By Robert M. Sarwark
This is the prepared script of one of the speeches given on the night of October 24 at our 40th anniversary party. The spoken, extemporaneous remarks differed significantly in style, but not in substance from what is written below.
Thank you, Howard. Hello and good evening. My name is Rob and I am a board member and the treasurer-slash-business manager of The Porch Press. I’m also the neighborhood editor for Grant Park, but I’ll come back to that.
I live in Grant Park with my wife Catherine, our toddler son Presley, and our dog Ziggy. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you in particular, Catherine, for lending me out to The Porch Press on a regular basis, especially since it, as my second full-time job, brings home a whopping salary of zero dollars.
So, as a relative newcomer on our board, naturally I’ve been asked to speak tonight about the future of The Porch Press. And fortunately for all of us, our future looks pretty bright.
For one, we have reached all of the recent milestones that my colleague Howard has already detailed in his remarks. What this means for our future, of course, is that we have a strong plot of land to start from. That’s essential, because what comes next in The Porch Press story is best summed up in one word: growth.
So, what kind of growth?
One major area is the layout, design, and final production of the paper. The equipment that we currently use is aging and in critical need of upgrades. Once completed, such upgrades will make the entire process more streamlined so that we can do what we do better and faster while we also, as always, balance our commitments to jobs, families, and other aspects of our lives.
That said, the next area for growth is personnel. We currently have about 10 to 15 committed volunteers at any given time who play some role in producing the paper. Our board of nine members constitutes the majority of that figure, but we also have wonderful non-board volunteers in our distribution, editorial, events, and community calendar departments. But what if we had just five more? As I mentioned, I am still the editor for Grant Park while serving simultaneously as treasurer and business manager. My proposal along these lines is: What if I wasn’t? And we need volunteers in general, too, so if you’re interested whatsoever, please reach out and we will find the best role for you and your talents, interests, and availability. I can tell you that after doing this for more than eight years, it’s a uniquely fulfilling sensation to hold the finished paper in your hands after you’ve helped bring it into existence.
Yet another area is in our preservation efforts. And this ties back to where Henry started our remarks tonight: the past. Fortunately, we have had conscientious folks throughout all of our 40 years who have diligently saved at least one copy of every single issue of the paper. With that rich archive, as Henry also mentioned, we were able to partner with the Libraries of the University of Georgia, and specifically the Georgia Historic Newspapers project that they oversee. I personally delivered the papers to UGA about a month ago and met with the very passionate archivists who will catalog, digitize, and thus preserve The Porch Press online, as you can see here. As they progress, you will eventually see every single issue of The Porch Press online, available for free to the entire world, 24/7. So, keep an eye out for that very soon. Once digitization is complete and we have the paper copies back in our possession, the next step is to have them bound into sturdy volumes for internal and community use.
OK, so as I wind this thing down, here’s where we’re at in terms of dollars and cents. I had initially set a goal for the current capital campaign at $10,000. This was ambitious, I admit, since it represents about 20% of our total annual operating budget. As you can see, we’re about halfway there, but with your help I think we can get at least to three-quarters. You have already helped us immensely by buying tickets tonight, but if you can spare a bit more, we would be most grateful and even more prepared to continue into our future of growth and sustainability.
Thank you all so much for being here tonight, for supporting us with your time and your donations. With your contributions, love, support, and those of our entire community we will most certainly see you again in 2036, at our 50th anniversary.
Thank you.
