Posted November 10th, 2009 by VGSA
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!
Posted October 29th, 2009 by VGSA
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…
Posted October 23rd, 2009 by VGSA
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. <g>
Posted October 20th, 2009 by VGSA
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)?
