Making friends at the Mum Festival, and possibly gaining new members and volunteers

Posted By: David Fortier September 25, 2022

By David Fortier 

Come Sunday morning, TBE will have completed a full day at the Mum Festival where we had a booth and met a bunch of people who signed up for our online newspaper. It’s always fun getting involved in these festivities. There is the hubbub of setting up along with others, the golf carts with Exchange Club members zipping around (the club is responsible for bringing the festival back), and the people who come out to enjoy the day. 

This setting up was a nice surprise. Students from Bristol Central’s Interact Club were on hand to lend a hand—life savers really because I was setting up along and I didn’t know how I was going to set up the canopy. As it was, I had brought sand buckets to anchor the legs of the canopy in the event the winds kicked up (they didn’t). I had to figure out what to do with them. 

But there they were, Olivia and Amber, and before I got back from parking the car—I had dropped everything for our booth in our designated spot—the two had set up the tent and were busy organizing some of the other material. We chatted and they expressed their interest in photography and before long they signed on as volunteers. The goal is for them to start with photos. A quick lesson in the rule of thirds and, well, I am hoping their photos will begin appearing on our website soon. 

With the weather and the parade and scheduling issues, the decision was made to pack up Sunday, so TBE will not be in our booth. If you have questions, or are interested in becoming a member, or would like to volunteer, send an email to editor@bristoledition.org. 

Note: This is important. Some people I talked with are among our email subscribers, which is our old system. The idea is to become a member by following the buttons on our home page and to sign up for either a free reader account or a sponsoring member with a small recurring monthly donation. Becoming a sponsoring member—supporter, patron or benefactor—ensure you receive unlimited access to the website. The system is somewhat clunky, granted, but you will need to login to qualify. 

We are working on this, but our resources are limited. We rely on volunteers for everything we do. At the same time, we hope that changes as people start to recognize our value to the community, recognize our increasing quality coverage and recognize that if we are going to be able to meet expectations, we will need financial support. We are a business, a nonprofit for certain, but a business just the same.  

Helping a great deal is that we have received our 501(c)(3) status, which allows people who itemize their taxes to deduct their contributions to TBE. We have already received our first $1,000 donation as a result. Slow and steady wins the race. We are definitely slow and, if anything, we are working steadily towards our goal of becoming Bristol’s newspaper of choice. (And, we are not, affiliated with the Bristol Press.) 

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Reading this week is a novel that I picked up by chance and finished in a couple of days—Alexie Sherman’s “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.” It’s definitely a worthwhile read, with a strong voice, a good story and illustrations.  

Listening this week has been limited, too, but I did venture back into intriguing stratosphere of Entitled Opinions (about Life & Literature) with an esoteric conversation about dark matter, entitled “Dark Matter, God and the fate of the Universe with Maria Elena Monzani.” Click here for the link. 

“Come Sunday morning” is intended to be a weekly review, a recounting of the past week and an anticipation of week to come. Among its features will be reviews of old and new books, sharing of favorite podcasts, some family news, Bristol events and happenings and issues surrounding education, work and community journalism. He can be reached at dfortier@bristoledition.org.   

All TBE readers, supporters and donors            

The Bristol Edition will be limiting the number of stories non-members and free readers may access each week. This decision is based on our financial projections and, most certainly, to remind people that TBE is serious about providing accurate, timely and thorough reporting for Bristol. To do this we have devised a financial support structure that makes unlimited access extremely affordable, beginning with a $6 monthly donation.            

  • Non-members will be able to access eight (8) articles per week.            
  • Free readers and people who have subscribed by email will be able to access eight (8) articles per week.            
  • Donors and financial supporters will have unlimited access as long as they log in.            

Note: Donors may have to contact TBE if they find they are being limited, since we will need to set up a membership account for you. Email editor@bristoledition.org for instructions. Sorry for any inconvenience. People with financial difficulties may write editor@bristoledition.org to be considered for free access.