As usual

The Spring Membership Drive begins on Monday, and the studio is in a preparatory frenzy as usual. And as usual, you will find an alluring assortment of goods and services to encourage your support (including some stuff that can only be characterized as highly cool). And you will hear the usual public radio celebrities, national and home-grown, making the case for member support. The usual volunteers will staff the phone room and chow down on the usual food and snack donations. So it has been for many years--fifty weeks to make the radio, two weeks a year to make the members who make it all work.

But these are not usual times; these are hard times. Like you, we are tightening our belts as much as we can--thinking hard about where the dollars come from and where each dollar goes. The biggest share of our support comes from small gifts, made by people with ordinary means--the kind of gifts we ask for each spring during this drive. More people than ever may be looking in their wallets this year and concluding that they can't give as much as they could in fatter times. Been there. Whatever you can do is welcome and more than welcome. We never forget who "brung us to the dance."

But if you have been a listener for years, someone who has thought about becoming a member one of these days--this is the day. Start small; dip a toe in the water, but don't kick the can down the road another year. If you're in one of our new service areas along Lake Champlain or on the Tug Hill, welcome. NCPR invested in your community to build this service, please consider returning the favor. And thanks to everyone who has already made a membership gift this year.