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Hello, and thank you all for your service to the community, especially this particular year.  It’ll be nice to have 2020 hindsight.

I’m involved with Annasemble Community Orchestra of Gainesville, Inc, a small nonprofit; people playing music for people.  We number about 30, range in age from HS to 92, and play for nursing homes, Tachachale, and a number of other places throughout the years.  Unfortunately, we cancelled a community concert involving the Star Center and Caring and Sharing students in dance, singing, and playing with us.  It was scheduled for March 15th, 2 days after everything closed down.  This was going to be my all-time favorite, playing and singing with elementary students.

We survived financially as a small group through the spring, but we’re going to struggle this fall.  Many of our members are staying home until there is a vaccine.  We’re breaking the orchestra into 3 or 4 groups of 10, so we have more rehearsals that we should pay our director.   We are struggling to find an outdoor space we can safely rehearse in, either free or for a fee, and we still want to pay our director—from dues we may not be able to charge this year.   Our budget is small, and I expect our shortfall will only be $2,500?  Unless we have to pay for space, and then it can run $150 or more weekly.

There are 2 comments here:

1.   The Alachua County Cares act requires a physical address that is not a home.  We operate out of several homes, and rehearsals, concerts are wherever we can find space.   We don’t fit in the individual application format.  Are we shut out completely?

2.   This county completely lacks certain size meeting spaces:
                Covered, reservable and flexible for outdoor meetings, rehearsals.  Key here is reservable.
                Indoor practice space for small groups: troops, orchestras, arts, etc at a price a small group can afford.
                Concerts!  There’s a complete lack of space from about 250 to 500 attendees.

We pay for concert space, but we are beginning to exceed the capacity of the Thelma Boltin Center and the Haile Center Hall (they just voted to change their name from Plantation Hall!).

Thank you for listening,

Alison Law
Treasurer,
Annasemble Community Orchestra.
A small 501(c)(3) that files an IRS 990 postcard.




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