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A Month of Transition
When Your Relationship Ends the Skin Hunger Begins
A Month of Transition
by Jason Whipple
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When I first became editor last year, I was not given much time to learn the job.I was even frustrated that the office was not organized, making those first few months extremely difficult. I remember being filled with frustration, pointing fingers at those people who had been in this position before me. I recently realized what makes this job such a challenge and how it’s almost impossible to keep up with everything. Much of it leads to a lot of frustration.
I was recently graced with new volunteers who have been working in the office with me.
Much of our conversations have focused on where to take Out in the Mountains to next. Hopefully, you will begin to see those changes over the next year.
One of the assistant editors, Jan Dunlap, has been trying to find ways to get more volunteers into the office. We plan on targeting colleges and universities around the state. There is also a possibility that we can get an AmeriCorps volunteer next year. Now that OITM has regular office hours, we can support a variety of office volunteers who are interested in gaining more experience with publishing, or simply have a desire to help out Vermont’s GLBT community.
Jan has also begun a database project for OITM’s office use. It is difficult enough to produce a paper each month with different voices, let alone find ways to organize the functioning of the office as we try to maintain contact with this community and other communities.
Jade Wolfe, my other assistant editor, has been unearthing material from previous editors out of the vaults of our office. This is all time-consuming work, but necessary for the future success of the paper.
The Board of Directors of Mountain Pride Media and myself have been working to improve our own internal communication so that we may continue to be a vital voice for Vermont’s many communities.
I was pleased to have been invited to appear on Cherie & Yolanda’s final show a few weeks ago. And what a great show it was! On behalf of Out in the Mountains and Mountain Pride Media, I thanked them for everything that they had done for the community. Again, we here at Out in the Mountains say thank you.
Earlier this month, I was asked to be interviewed, on camera, by a man from the local ABC News. He wanted me to respond to the announcement that Brian Pearl would be running for governor here in Vermont. I told him that we do not endorse candidates here at Out in the Mountains, but that one could choose to be positive or negative about community building. I also wanted him to be sure not to group all GLBT people into one identity like so many people do, that we are a complex entity, full of many voices and perspectives.
Out in the Mountains is committed to presenting, honestly, the many different lives that consist of the GLBT community along with information that is important to keep the readers of OITM connected to the events and ideas that are happening around us.
We were reminded this month that we can only do one thing at a time here at Out in the Mountains. Please continue to support the paper and consider volunteering for us.
In our organizational efforts over the last month, we realized that there are things we still need. Starting a hard copy filing system is difficult without a filing cabinet. If you have anything like this that you would be able to donate, please give us a call at the office. We also need book shelves to house catalogs and media equipment that we collect from month to month.
I also want to take this time to thank all of the volunteers that are graciously using their free time to make Out in the Mountains simply happen every month. This paper would not be possible without them, or you.