Just about a year ago, VAAE received two $2,500 grants, one from the Kennedy Center and one from the Vermont Community Foundation. These were technical assistance grants, and they paid for us to hire a consultant to undergo a sustainability study — that is, a hard look at the present and future of VAAE.
As many of you are aware, VAAE underwent a pretty serious seachange nearly two years ago. At the core of the change was the relationship between the board of directors and the executive director. For many different reasons, the failure to communicate led to this change and as a result, I was brought on as the new executive director. One of the major tasks I was given was to review the background of the organization and make recommendations about how the organization could move forward. Without a strategic plan in place, one of the key goals was to undergo a sustainability study.
A study of this kind is no fun. It requires the board to focus on who and what it is, what it has done and what it can do in the future. The organization, after all, by legal definition, belongs to the board of directors. VAAE has not operated in this manner for quite some time, and it was my belief in recommending the sustainability study that this mode of operation needed to be corrected. The board agreed to undergo the study, and it commenced during our Fall Conference last year. We met several times as a board, and had our momentum slowed by a snow storm in December. But by the end of March, we had finished meeting and the consultant, Steffi Lahar, and I put together the final report.
The meetings were difficult, and they resulted in the board taking a cold, hard look at the organization, what it meant to its constituents, what would be lost if VAAE disappeared and what might be gained if it were reinvigorated. This led to some very dispiriting moments, as well as some reaffirming ones. It was clear that VAAE was important to the teachers who are represented on our advisory board — the visual artists, musicians, dancers and theatre artists — as well as to our partners at the Vermont Arts Council and the Department of Education. Each of these groups benefits by VAAE’s existence, and all were enthusiastic and vociferous supporters for VAAE continuing.
This enthusiasm was welcomed by the board, but it was also met with a reality that the board, each of whom was committed to VAAE during board meetings and events, admitted that it has been difficult to recruit new members, difficult to fundraise, difficult to find more time for VAAE and difficult to take the ownership needed to help regrow this organization. These conversations, as I mentioned, were painful and honest and allowed the board to try to find a way to preserve what was good about VAAE, especially its Fall Conference, its potential to reinvigorate its newsletter and to upgrade its other communications via the internet, and to restore the teacher commendations that have been so welcome in the past. The key to this, however, was accepting that in order to maintain its mission, VAAE would need some help. If VAAE were to remain in a survival mode, with few funds and a need to constantly fundraise in a down economy, attaining its mission would be difficult. If VAAE were to continue, the board felt there were two options (the third being closing, which was anathema to the board) — merging with a larger organization or reinvigorating the board. Given how difficult it has been for the last several years to find new and energetic board members, the board chose to appoint a committee made up of the ED and several board members to look into the possibility of merging with another, larger arts organization.
Without going to much further down this path, it is incumbent for you to know that the board discussed the pros and cons of such a merger and enters into any discussions with some set goals and needs that have to be reached in order to make any such move work.
If merger is not viable, the second choice will be for a focussed and concentrated reinvigoration of the board. This will require some work as well, and the board is ready to embark on that road if need be.
If you have any questions, or would like to read our Sustainability study, please feel free to contact me info@vaae.org or at (802) 244-1314.
Walter E. Judge Jr, a director and member of the Litigation Practice Group at Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC, presented a check for $1,000 on behalf of the DRM Community Fund to Thomas Stevens, executive director of the Vermont Alliance for Arts Education, on August 25. VAAE’s mission is to support arts education in the public schools and to contribute to the professional development of arts teachers. 
