Thanks, Bill Schubart, for this very insightful commentary.
Having studied nonprofit scandals and nonprofit dysfunction for many years, I can confirm that Mr. Schubart's analysis could be very accurately applied to most nonprofit failures I have seen.
The tragedy of it all is that these failures are so destructive to community and the formation, or destruction, of trust in the nonprofit sector.
Without the nonprofit sector, our society would be doomed - just look at the state of government at many (but not all) levels.
This story states that the NECCA board knew “full well” that “the emotional resonance” of firing founders Elsie Smith and Serenity Smith Forchion “would upset the community” and that the coaches had warned the board in advance that they would resign should the board take this action. The Board...
Finally, voices of reason! I have watched this situation unfold, and I am flabbergasted how quickly it got out of control. I waited and waited for reasonable voices to make their thoughts known. Thank you for speaking up!
Skateboarding enthusiasts are getting closer to having a legal, public place to skate. The group Brattleboro Area Skatepark Is Coming, also known as BASIC, recently received a $1,400 grant from the Crosby-Gannett Fund, and on July 11 the Selectboard authorized the group's application for an additional $25,000 from the state. Advisory Committee Chair Jeff Clark appeared at the July 11 Selectboard meeting to provide an update and ask the Board to approve and appropriate the Crosby-Gannett money and authorize BASIC...
College news • Andrew Falion of Brattleboro graduated with an M.S. in special education from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. • The following local students graduated from Binghamton University, State University of New York: Sophie Rodenbush of Putney received a B.A. in psychology and Nathaniel L. Goldman of Saxtons River received a B.A. in history. Goldman was also named to the Dean's List for the spring 2017 semester, as were Katia E. Brock of Brattleboro and Hannah K. Swanson...
Death Café returns to Wilmington WILMINGTON - On Thursday, July 27, Brattleboro Area Hospice will host a Death Café at St. Mary's in the Mountains church, 13 East Main St., at 6 p.m. This event is free and the public is encouraged to attend. They will provide snacks, tea, and coffee. The Death Café is an international movement which started in Europe, dedicated to taking death “out of the closet” and discussing it publicly. It isn't a support group but...
Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present The Seamus Egan Project, featuring the founding member of the seminal Irish-American band Solas, at Next Stage on Friday, July 28, at 7:30 p.m. Beginning with tunes from his groundbreaking 1996 album When Juniper Sleeps - which was the impetus for the formation of Solas - through music from his 20-year career with that iconic band, and adding some brand new tunes, Egan, with a band of friends and musical guests, will...
The fourth week of Yellow Barn's 48th summer season marks the arrival of acclaimed German composer and clarinetist Jörg Widmann. Returning for his second summer as Yellow Barn's composer in residence, Widmann will spend a week working with Yellow Barn musicians on his compositions, performing in the Big Barn, and speaking to audiences about his work. The annual Composer Portrait will take place on Wednesday, July 26, at 8 p.m. in the Big Barn. Audiences have the rare opportunity to...
Backed up by a professional rock band, Rock Voices - the area's only community rock choir - will perform music from the '80s: Michael Jackson, Madonna, Billy Joel, Eurythmics, Men At Work, Cyndi Lauper, U2, Miami Sound Machine, Wham!, Toto, Prince, Culture Club, and more. The 100-plus voice choir will be joined by a band featuring local legend Ross Bellenoit on guitar and also a horn section, according to a news release. The concert will take place at Brattleboro Union...
On Thursday, July 27, at 6 p.m., 118 Elliot, co-sponsored by Jerusalem Peacebuilders (JFB) and the Windham World Affairs Council, will host a unique evening of film and dialogue bringing together Vermonters, Israelis, and Palestinians to explore and develop their understanding of the difficult moral and political issues behind the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The evening begins with film director and producer Stephen Apkon presenting his acclaimed film, Disturbing the Peace (2016, 87 minutes) which artfully plumbs the painful realities of the...
Selectboard sets tax rate NEWFANE - The Selectboard unanimously approved the Fiscal Year 2018 municipal tax rate - 58.7 cents per $100 of assessed value - at the July 10 regular Board meeting. The FY18 tax rate is 9 cents higher than last year's, because the Grand List went down, said Doris Knechtel of the Board of Listers. Knechtel provided Selectboard members with the town's financial information and explained how they come up with the tax rate. The municipal budget...
Wild parsnip is often confused with similar-looking giant hogweed, cow parsnip, Queen Anne's lace, and angelica. Wild parsnip is the only one with a yellow flower; however, cow parsnip is equally noxious when it comes into contact with the skin, and giant hogweed is considerably worse. I live where we have a lot of wild parsnip. I encountered it unknowingly several years ago, and did indeed get second-degree burns, with scars that lasted over a year.
As one reviewer put it, “Table Manners is one delicious excuse to laugh. Six characters, hilariously unaware of their own flaws, represent two marriages grown stale and one courtship that can't get off the ground.” Alan Ayckbourn's most highly-praised and popular comedy opens at the Actors Theatre Playhouse for eight performances on Fridays and Saturdays, July 28 through Aug. 19. Curtain time is 7:30 p.m. A simple dinner at a family's country home evolves into a family squabble that only...
On Saturday, July 29, Valley Cares' board of directors will host their annual benefit concert on the Townshend Common. This year the concert will feature four lively local favorites: Tuesday Night Town Hall Boys, Turkey Buzzards, Brassa, and The Merry Pranksters. The bands will perform from 4 to 7 p.m. This is a family-friendly event that will be fun for all. Concert admission is free, but donations are appreciated. Popcorn, baked goods and other food will be for sale on...
I'm writing in appreciation of the beautiful flowers we have throughout downtown Brattleboro this summer! Our quality of life is higher because of these flowers. Many thanks to those who are responsible for them.
Apron Theater Company co-founder Hallie Flower feels a great responsibility in bringing a new work of theater to the area from a writer whose work she reveres. On the first two weekends in August, Next Stage Arts Project and Apron Theater Company will present Appropriate by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins at Next Stage. Directed by Flower, this production will be the regional premiere of this play and the playwright's work. According to Flower, Appropriate is an American family drama in the tradition...
WKVT-FM and Latchis Arts will hold the seventh annual “Load the Latchis” food drive Thursday, Aug. 10. From 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., volunteers will be on Flat Street outside the Latchis Building for curbside drop-off of food and monetary donations, which help stock the Groundworks Collaborative food shelf. Last year's event placed a full bag of groceries on each of the 750 seats inside the main theater of the Latchis and raised more than $2,000. Suggested items to donate...
This article could've been titled, “Area property holders maintain: People whose basic needs go unmet are the real problem here” or perhaps, “Locals with power to selectboard: We wish powerless would just stay quiet.” I disagree that business owners' discomfort with “panhandlers” can be solved by educating poor people about available resources. The solution is organizing to end a system that creates poverty. The folks I know who seek shelter, food, and other basic needs often already know about the...
In 1998, New England Youth Theatre began downtown, in a former Chinese restaurant next to the Latchis Hotel and Theatre , with a mission of educating “the hearts, minds, bodies, and voices of youth of all abilities through the dramatic arts.” Two decades later, NEYT has its own theater on Flat Street and serves hundreds of young people taking a variety of classes ranging from improvisation, movement, and ensemble building to learning the arts of stage managing, scenic design, lighting,
Crews have removed more than 7,000 cubic yards of sediment at Townshend Dam, allowing the much-maligned swimming and beach area to reopen to the public. The project was commissioned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in response to chronic sedimentation and low-water issues at the once-popular recreation spot. But dredging likely is a short-term solution. And it's still unclear whether the Corps will be able to address the problem in a more comprehensive way. “The entire lake was surveyed...
The first public meeting on the downtown parking survey had few attendees. Thirteen people, including municipal staff, Selectboard members, and the press, convened at the Brooks Memorial Library on July 18 for a presentation given by Andrew S. Hill. Hill is a senior consultant with Desman Design Management, the Boston-based parking and transportation consulting firm that is conducting the study. According to information from the presentation, Desman has worked on “more than 2,500 parking projects in its 40 plus years...
When it comes to school governance and school choice, Vernon voters have reaffirmed their desire to go their own way. Residents on July 18 voted 238–47 in favor of withdrawing the town school district from the regional educational union, known as Brattleboro Union High School District No. 6. The move allows Vernon - via a special legal provision approved by the state Legislature - to unilaterally leave the union and pursue its own Act 46 school governance solutions. It's still...
The town of Marlboro has a population of 978, and the town center consists of an 18th century inn, a post office, and a meeting house. But, for seven weeks each summer since 1951, some of the world's most respected concert artists and most talented young professional musicians have gathered on the campus of Marlboro College to explore music with unlimited rehearsal time in a way that isn't possible elsewhere. The Marlboro Music School & Festival attracts devoted music lovers...
Your recent article about the impact of the new anti-immigrant agenda on local educational institutions was eye-opening and very discouraging. The United States was founded by immigrants and almost all of us have ancestors who were immigrants. Immigrants enrich our country in so many ways. They are hard working and entrepreneurial; 40 percent of Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or the children of immigrants. Some in this administration are forgetting that the fundamental protections embodied in our Constitution...
After working with the town for 11 years, Town Manager Cynthia Stoddard is leaving. Stoddard accepted a position with the New England Municipal Resource Center, a Fairfax-based company that provides “technological and management resources to municipalities, schools, and nonprofits.” She had worked there in the past. Stoddard announced her resignation at the June 21 regular Selectboard meeting with an official letter, which she read into the record. Her last day is Aug. 4. The Westminster resident began working with Putney...
Thank you so much for this piece of thorough reporting. It seems to me that there are a lot of people who care about NECCA on all the sides. While I truly wish that this could have been resolved without the public battle, I'm very grateful for the effort that was made to resolve this using a mediator, and am hoping NECCA can come out of this as little scathed as possible.
The headline is right, the letter is wrong. If the Vermont Yankee buildings were there for a fossil-fuel plant, demolishing them would require industrial safety measures, which would be overseen by demolition experts, not the plant operational staff. It will be that way for the nuclear plant, too. As shown by NorthStar, large-building and industrial-facility removal has evolved as a speciality, with the special hazards of each type of plant - chemical, petroleum, radioactive, etc. - planned for. The radioactive...
I am even more convinced that the interim executive director and the board members who voted to terminate the founders of NECCA were not competent. They clearly did not understand their mission or the community. And where was the due process in the form of management consultants or mediators? How sad that Valery Bailey could not stay on, because she sounded like she was the right fit to carry NECCA forward intact, while helping its staff through the kinds of...
Ask Kathy Urffer whether she has some big shoes to fill, and she'll laugh and say, “absolutely.” That's because the Brattleboro resident has been hired by Connecticut River Conservancy to succeed David Deen, a highly-regarded expert who retired after 19 years as a river steward for Vermont and New Hampshire. But that challenge doesn't dampen Urffer's enthusiasm. She brings her own environmental experience to the steward job, and she also expects to work closely with many other river advocates both...
Brattleboro Selectboard member Tim Wessel's letter about a petition to end the municipal use of heating oil made some fair points about the current Selectboard's use of funds to replace the oil boiler in the Transportation Center and the development of a solar array on the Windham Solid Waste Management District landfill site. I absolutely appreciate those first steps towards a better, cleaner Brattleboro. As the person who started the petition, I want to share why I chose to participate...
It is clear the New England Coalition, a longtime antagonist of nuclear power, is skeptical of NorthStar's ability to decommission Vermont Yankee safely and on budget. An NEC spokesperson is quoted as decrying NorthStar's supposedly “untested method of managing decommissioning under new and unanalyzed circumstances.” Yet there is nothing technologically new or experimental about this plan. The applied science is all established and in regular use, and it has been proven both safe and economically successful. The only novel aspects...
No, we cannot come up with a solution; the country is already captured and government already seized by those who benefit from the “Raw Deal,” as Thomas Franks termed it. The rest of the United States, frankly, is too stupid to care, since many from the poorer half and many from the richer half who think they're still “winners” but are also losing their wealth to the 1 percent just helped vote in a president who promises to further sour...
Good day to you! I certainly hope something good has happened or will happen in your life today. Sometimes one good thing is all we need to lift our spirits up. As for our weather, we're going to be enjoying more calm, cooler and dry conditions over the next seven days. We will have to go through a period of showers and thunderstorms from around Thursday afternoon into Friday, but this Wednesday, the weekend, and early next week are looking...
I want to personally thank Larry Cassidy for stepping forward to help in the attempts to find a resolution between the NECCA coaches and board. I think it's fair to say his impartiality and common sense helped advance the dialogue and led to the the coaches return last Wednesday. Progress at any level is valued, and his sincere efforts need to be acknowledged and honored by all.
The Vermont American Legion baseball tournament began over the weekend at the Maxfield Sports Complex in Hartford. By the end of the weekend, both finalists from last year's tourney, Brattleboro Post 5 and Rutland Post 31, were knocked out, while Bellows Falls Post 37 was still alive. • It was a particularly frustrating ending for Post 5, the defending state champions. As the third seed from the South, Post 5 did not score a run in either of their games,
Creating art is often a solitary pursuit, but once in a while, you need to get out of the studio and meet with your colleagues. That's the thinking behind the Rockingham Arts and Museum Project's “town meetings” for local artists at 33 Bridge St., home to WOOL-FM. The potluck and discussion event, which is hosted quarterly, brings together artists, artisans and local growers in the area to discuss ideas, challenges, and opportunities. RAMP Director Robert McBride says the goal of...
Four colleges in three states are teaming up to help spark a “green” recovery from the closure of Vermont Yankee. Administrators from the School for International Training in Brattleboro; Greenfield Community College in Greenfield, Mass.; and Antioch University New England and Keene State College in Keene, N.H. have signed an agreement to support a new “Ecovation Hub” meant to bring jobs, investment, and visitors to the tri-state area. The schools are pledging to provide education, training, and support for a...
The urine collectors of southeast Windham County have a new place to deposit their contributions. On July 17, the Rich Earth Institute held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to officially open their new urine depot, located in the former Estey Organ Factory complex on Birge Street. The nonprofit, EPA-funded REI, co-founded in 2012 by Kim Nace and Abe Noe-Hays, “engages in research, education, and technological innovation to advance the use of human waste as a resource in order to conserve water, prevent...
Months of turmoil that led to two weeks of crisis at the New England Center for Circus Arts was resolved last week with a new leadership team and the reinstatement of the nonprofit's founders, whose firing precipitated a public outcry and a stalemate that brought NECCA's operations to a standstill. The selection of the new leadership team was one of the key demands of a group of coaches that resigned shortly after the July 10 decision to terminate cofounders Elsie...