Community 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 gratefully thanks The Barony of All Vermont for the hard work that made the Barony’s 2003 Adornment such a huge success, raising over $1600 to be donated in equal shares to the R.U.1.2? Community Center and to Mountain Pride Media. We encourage you to check out the Barony's next big event on November 1, 2003 at the Quality Inn in Brattleboro, Vermont benefiting the AIDS Project of Southern Vermont.
About 40 of our volunteers and supporters had a wonderful sunny day for our Founders’ Day volunteer appreciation picnic at Lake Dunmore — thank you all for coming. The food was great, the company terrific, and the location beautiful. We especially want to thank Roland Palmer, who, although he has completed his term on the MPM Board as president, remains with us as chair of the fundraising committee. Special thanks also go to Richard Slappey, who recently stepped down as board vice president at the completion of his term.
Warm thanks also to Tina Giangrande for her service as our listserve manager, having recently turned the reins over to Dustin Trotter; to Sandy Reeks for her sometimes stressful duty as Calendar and Classifieds editor; and to Tania Kupczak, our inaugural Operations Manager who may be on another coast, but has volunteered to maintain our web edition from afar.
We are pleased and proud of OITM editor Euan Bear, who earned a 2003 NLGJA (National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association) Excellence in Journalism award in the ñExcellence in writing for Opinion/Editorialî category for her two pieces ñPassing Onî (October 02) and ñMaking a Differenceî (November 02). You can read these award-winning editorials in our online archive at www.mountainpridemedia.org/backiss.htm.
We are also excited to welcome our newest staff member, Michel DuBois, the new Mountain Pride Media Operations Manager. Michel is a native Vermonter, an entrepreneur, and a facilitator with R.U.1.2? in addition to his work with Mountain Pride Media. Please join us in welcoming him.
Finally, we are excited to introduce three new affiliates to our web site: BuyGay.com, GiveAnything.com, and A Different Light Bookstore. A percentage of every sale comes directly back to support Mountain Pride Media. We encourage you to check out our Affiliates page at www.mountainpridemedia.org/mpm/affiliates_mpm/affiliates_mpm.htm. We also have 2004 Vermont Entertainment Books on sale for just $30. Full of discount coupons, they make a great gift for friends, family, or yourself. If you would like to purchase a Vermont Entertainment book please contact Roland Palmer at rfpvt@together.net or 802-383-7679 (weekdays).
Our volunteers are our most important resource — we need you to help us serve the community. We’re looking for distribution volunteers, board members, committee members and project coordinators. You can make a difference!
Sing Your Heart Out!
The Samadhi Singers, Vermont’s only GLBTQ chorus, is looking for new members. We meet every Sunday from 5-7 at Christ Church Presbyterian on the UVM Redstone campus. Please call Alison at 658-5313 for information.
Democracy Project Yields Results
The Gill Foundation's Democracy Project is a non-partisan, non-ideological effort to increase participation in the democratic process. The project's primary goal is to help state-level organizations serving the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community build a voter file of people who support LGBT equality — regardless of their own sexual orientation or gender identity. The multi-year project involves list enhancement and specialized training within selected states to assist LGBT organizations’GOTV (get-out-the-vote) efforts.
The Democracy Project piloted the list enhancement program in seven states in 2002. Those states were New Hampshire, Vermont, Georgia, Florida, Missouri, Colorado, and Oregon. The seven additional states chosen for inclusion in 2003 are Iowa, Ohio, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina and Washington State. The goal is to maximize democratic participation by members of stakeholder organizations and their households.
The Democracy Project held its 2nd annual training session on September 10 in Winooski. Seven Vermont LGBT organizations are participating in the project for the second year. Roland Palmer was elected for the second year as the Vermont State Liaison for the project. Organizations interested in participating in the Democracy Project can contact Roland at rfpvt@together.net or 802-383-7679 (weekdays).
Barony of All VT Adores Adornment
It is now October, and Adornment is over and the final totals for the Barony’s biggest fundraising event of the year are in!
Adornment is a three-day final party of the reigning Monarch, culminating with the crowning of the new Monarch. This year’s Adornment was the most successful of the past three years. About 150 people representing 12 Courts from as far away as Long Beach, CA, Toronto, Canada, south to Lexington, KY and many places in between celebrated with me, Baron II Kristoff, as I stepped down and welcomed Baroness IV Ariel.
The beneficiaries for this year’s event were Mountain Pride Media and RU12? Community Center. It was with great pleasure that I presented each organization a check for $836.35.
This year, a couple of wonderful, unplanned events occurred. First, was meeting a gentleman on Friday evening in the hotel bar, who was impressed enough with what the Barony was doing to make a donation of $500 in cash to be donated to the American Cancer Society. Second was an impromptu auction that occurred when one of the performers wasn’t ready. The item of choice, a $10 stage-prop lamp, raised $400 within ten minutes!
My reign is done. I was very proud to have State Representative Bill Lippert speak at the event. I was also very proud to see tables filled with folks from around Vermont who came to support what we do. It is people like you who make all the difference.
The more people who attend our events, the more money we get to give away! The Barony of All Vermont and Baroness IV Ariel will be hosting Investitures at the Quality Inn in Brattleboro on Saturday, November 1 to benefit Southern Vermont AIDS Project. I hope that many of you will come out and join us!
We also welcome new members to our organization! It is a great way to have some fun, meet new people, be who you want to be, and do something good for others in our state. Gender, sexual preference, or lifestyle makes no difference, all are welcome!
Want A PRIDE Celebration? Volunteer!
The Fall Season in Vermont is approaching quickly which means that planning for next year's Pride will be beginning soon. The only problem is that most of the board member will not be returning this year, leaving Pride in a somewhat desperate situation. We need an influx of new volunteers in order to guarantee that Pride will happen next June.
That is why on Tuesday, October 14th at the McClure Multigenerational Center at 241 N. Winooski Ave. in Burlington at 7pm we will hold our Annual Meeting and encourage new faces to join the committee and maintain the important work that has gone on for 21 years. We encourage anyone with a modicum of interest to come and enjoy some refreshments and an informational session that may enlighten them to the process of putting on a Pride celebration. The work is extremely gratifying and important to our community. For additional information please contact Kenny at 310-9161 or email us at pridevermont@pridevermont.org