BY ELIZABETH HANE

last wrote to inform you all

of the beginnings of the
“Online Archive Project.” The
goal of this project is to take all
the back-issues of Out in the
Mountains and make them
accessible on the web. OITM
didn’t become available online
until May of 1997, so all the
issues before that exist only in
paper copies, and not in elec-
tronic form. The process of tum-
ing them from paper into pixels
is tedious, but it has been well
worth the efi°ort!

By my reckoning, when
we started, we had 118 back
issues to put onto the web. Of
that, 29 are on the web, and 26
are “in process” (that is, waiting
to be posted, in web-prep or
being typed). That means we’ve
got 25 percent of the back copies
on the web, and 22 percent “in
process.” Considering that the
first back issue was posted just
16 months ago, in February of
2001, that's pretty amazing!
Especially considering this is all
the work of unpaid volunteers,
we have much to be proud of in
this project.

The topic of volunteers
is one that keeps cropping up
again and again, both in my own
work as Online Archive
Director, and in the articles we
read in the papers that we have
been transcribing and posting to
the web. Volunteer burnout is a
major factor in our community.
Looking at back issues, I find
that, in fact, the newspaper fold-
ed briefly in December of 1989
because the people who were
writing, publishing, and distrib-
uting the paper were so exhaust-
ed they could not continue. The
paper was resurrected in March
of 1990 as a 4-page paper with
these words at the beginning:

“Out in the Mountains
may have been down, but con-
trary to its name it’s certainly
not out. An outpouring of help
and support from OITM’s read-
ership has resurrected the paper
and saved it from the point of
collapse.

A lack of volunteers
and burnout alping the core
members of the collective had
put OITM on hold and drawn
dire warnings that the last issue
was just that — the last issue.

It’s been 18 months since I

To see the online archive, visit:

. happened, since the same names

http://www. mountainpridemedia. org/biackiss. htm

 

However, a meeting on February
17th to determine the future of
OITM drew nearly 45 people
from across the state to Fletcher
Free Library in Burlington and
showed that OITM must contin-
ue to fill a need among the gay,
lesbian and bisexual population
in Vermont (especially those liv-
ing in remote areas) to receive
news on local and national
events as well as listings of
resources and connections.”
Looking through the

papers in the late 1980’s, it’s
easy to see how this exhaustion

are constantly coming up as the
people who write, organize,
publish and distribute the paper.
Burnout is a constant problem
for activists, particularly when
it’s hard to see concrete evidence
of progress. The 1980’s saw a
flurry of articles about the lack
of progress fighting AIDS and
about the defeat of the non-dis-
crimination legislation in the
Vennont senate. I find myself
wanting to go back to the frus-
trated people writing those arti-
cles and say, “Hold on! Help is
coming!”

The Archive Project too
has definitely seen its share of
burnout, even in just a couple of
years. Several of the early enthu-
siastic volunteers have moved on
and gotten busy with other
aspects of their lives. We recruit
new volunteers to help, but the
work is slow and at times seems
overwhelming. The good news is
that we have gotten a $2,000
Challenge Grant from the
Vermont Community
Foundation. Money raised for
this project will be matched dol-
lar for dollar by VCF. Money
donated to the archive project
can be used to send the tran-
scribed copies of the paper to
paid professionals who will pre-
pare them for the web, giving
the tired fingers of our volun-
teers a rest. Donations can be
sent to Mountain Pride Media,
POB 1078, Richmond VT05477.

Both Vermont and the
paper have come a long way
since 1986. If Vennont can move
from having no protections for
sexual orientation to its present
status in 16 years, that provides
me with tremendous hope for
progress that may be possible in
the rest of the country, and what
we may yet achieve here. V