Wednesday, June 17, 2009

SCOOP: Skylight Subscribers Are Uniting!

A group of Skylight subscribers (some of them loooooong time subscriber, let me tell you) are organizing a group effort to cancel their subscriptions to The Skylight in light of the news of the perceived short sighted decision by the Board of that company to restructure the management of Skylight without a clearly articulately plan on why that is a good idea.

They are serious about withdrawing their support to the Skylight and I have been asked to post news of this effort and serve as a clearing house for other subscribers wishing to support this united effort. Bully to them for making it known through some pretty impactful means that this decision seems more reactive than proactive.

If you are a Skylight subscriber and you wish to join the organized effort to cancel your subscription send me an e-mail to jonathanwest@artsyschmartsy.com. I will forward your contact info on to the organizers and you can be included in this group effort.
Mused upon by Jonathan West at 10:09 AM
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3 smart alecky remarks:

Slinki65 said...

I don't have a subscription, but I am very tempted to buy one just so I can turn around and cancel it!!!!

10:48 AM
Anonymous said...

My concern with this approach is to promote the pulling broad-based support (donor or subscriber or ticket buyer) before you see what types and quality of production The Skylight intends to do going forward has the potential to be very damaging. If these folks truly care about the future of The Skylight - encouraging a broad audience to pull support and not attend is very counter productive, especially these days. It is NOT easy to develop and market a non-profit arts organization and to "show your support" for the old Skylight by damaging its future is not sound thinking. If you intend to help seal its fate, then I guess that is the best approach.

4:20 PM
Ferrando said...

I respectfully disagree with the previous anonymous poster. What means do the subscribers have to voice their displeasure, other than to withdraw their support? To offer an example, a few years ago PETA organized a take-over of the Dane County Humane Society (Wisconsin). Most donors were appalled by this turn of events, and stopped giving money. The same argument was made by the "new" board, which was basically this: "If you still love the Humane Society, and believe in its mission, you shouldn't stop giving money, just because it is now being run by PETA proxies." Well, it was precisely because people still believed in the original mission that they stopped offering support. Eventually it became clear to the board that the entity would fail due to a lack of donations and general disgust.
The PETA infiltrators were given the heave-ho, and the facility was put back on track. Donations immediately resumed, stronger than before.

So I don't think it is pointless for loyal subscribers to express their unhappiness by withdrawing support until things are fixed. Perhaps the Skylight board should have considered this possible outcome before proceeding in such a cavalier manner.

2:53 PM

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