Good morning! My name is Alan Jordan; I am the Executive Director for the Vermont Symphony Orchestra. Thank you for providing me with the opportunity to report on your Vermont Symphony Orchestra. Last year, I related to you the story of one Susi Learmonth, of East Corinth. She served as a regional trustee from the Upper Valley, and was instrumental, rather single-handedly, in ensuring that SymphonyKids educational outreach activities would take place every year in eastern Orange County schools. As expected, Susi ended her fight with cancer on August 31 st last year, having enjoyed a remarkable life of nearly 88 years. The Thetford Hill church was packed beyond capacity for Susi’s service, complete with lots of music, including a VSO string trio. The Susi Learmonth SymphonyKids Upper Valley Fund, a permanent fund within the VSO’s endowment, stood at nearly $80,000 as of December 31, 2013, providing enough funding to completely underwrite ten Musicians-in-the-School performances annually. Now, there is a legacy!
I will share with you another story. Our Summer Festival Tour brings the Vermont Symphony to idyllic outdoor settings across our beautiful state in late June and early July each year. Without question, it is our most popular offering, drawing audiences totaling more than 10,000. It is a celebration of music, family, food, drink, Vermont beauty, and Americana. It is also a significant money-maker for the Orchestra—that is, when Mother Nature cooperates. In 2013, only three of our eight concerts were able to be held outside. Two of those moved indoors were not because of rain falling that day, but because parking lots or concert fields were too soggy. The tour, with a memorable program of music from the Great American Songbook (possibly the best program never heard by many), resulted in a revenue shortfall of $90,000— in month eleven of our fiscal year, when little correction could be made. In my fifteen years at the VSO, this was the worst situation ever! Our conductor dubbed it the Sweaty High School Gymnasium tour. There is a silver lining: following the tour, we sent a letter out to our 1,200 donors asking them to consider making additional gifts to help us cover this shortfall. Astoundingly, 130 households made gifts totaling nearly $36,000, including three gifts of $5,000 each! This is a testament to the strength of our organization, and to the value Vermonters place on the VSO.
The materials sent to you in advance include reference to our financial results of last season: with a $56,000 operating loss last year, we now manage an accumulated deficit of $417,000. Please note: this is not an external debt. The deficit represents on paper the amount of money the VSO has brought in net of its operating expenditures over its 79-year lifetime. How do we cover this gap? Much of it is through cash flow management, with help from a line of credit to accommodate our annual ebb and flow cash cycle. Perspective is also required: while what the public sees is the Symphony’s concert operations across Vermont, we also undertake occasional special projects and oversee a sizeable endowment. Indeed, that $417,000 accumulated operating deficit represents only 8-½% of our total assets of almost $4.9 million. Finally—and not to get too technical—GAAP (or Generally Accepted Accounting Principals) require non-profits to count investment losses as unrestricted, or operating, losses; while investment gains are considered temporarily restricted. Although the reasoning for this is understandable, it can create a misleading presumption. Our FY13 audit shows that $417,000 operating deficit, but there is also a temporarily restricted surplus in excess of $1 million. Please rest assured that the VSO is on firm financial ground.
You will note on our presentation that we budget for an operating surplus, and we will continue that strategy as a way to slowly reduce our deficit over time. As the chart shows, this deficit has contracted and expanded during the last 15 years. Before the recession, we were getting close to eliminating it entirely, and we started making progress again before the last two years. Some in our organization question what level of priority we place on eliminating the deficit: while it adds another complication, it does not prevent us from fulfilling our mission. As an organization, we are committed to reducing and eliminating the deficit; however, we will not substantially alter or curtail our operations to hasten that outcome.
I would like to share one clarification to our presentation: the map that shows over 300 community partners during the 2010-2012 period includes not only schools, but other non-profits, social service and religious organizations, and businesses that work with the VSO to present great music in their communities.
Vermont Symphony Orchestra Community Partners: The VSO partners with more than 300 schools, colleges and universities, cultural and social service organizations, faith-based groups, government entities, corporations, and foundations.
Vermont Symphony Orchestra Partners Between 2010-12, the VSO’s more than 300 partners included the following cultural and social service organizations, faith-based groups, government entities, corporations/foundations, colleges/universities, and schools: CULTURAL ORGANIZATIONS CORPORATIONS OR FOUNDATIONS Barnet Elementary Barre Opera House Gardener's Supply Barre City Elementary Brattleboro Museum and Art Center, Inc. Heritage Flight Aviation Barre Town Elementary Burlington City Arts Higher Ground Barstow Memorial School Champlain Valley Exposition Jay Peak Resort Barton Graded School Chandler Music Hall Lodge at Shelburne Bay Senior Living Community Beeman Elementary Flynn Center for the Performing Arts Mountain Top Inn Bellows Falls Central School Haskell Opera House New England Federal Credit Union Bellows Falls Middle & High Schools Henry Sheldon Museum, The Oak Hill Children's Center Bellows Free Academy Fairfax Hildene Quechee Lakes Landowners Association Bellows Free Academy-St. Albans Paramount Center, Inc. Seven Days Bennington Elementary Pentangle Council on the Arts Sugarbush Resort Benson Village School Shelburne Farms Suicide Six Ski Area Berkshire Elementary School Shelburne Museum Three Stallion Inn Berlin Elementary School Stowe Performing Arts Trapp Family Lodge Bernice Ray Elementary Tunbridge World's Fair Vermont Festivals, LLC Bethel Elementary School Vergennes Opera House Wake Robin Bingham Memorial School Vermont Youth Orchestra Association Windham Foundation Bishop Marshall School Woodstock Inn. Blue Mountain Union School SOCIAL SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS Bradford Academy Boys and Girls Club of Brandon COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES Braintree Elementary Castleton Community Center Castleton State College Brewster Pierce Elementary Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf Johnson State College Bridge School Our Place Drop In Center Lakefield College School Bridgewater Village School Pownal Headstart Lyndon State College Bridport Central School Rutland Food Shelf Middlebury College Brighton Elementary St. Michael's College Bristol Elementary FAITH-BASED GROUPS University of Vermont Brookfield Elementary Brandon Congregational Church Brookline Elementary School First Congregational Church SCHOOLS Brownington Central School Grace Church & Little Lambs Academy School Burke Town School Salisbury Congregational Church Addison Central School Burr and Burton Academy Warren United Church Albany Community School Cabot Elementary White Church, The Albert Bridge School Calais Elementary School Alburgh Elementary School Cambridge Elementary GOVERNMENT ENTITIES Allen Brook School Castleton Elementary School City of Bellows Falls Arlington Middle School Cavendish Town Elementary School South Burlington Library Athens/Grafton Elementary Chamberlin Elementary Town of Stowe Bakersfield Elementary Champlain College Vermont State House Barnard Academy Champlain Elementary School
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