Vermont Gay Social Alternatives » News

Gayme Night Change

VGSA — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 15:19:01 +0000

The Gayme night scheduled on Jan 29th will be hosted by John and Randy in Colchester, not by Scott and Paul as listed in the newsletter. Thank’s guys, for helping out on short notice.

Cross-country Skiing • Jan 2nd

VGSA — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 14:58:16 +0000

Cross-country Skiing in Huntington: Saturday, January 2, 2010

Meet at 10:30 a.m. at the Sleepy Hollow Inn in Huntington. Bring water and snacks. Beginner and intermediate skiers welcome. Trail fee of $15. Equipment rental available for $20. Call Lew Lasher, 253-8969, or send e-mail to Lew.Lasher@verizon.net, for directions.

Annual Meeting & Thanksgiving Dinner

VGSA — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:22:20 +0000

This year we will be gathering on Saturday, November 14th, 6pm for our annual Potluck Thanksgiving Dinner, followed by a brief annual meeting. We are gathering in a new spot: The Great Room and
Atrium of Main Street Landing, 60 Lake St. in Burlington.

Steering Committee Members will be providing the ham and turkey, and we ask that you bring all the fixings, including your beverage of choice.

A few things to keep in mind:

There are no kitchen facilities, so please bring your dish ready to serve
Please bring your own serving utensils
There will be door prizes– 2 tickets to NYE, and 2 tickets to our Pride Cruise
During the brief meeting, the recipient of the Real Masson Founders Award will be announced

Hope to see you there!

A John Waters Christmas

VGSA — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:09:56 +0000

Thu, Dec-10, 2009 at 7:30 pm • VGSA Members Save 15%

Like a wayward Santa for the Christmas-obsessed, legendary filmmaker and raconteur John Waters (Pink Flamingos, Hairspray, Female Trouble) rides into town this December spreading yuletide cheer with his critically acclaimed one-man show.

The Flynn Theatre is offering a 15% discount to VGSA members. Simply purchase your tickets at the box office or by phone, and let the agent know you are a VGSA member.

More information…

Movie Night, Friday Oct-23 at 7:30pm

VGSA — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:05:09 +0000

In the October newsletter, Movie Night is listed as starting at both 6:30 and 7:30, at Scott and Paul’s place in Underhill. The correct time is 7:30, but it’s fine if you want to show up early. There is plenty of firewood to be stacked.

Looking Forward: The Sept Planning Meeting (Part 1)

VGSA — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:09:18 +0000

In late September, 18-20 VGSA members gathered in response to our open invitation at Burlington’s New Moon Cafe. Our purpose: to begin a constructive, critical discussion of VGSA’s mission, role, goals and membership model. The steering committee will use this discussion as a starting place to establish organizational goals for 2010 and to help VGSA remain valuable for its members and our community.

Over the next few months, I’ll be sharing a summary of our discussion, which was structured around six key questions. In the coming year, the steering committee will keep you informed of the goals and plans that grow from this process as we continue to look forward. And remember: if you’d like to take a more active role in VGSA leadership, the steering committee welcomes you to come to our monthly meetings to learn how you can best contribute.

The planning meeting was intended to create open discussion around some important questions, to identify VGSA’s strengths and challenges, and to gather feedback from interested members. It was not a forum for making decisions. We began with a look at our mission: the purpose of VGSA is “to provide occasions for gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals to meet in comfortable, non-threatening social surroundings.”

This generated some lively discussion in itself. We observed that on one-hand, the mission is not as inclusive as one might expect: it does not mention transgender people, for example. On the other hand, it describes a membership community that is more idealized than realistic: most of our members are gay men from Chittenden county. There was general agreement that the mission is due for a review, and this will likely be a significant part of the steering committee’s long-range planning for 2010. We’ll need to consider the question of outreach, and whether our mission could better reflect who we actually are. An important part of this process will be to recognize the organization’s strengths and consider the pros and cons of focusing on what we do best.

Next month I’ll share what we discussed around these two questions: (1) As an organization, what does VGSA do very well? Where do we shine?; and (2) What does VGSA offer beyond other social outlets or social networking tools (i.e. Facebook)?

Renewing for 2010

VGSA — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:52:05 +0000

Just a reminder that VGSA is moving to a simpler schedule for membership renewals. Instead of tracking renewals based on members’ anniversary dates, we’ll all be renewing together at the start of each calendar year. We’ll send out 2010 renewal reminders in December, and you’ll be able to by mail using a check or online at www.vgsa.com/renew.

But I just renewed a few months ago, didn’t I? As part of our transition to this new schedule, we pro-rated renewal fees in 2009. If you renewed part way through the year, your renewal fee was reduced to cover the remainder of the year. This way, you avoid paying any double fees.

Thanks for bearing with us during this transition. We believe it will be well worth the effort.

Champlain Valley Rainbow Squares Open Dance Nights

VGSA — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 19:43:25 +0000

Champlain Valley Rainbow Squares, Vermont’s GLBT square dance club, is beginning their second year and has open classes coming up. This gives people the opportunity to discover the fun of square dancing. Classes are open to everyone, G, L, B, T or straight. A dance partner is not needed.

The open nights are:

Wed September 23rd, 7-9 pm
Wed September 30th, 7-9 pm
Wed October 7th, 7-9 pm

They are dancing at Shelburne Commons (Building D), 4066 Shelburne Rd, Shelburne VT

See www.cvrainbowsquares.org for more details.

Bonfire postponed until Saturday night 7/18/09

jimnelson — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 22:19:53 +0000

Due to weather. The Bonfire at Jim and Kevin’s is postponed until tomorrow night, Saturday 7/18/09. Contact Jim Nelson for more information 434-5543, 318-5456, jrnelson@gmavt.net

More Camping Planned

VGSA — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 15:39:46 +0000

Bill Knight has added a couple more weekends to his VGSA-Invited Camping Trips.

In addition to the August 14-17 dates in the Adirondacks, he is also going to be camping at Branbury State Park near Middlebury on the weekend of June 26-28. They will be hiking to Silver Lake on June 27th if anyone wants to join them for just the day.

On July 17-19, Bill will be camping at Elmore State Park and hiking to the fire tower there on Saturday, July 18th.

You can contact Bill at wjknight@juno.com for more info or to RSVP. He has two sites reserved for each weekend, so you need to RSVP to make sure there is enough room.