New Senator Community Trust Seeking Broad Community Involvement

What follows is an email message and press release I just received from Laura Thul Penza, on the Board of the Senator Community Trust and President of the Govanstowne Business Association:

Dear Neighbors, Businesses and Friends,

Please forward - help communicate with all who are interested in the fate of The Senator Theatre by forwarding this to your organization members, posting on your listserves or websites, sharing information at meetings, etc.

We have been informed by The City’s Steering Committee that The Senator Theatre is in imminent danger of going to auction and an uncertain future - within the next few weeks!

It is extremely important that everyone understands the gravity of the situation at The Senator, the last remaining single-screen in Baltimore! Although the City’s interest is not quite aligned with the community efforts, The SCT is working towards bridging the gap and hoping to convince the Steering Committee that keeping the doors open will be in the best interest of all.

The Senator Community Trust, LLC (SCT) has organized and is in the process of applying for non-profit status to begin long-term sustainable funding efforts, however a foreclosure action that might occur that quickly does not allow enough time for effective positive action.

Unless we organize immediately to raise the funds to intercede and stop the foreclosure, we will lose our ability to have any influence on the future of The Senator and its place in our community. Look for more details on this emergency fundraising campaign in a release to come out in the next couple days.

In the meantime, consider seeing a movie this weekend at The Senator or Rotunda – bring family, friends and co-workers. Your patronage does help keep the doors open!

For additional information, please take a look:

The Daily Record (Friday, February 27) Liz Farmer has written an informative article about the Senator Theatre situation: http://www.mddailyrecord.com/article.cfm?id=10848&type=UTTM

Also, various Friends of The Senator groups have formed, which publish updated information. These groups are working in coordination with one another and with The Senator Community Trust Board, and are described below.

Friends of The Senator Facebook Grouphttp://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=39720373765; e-mail: friendsofthesenator@live.com

Friends of The Senator Website http://friendsofthesenatortheatre.wordpress.com/.

Friends of The Senator Google Grouphttp://groups.google.com/group/friends-of-the-senator-theatre

AstroGirl's Galaxy GuideLaura Serena has a blog which contain MUCH useful information and links: http://astrogirlguides.blogspot.com/

The Senator Community Trust, LLC has been formed and is reaching out to all those interested in keeping the doors open during The Senator’s transition to become the premier community-based arts, education and entertainment venue in the region.

Thanks for your interest...please let us know if you have questions or if you care to get involved!
Attached is another press releases from The Senator Community Trust, and is also printed here for those unable to open or forward pdfs:

*********************FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE************************
New Senator Community Trust Seeking Broad Community Involvement

Upcoming town hall meeting will involve broader community in efforts to acquire Baltimore’s beloved Senator Theatre.

Baltimore, Maryland March 4, 2009 -- The new Senator Community Trust (SCT) announced today a public town hall meeting, scheduled for Saturday, March 14 at 1:00 PM at The Senator Theatre, 5904 York Road, Baltimore, Maryland. The SCT will seek input on options for future structures and uses for the theatre, and outline a plan for community-based acquisition of The Senator.

Members of the community who are working closely with current Senator management and city officials to try to stabilize and facilitate a smooth transition for the theatre will be on hand to discuss the varied film, music, arts, and educational uses that may become part of The Senator’s programming schedule in the near future. Many of these uses have already been demonstrated in recent events at The Senator.

The SCT plans to present an overview of the current financial picture, and announce the first phase of its capital campaign to raise money to stabilize The Senator’s immediate financial crisis and stop the impending foreclosure and auction.

“The Senator’s immediate financial crisis is very real. Unless the broader Senator community takes action now to raise money and bring the mortgage current, we are going to lose this landmark to auction and an uncertain future in the coming weeks,” said Sean Brescia who has been working to try to raise awareness for the urgency of the situation. “This is bigger than any one neighborhood. This is a city, state and even national icon, and we’re all stakeholders with an interest in The Senator’s future. It’s time to act on that.”

The formation of the Senator Community Trust and its vision are based on extensive feedback during a series of public meetings that began in early 2008. All interested members of the public and media are welcome and encouraged to attend. Representatives from city and state government and local foundations will also be invited.

About The Senator Community Trust LLC: To foster the vision of the Senator Theatre as a community-based non-profit organization, a group of local community and business leaders has organized The Senator Community Trust, LLC. The Senator Community Trust has as its mission the preservation, protection, and restoration of Baltimore’s cherished landmark, the historic Senator Theatre. The Senator Community Trust is working with theatre management toward community ownership of the theatre building.

Contact: Sherry Holland-Senter The Senator Community Trust, LLC senatorcommunitytrust@gmail.com

PDF Version

Thanks for your attention to this matter!

Laura

Progressive Blue Candidate Bake Sale Week - Be Our 60th Donor!

Over at Progressive Blue, my colleagues have been running a fundraising week for our slate of endorsed Democratic candidates. We've also taken a position of NO on California prop. 8, because we believe in equality for all.

We received 59 donations on our ActBlue page so far, and that totals nearly $3,000.

Will you be our 60th donor?

Will you help us get to $3,000 raised for our candidates?

Edwards Campaign More Than Doubles Donor Base in Q2

The Edwards campaign more than doubled its donor base in Q2, gaining approximately 70,000 donors this quarter, according to a conference call this afternoon with Deputy Campaign Manager Jonathan Prince and Senior Advisor Joe Trippi. At the end of Q1, their donor base stood at approximately 39,000 individual donors. They now have over 100,000 donors.

One of their major goals this time was to expand their fund-raising base. They did this with Small Change for Big Change events, and internet outreach, as well as traditional fund-raising methods.

Jonathan Prince said they need $40 million before the Iowa caucus. They are well over half way there. They raised comfortably over $9 million for this quarter, and $14 million last quarter.

Joe Trippi said they had over 4.7 million in total grassroots fundraising, which consists of Small Change for Big Change, online donations, and small donations.

They raised over 3.5 million online, which was more than last quarter.
80% of their contributions were $50 and under.

Small Change for Big Change brought in over 4000 donors.

Over 30% of the contributions came from states that Bush won in 2004.

Almost all of the money is for the primary. They don't have any cash on hand figures yet. They said it's been a great fund-raising quarter for Democrats, expanding the overall Democratic donor base for whoever gets the nomination, which they (and I) believe will be Edwards.

A question was asked about how much money was raised on Ann Coulter, and they said it was impossible to tell. The Ann Coulter controversy came up in the last week of the quarter, which is always big no matter what happens in that week. Also, since they had greatly expanded their donor base, this could also account for the big money raised in the last week of the quarter.

Some points made by the campaign: History bears out that we have all the money we need. This is not a money race. It's a race for the nomination. Howard Dean outraised every one last time, but still lost based on his loss in Iowa. In terms of fundraising, we are ahead of where Dean was in 2003. The nomination will be won or lost in the early states, where Edwards is doing very well.

Leslie Wayne from the New York Times, who recently smeared Edwards in a nasty front page article based on innuendo, asked perhaps the stupidest question I have ever heard on one of these conference calls, proving that she's not the brightest bulb in the box. Do they have an exact total?

The answer to this is that of course they don't, because checks are still coming in that were postmarked before the end of the quarter, and therefore will count toward the total. I'm not sure if it was Jonathan Prince or Joe Trippi that couldn't resist starting one sentence of his answer to her with something like "without having to go through it on his call for everyone who understands how the process works..."

Whether or not dim bulb reporters understand it, the Edwards campaign is right on target and has all the money he will need to get his message out.