Communtiy Compass
Community Compass is a service of OITM. GLBT organizations from around the state are invited to provide brief — 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.
Mountain Pride Media
Mountain Pride Media is excited about this new year and hope you are, too. We start our year with a goodbye. Barb Dozetos, OITM editor for more than two years, is leaving to pursue other amazing opportunities. This is Barb’s final issue, and board, staff, and volunteers extend our heartfelt thanks and best wishes for the future. OITM would not be the paper it is today without her hard work and dedication. We will miss her very much.
Last month, MPM launched its redesigned Web site at mountainpridemedia.org. Please take some time to check it out if you haven’t done so already. We are extremely excited about our new Shopping Section, which allows you to “give” twice. Every purchase made through one of our affiliate merchants results in a donation to MPM. So when you need to buy a gift for someone, you automatically give a gift to us at no further charge. We have many other exciting plans for our site in 2001, and look forward to finding more ways to connect us.
MPM would like to thank Bennett, Carrie, Kevin, Tage, Elizabeth, Denny, Euan, and Jim for stopping in to help with the Nov. stuffing. Our Jan. Stuffing is scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 25, from 5(ish) to 8(ish) at our office in Richmond (above the Daily Bread). Come out and help get Out In The Mountains out into the community. We still need a volunteer to deliver packaged copies of OITM to the Richmond Post Office the day after the stuffing. If you’re interested in helping with the stuffing in any way, email us at distribution@mountainpridemedia.org.
MPM would like to thank everyone who responded to our year-end appeal, renewed a subscription, or gave a gift subscription for the holidays. We, like other non-profits serving Vermont’s GLBTQ community, depend on the financial support of individual community members. If you didn’t give or subscribe, it is never too late. Your investment not only helps us, but helps support our community.
NLGJA New England
The New England Chapter of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association will be meeting on Jan. 7 in Fayston. We’ll ski and otherwise make use of the snow and beautiful scenery in the afternoon and hold a business meeting starting at 4:00 pm.
Anyone interested in getting to know more about the organization is welcome. For more information, contact Barbara Dozetos at bgdoze@aol.com or 388-8298. Information about the national organization is available at www.nlgja.org.
Pride Vermont
Pride VT will be having two meetings this month for the planning of Pride 2001 on Tuesday, Jan. 9 and Monday, Jan. 22. Both are open to the community, as we look forward to feedback, fresh ideas, and increasing enthusiasm for this year’s upcoming festivities. The meetings are from 7 to 9pm at the McClure Multi-Generational Center, 241 N. Winooski Ave, Burlington. For more information on how to become involved with Pride VT, please call Brian Cina at 859-9238 or Eric Cross at 658-0061.
Samara Foundation of Vermont
Samara has established its Year 2001 granting cycle deadlines. Samara grant applications begin with a Letter of Intent postmarked no later than March 1, 2001. By April 6, the Samara Grants Advisory Committee Following will review letters and ask selected organizations to submit full applications for further competition. Completed applications must be postmarked by May 7. Awards are announced in June.
Guidelines, application information, and downloadable grant applications will be available in Jan. at samarafoundation.org. Samara’s Web site will also list and link to past Samara grant recipients.
Samara Scholarships for Year 2001 will be processed through the Vermont Student Assistance Corporation. Scholarships are listed in VSAC’s Scholarships (for the College Year 2001-2002). (Call (800) 642-3177 for copies.) Information will be appear at samarafoundation.org, along with a link to VSAC’s Web site, vsac.org. Applications must be postmarked by March 25, 2001.
Representatives from the growing national network of GLBT community foundations gathered in San Diego in October to share best practices and ideas for growing philanthropy within the GLBT communities. Board members Linda Markin, Howard Russell, and Eileen Blackwood and Executive Director Bill Lippert, represented Samara.
Through a Chicago Resource Center grant, the network will be establishing a national Web site to serve as a central resource for GLBT foundations. The joint site will also include links to the 15 individual GLBT community foundation sites.
Bill Lippert recently presented a workshop at OutGiving 2000, Gill Foundation’s annual national donor’s conference. With Nancy Cunningham of the Working Group on Funding Lesbian and Gay Issues and donors from Horizons Foundation San Francisco, he outlined how donors add tangible and intangible benefits to their communities when they use GLBT community foundations for their charitable giving. In closing, Lippert encouraged attendees to find ways to support GLBT communities emerging in small centers across the country.
Four new Board members recently joined the Samara Board of Directors: John Crane, White River Junction; Bart Evans, Brattleboro; Nancy Wasserman, Montpelier; and Richard Wizansky, Guilford. Samara’s board continues its commitment to gender parity and to expand its board throughout the state.
Vermont CARES
We will be holding volunteer and peer outreach trainings in the Burlington area in January. For further information about opportunities and trainings, call Tim Harvey at 800-649-2437.
Through training, thought, and compassion, volunteers help Vermont CARES achieve its mission and provide services that otherwise would not exist. There are many ways to volunteer, and training is an essential step. In the trainings, we cover information about the agency, the basics of HIV transmission, confidentiality, and boundaries. The next Core Volunteer Training will take place in Burlington, January 29 and 31 from 5:30-8:30pm.
Are you good at talking to your friends, family and neighbors? Vermont CARES’ Peer Outreach Program uses these natural relationships to educate and pass on prevention information to your natural community. The premise of peer outreach is that most of us learn the difficult, uncomfortable, or private stuff in life best from someone with whom we feel comfortable. To learn about HIV in high school health class is one thing; to have your roommate in college show you exactly how to use a condom or give you a bunch of condoms is a whole other thing.
The full training series is 10 hours and helps you (casually and confidentially) educate and support friends and family about HIV. The next Peer Outreach training includes the training dates above, plus February 5 from 4:30-8:30pm.
Vermont Freedom to Marry Task Force
As we look forward to a new year, it also pays to look back to acknowledge the work we have done and the gains we have made since the Baker decision just one year ago on December 20, 1999. VFMTF wants to express an enormous public thank you to the many volunteers and donors whose collective efforts brought us so far toward equal legal treatment for same-gender couples this year. Literally thousands of you contributed your time, energy and money.
It’s not over; there is backlash and still a lot of work to do. But we have taken a giant step forward in social justice. We offer each and every one of you our most heartfelt thanks. This historical advance could not have happened without you.