Post date: Nov 8, 2017 2:12:41 PM
It appears that I have stopped building. I have planted some Iris, Narcissus, and Crocus, and across the street have planted Snowberry and Catmint, guarded by garlic, but not much other.
My life is filling with nonprofits. I am on the board of directors of almost more organizations than I can count:
I’ll explain a bit more about each of these later.
Taos Community Chorus
My governance activity started with the community chorus. I sing with them (and with the church choir) and started helping. They needed someone to maintain their web site - which was built on WordPress. Since I built Carol’s web site on WordPress, I figured I might be able to help.
After I updated the home page the first time, and discovered that the chorus had a large shed full of music, a retired lawyer and I offered to create a catalog of the music. In the shed were archives of nearly 40 years of programs, recordings, and news clippings.
I scanned this archive material and built an archive on the web site.
The catalog has over 2,600 entries. We discarded some illegal copies, reorganized everything, got some replacement file cabinets, and spent months on this project. The catalog is set up so that we could integrate the music collections of both the local Episcopal and Presbyterian churches, if desired.
Board meetings are preceded by potluck suppers, so they are not entirely boring. Actually, sometimes the suppers go on and on, and the evening takes three hours. But the suppers mean that I have been cooking more.
St James Church
I started singing in the choir even on short visits to meet with my architect before I moved here.
I was recruited to be Junior Warden, which means I am on the board of directors (called a ‘vestry’ after the room where they met centuries ago). More that that, I am responsible for the buildings and grounds. Like many mainline churches this one has a big physical plant.
While the Sunday school rooms are thinly used on Sunday, we do have a lot of 12-step programs that use them regularly. There is a youth music school program that keeps about 70 kids indoors at least one afternoon each week. Then we have a large food pantry. On Thursdays a semi truck comes in the morning and about 400 people come to get free food in the afternoon. This is supported by about 75 volunteers who get lunch.
In the ten years since the church building was expanded, we have had to replace almost all the roof — most recently over the office, choir room, and sacristy for over $40,000. That was a painful job, snaking roof membrane sheets under air conditioning ducts that nearly covered the roof.
Native Plant Society
I’m not sure how I got started with the Native Plant Society because my schedule keeps me from their monthly meetings. They do host field trips, so it probably was one of these that I started meeting people. And they overlap with the garden club. I hosted a short visit to my yard, which is mostly planted with native species.
This September the local chapter hosted a very successful state-wide conference, and I offered to help with data management. It started with a budget for 110 attenders, but we had a total of 180 people.
For this I built a database, encouraged them to use electronic registration and payment (instead of paper), created field trip lists, name badges, and managed the computer projection. Oh, yes, and sent out letters confirming what each registrant was attending.
The conference went off without a hitch, but mostly because the local chapter president was very well organized and the site coordinator at SMU-Taos was an excellent communicator.
Taos Elders (TENT)
TENT is my biggest project. A group of us are starting a nonprofit ‘virtual village’ to support elders with volunteer services. We joined a Village-to-Village Network, which is a huge help. Their list of 87 startup tasks to complete has kept us on track. (I have expanded it to 105 tasks.) We are almost 50% through the tasks.
I built a web site for marketing purposes (using Weebly) until we get an integrated web platform that will handle both marketing and operations.
Next on our agenda is fund-raising. There are two distinct methods of raising money: writing applications for grants to foundations and soliciting from individual donors.
Acequia Association
When I bought my building lot in Valverde Commons (an intentional community on the edge of historic Taos) I became a particiante in an Acequia, which is an irrigation ditch and the governing structure of the water it supplies. While I have helped to clean the ditch every Spring and pay dues, I have never drawn water from the ditch.
This November our acequia association needed a treasurer, so I accepted the nomination and was elected last weekend by my neighbors. The task is relatively minor — sending bills after the Spring cleaning, tracking payments, and sending a followup bill in the Summer before the annual meeting.
Here is a wonderful video that explains some of the connection to the old way of life here.
My first task was to automate some of the work. The previous treasurer spent considerable effort getting the records straight, including land ownership, location, and parcel size. (Acequia dues are partly based on acreage.) But each of the forty or so invoices was hand typed, even though they are basically the same.
So I created a database of parciantes, parcels, and past invoices and payments, as well as a master invoice. next I need to get permission to email many of the invoices. Twenty-first century here we come!
Summary
Many Taoseños have to hold five jobs to make ends meet. My motivation is different, but I may have reached my limit. I am surprised that I am helping to govern so many organizations. But it does keep me off the streets!