Nonprofit Meeting

Today I had my first hands-on experience of my SCORE project by observing the annual seARTS sponsored semi-annual cultural organization partners meeting. Most of these groups were based in Cape Ann and in surrounding areas. The meeting was held in a room in the lower part of the Sawyer Free Library in Gloucester. I was seated next to Deborah Eliason, the member of the board of directors whom I sent the survey information to the night before. Before I made myself comfortable, my dad told me to pass out the the meeting's schedule and also a paper listing the organizations present, their email addresses, events they were sponsoring and the dates, and the contact info of the organization presidents.

The meeting began a little after 12 in the afternoon. It commenced with everyone at the table sharing their name, organization they represented, and briefly summarized the purpose and mission of that group. I was the last to speak. I briefly summarized why I was there and what exactly what SCORE was all about. After this was done, Deborah beside me began reading the survey report I had sent her the night before. It is a strange sensation to listen to words you had written the night before be delivered by another person. I felt at that moment like a speechwriter, which I technically was.

For the next two hours, I listened silently to people from different backgrounds but with a similar goal: to bring cultural spotlight onto Cape Ann. The atmosphere of the meeting was positive and optimistic. People were constantly pitching new ideas and projecting more could be done. I won't go into extreme detail about what was discussed, but it left me with a good understanding and estimate about how meetings such as these occur.