Featured Event

Please post your upcoming events on Front Porch Forum.  You can post months or even years in advance.  Get your dates on there early to help avoid conflicts with other events in the area.  Front Porch Forum is Free to use.

Click the link below to visit the FPF site.

 http://frontporchforum.com/

VERGENNES OPERA HOUSE:  NEXT STEPS

Thursday June 13
6:00-7:00
Opera House

As you may know, the Friends of the Vergennes Opera House, as an organization, is at a crossroads.   The model we had been operating under for many years—one that emphasized managing and running the OH as a rental and producing organization—is no longer viable.

The current Board created a budget for FY 2014 that relied on funding from the City, and planned on hiring rental manager/membership liaison staff.  In thinking about this, I realized we are putting the cart before the horse:  We are looking for the Means: funds and staffing, without asking about the Ends: what do we want the space to do?

The good news is that really, anything is possible. We are wrapping up this twenty-year run with little to no debt.   We can start again from a clean slate, re-envisioning what we want the Opera House to be.

The mission of the FVOH is this:

To preserve the historic Vergennes Opera House as a center for the presentation of the arts and other activities which promote and celebrate a sense of community.

I believe that once the sprinkler system is operational, this mission will be accomplished. At that point, the Opera House, with all the infrastructure improvements made by the Friends, is certainly “preserved” for the foreseeable future.

The mission of the FVOH as stated above is not to manage and supervise the space.   I can’t speak as to the how and why staffing and managing the space became the focus of the Board and the Friends, but we can no longer take on that role.

I believe it is time for Friends and community members to come together and ask:

What would the Friends and the community like to do with the space?

What would a new Mission Statement be?  How should the Friends function to fulfill that mission? How would a new Board work with the Friends to fulfill that mission?

Please join me in a brainstorming, free-thinking, re-visioning, all options open conversation on:

We’ll start the conversation with a very brief update as to the current status of the FVOH. We’ll then share our ideas of the best use of the space.   We’ll wrap up by identifying the “next steps”.

This meeting will be welcoming to all viewpoints.  Attending does NOT commit you to signing up for or joining anything!   Hearing a wide range of views from the community is the first, most important step.

Thank you so very much! Please pass this on to anyone you think would like to attend.

Sincerely—

Allison Rimmer