Put the Color Back in Peace Talk! Make the Next Issue Green!
Dear members and supporters,
Peace Talk is in black and white this issue to draw attention to a
significant financial crisis. Due to a loss of expected grant money and a
decrease in major donor contributions, we find ourselves with a deficit of
approximately $30,000 this year. We are pretty much a "no frills" operation
and so, when we began to look for ways to cut expenses, there wasn't much to
cut. Our fundraising and finance committee spent a lot of time poring over
the budget to see what we could do away with, and we came up with only $3500
in savings. We then had no other choice but to look at limiting expenses
through staff changes. With much sadness, we temporarily furloughed our
office manager, Jen Ellis, and our diversity/networking coordinator, Wells
Staley Mays, and made a significant cut in our executive director, Greg
Field's, hours for the next six weeks. We are fortunate that we have
volunteers who have agreed to do whatever they can for a period of time, but
most of them are employed and won't be able to continue contributing so many
hours.
I think you know what important work Peace Action is doing and has done for
the past 20 years. It feels like there couldn't be a worse time for us to
have to limit our programming, and we are working hard, even with the
present stressors, to keep our voice heard in the offices of Maine's
congressional team, in the newspapers, in educational forums and in the
streets. I am aware that many of you are counting on us in this most
troubling time, and we want to be there in full force. We feel that there is
still hope that, with enough pressure, the war with Iraq can be averted. We
believe that we must do all we can do to reverse the policies of the present
government that call for the development of new nuclear weapons, expanded
use of nuclear weaponry, and extending weaponization into space! We want to
make clear to everyone the connection between militarism and the growth of
corporate globalization and environmental degradation.
I want to end by telling you of some other important work we are doing.
Wells Staley-Mays, our diversity/networking coordinator has, over the last
years, forged strong bonds with many communities in Maine, and is helping to
bring people of different cultures, ethnicities and races together to work
for peace and justice. Peace Action is just beginning some new work called
the listening project, that we feel will be vital in building peace here and
throughout the world. We are also planning, this year, to continue our focus
on coalition building and creating stronger ties with other peace groups and
activists throughout the state.
We, the staff and board of Peace Action Maine are a dedicated and passionate
bunch. There is so much work to do and we want to do it!! Please help by
sending a generous contribution or, if you've already given this year, by
sending additional dollars. We'll make good use of every penny.
Thanks,
Karen Wainberg, Board chair
Back to Peace Talk Index, Autumn, 2002