Alferian's · Journal

I've now shifted over my online journaling to The Weekly Owl.  This will from now on be the repository of most of my thoughs.  The blog is like a penseive in Harry Potter.  We deposit our thougths and memories there the better to percieve patterns and for the small pleasure of unloading them from our brains.

The Board of Governors of Avalon Center is carrying on an online discussion of the future of the organization. It is a legal corporation and so needs to be legally disposed of in some way.  By "disposed" I do not mean tossed in the garbage.  The word has broader meaning that that. 

I myself am disposed to keep the corporation alive if the Governors are willing to help with the costs of doing so.  Whether the IRS will permit us to keep our tax-exempt school charity status as a non-profit educational organization if we are not maintaining a permanent faculty or student body remains to be seen.  Having dealt for a year with the IRS, I am inclined to think that they will not go out of their way to investigate so long as we are reporting to them legally and have so little income.  The projected three years of revenue and expenses we had to submit to get tax-exempt status was completely hypothetical and they cannot really expect any organization to meet their goals exactly.

For me it is important that the school be closed so that, if we wish to, we can reconstruct it more radically. Who will have the energy to do this remains to be seen.  But the goals we have to meet, as I see them, are primarily to recruit reliable administrative help who will have time to volunteer and a life that allows them to gradually expand the amount of time it takes them to do the administrative work, as operations expand.

What I want to avoid is the situation we created in the first experiment of three years, which was that it all depended upon me.  That is not a business plan.  So, we need to do what we wanted to do earlier, which is write a business plan and then get the initial staff necessary to run it.  And, I would like to avoid the whole matter of distance learning entirely untlil we have established a sustainable institution on the ground.  That means no online classes until we have classes on the ground and a facility that we own and can maintain financially.  For my part, not being very interested in financial risks, I want to see fundraising be our first step.  Without patrons we cannot sustain our operations and without an officer dedicated to directing fund raising for the institution, the whole business is too unstable for my nervous temperament to put up with.  It is like being the captain of a leaky ship with no sails and a crew that keeps jumping overboard.

I have no reason to believe that anyone is going to come to our rescue.  Indeed, I would be very skeptical if anyone did.  But the dream of Avalon College does not need to die and the corporation does not necessarily need to be dissolved.  Nor, in fact, have I resigned as Chancellor or been removed from the job by the board. I'm still president of the board, and am prepared to let the Governors deliberate as long as they like.  If they decide to maintain the corporation in a dormant state, that is their perogative and at that point we might even proceed to invite new governors to the board.

Frankly, however, it has been my impression that very few of our present governors are willing to devote their own energy and labor to getting done what needs to be done.  If they aren't willing or able to give their time and talents, and we cannot recruit the staff who can do so, I really do not see much hope of progress.  I've watched the thing leap forward with students and teachers and new governors, and then ebb back into almost nothing.  As Druids we ought to be able to cope with ebb and flow and perhaps we can.  But we need to start over and do better ground work, building up a network of people who are willing to invest their time, talents and money in getting a business plan together, finding financing, and working from the ground up. 

I do not say that starting operations on line with Internet courses was a mistake.  It was an experiment and we learned a great deal from it, both positives and negatives.  But we need now to do the groundwork, lay a real corerstone and foundation. And I have come to think that the first small step in that direction is to work to get people here in the Twin Cities to understand what Druidry is and how a Center for Druidic Studies (or whatever we may chose to call it) can be of benefit as an educational center and a center of seasonal celebrations.  So, we shall see.

My next step is to give a presentation on oghams to a chapter of Royal Arch Masons and then to work up other presentations on Druidry and Masonry and give the presentation at as many masonic venues as I can.  At the same time, I have a wand book to get finished off and sent to the publisher.  Then perhaps some other books on Druidry or other topics.  I have a series of juvenile novels I want to write too.

Merry Samhuinn to you and your ancestors
and may you have a month of good luck for reading this log,

Frater James Alferian, 24°

by Grace of †God† Doctor of Philosophy,
Druid, and Knight of the Rose Croix 18°
Eques ab Ivsticia et Veritas