Debra K.has accepted the position of El Farolito committee chair for the 2021-2022 rotation. Debra has been working at the Albuquerque Central Office for several years, she knows Area 46 very well and will be a great asset for this publication. Debra stood for disapproval during the recent December Assembly and will officially take over the editor reins around March 31. In the meantime, I will serve as Interim Editor until Debra can take over as editor as she transitions out of her position at Central Office. Congratulations to Debra!
The El Farolito committee met during the assembly and discussed a number of other current business items. I presented the most recent financial information available which showed a bank balance of $1,231.15 as of October 31, 2020. When adding in group contributions received in November, along with November expenses, the approximate El Farolito funds balance as of December 5 was $1,731.15.
El Farolito is funded almost entirely through group contributions, along with paid subscriptions, and the available funds in our account has been about one-and-one-half times our monthly expenses on average this past year. As always, continued group contributions of any amount are always welcome, appreciated and needed to continue publication of El Farolito every month.
With Debra’s upcoming transition to editor in the coming months, we’ll be looking to move the printing of El Farolito to the Albuquerque-Santa Fe area, as the issue’s mailing permit requires monthly mailing out of the Albuquerque central post office business mailing unit. While the editor was located in Taos, getting the newsletter produced in Taos was most practical. We’ll also be transitioning to a new post office box located in the Albuquerque area and this new address will be published in the coming weeks.
During the assembly meeting the committee discussed the need for groups or individual volunteers to help prepare the El Farolito issues for mailing. Groups can volunteer to hold mailing parties where a small group of members meet for about 90 minutes to a couple of hours, to help tape up, stamp and sort the printed ELFs for mailing. Until we can routinely meet in groups, the committee is looking for individual volunteers or member households in the Albuquerque-Santa Fe area to take batch-es of the printed ELFs, prep them to mail, and then have them ready to be picked up to be taken to the post office. This service work would start in late January.
Please email me at elfarolito@dev.aa-nia.org to sign up. It’s easy to do when you’re relaxing in front of the fire or the television on a cold winter’s night.
Tim M., Interim El Farolito editor