County Chapter of VFMTF held a community potluck and forum on same-gender marriage at the Bennington Free Library. People had many thoughts and questions.
In January, the Chittenden County Chapter will show the Oral Arguments presented to the Vermont Supreme Court (see calendar listings for Jan 26). With all the hyperbole surrounding this issue, this is a good opportunity to hear exactly why the plaintiffs claim same-gender marriage should be allowed, and how the state defended its claim that marriage should be exclusively one man-one woman.
VFMTF received a grant from the Unitarian Universalist Fund for a Just Society. They support organizations that are "working for systemic change leading to a more just society and the empowerment of those who have been excluded from resources and the right to self-determination." Thank you, UU Funding Program!
Our regional groups are getting quite busy. We’re happy to welcome a new regional coordinator, for Orleans County, Mark Violette. Please see "the Source" page for contact information for all our regional coordinators, or contact the VFMTF Coordinator, Dorothy Mammen, 388-2633 or coord@vtfreetomarry.org