It was taking too long. Something’s wrong. This ain’t gonna happen. ECMA, Pit Pony, the Bette Show, Bemus Tun, Newfoundland, the end of the Revue, new found jobs for Kelley and me, the money for Jeff’s job almost gone; it wasn’t that morale was at an all-time low, it was more like energy was diverted and diffused in many more directions than usual. Not unfocussed, just focussed elsewhere, spent on almost anything other than WGO#32. It was February, one of the Canadian months without a long weekend. People get sick cause it’s winter and everyone’s hoping for a storm to shut things down for a few days but around here the weather just doesn’t do that anymore. Then March Break comes along with a week off and then Easter gives up a few more days and suddenly everyone’s like, “When’s the next issue coming out?”
You’d think it’d get easier, but we almost packed ‘er in for real this time. As of now, WGO #32, production has halted on What’s Goin On Magazine until we can get some kind of plan in place to run this animal. Volunteerism has been great, it’s wonderful to support a cause, and a few of us have even managed to obtain part time employment to support this habit, but things can’t go on this way. This magazine started for a reason and it will continue with a reason. At a time of such high unemployment and the crumbling of “traditional” industry, we have something new that could contribute to the economy by creating jobs and supporting the development of a new industrial focus. But ya gotta have a plan. A good idea ain’t good enough. So we are constructing a plan.
Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation has assisted the magazine in covering the East Coast Music Awards by partially (and substantially) funding our participation in the Tradeshow for the past couple of years and most recently, a Human Resources Development Canada program administered by the Nova Scotia Cultural Network helped to fund the creation of one full-time job at What’s Goin On Publishing (for 29 weeks) enabling us to hire Jeff Winship. But except for a $2000 grant in 1997 from the Cultural Affairs Division of the Nova Scotia Department of Education and Culture and the generous support of the community at two fundraisers, this business has been run without monetary investment, yet managed to run practically debt-free for three years. Of course practically no one got paid either and that’s what’s got to change.
Running Cape Breton Island’s arts & entertainment magazine has been a swell hobby, but it’s a full-time job as well. And not just one job at that. It’s flattering to have such talented people volunteering their time and expertise, but it’s frustrating to know that things could be so much better, could run so much more smoothly if the whole relationship was more formalized. This is a business plan we’re talking about here, a plan to be in the business of publishing a monthly arts and entertainment magazine – every month.
We’ve taken things as far as they can go with what we have. Now it’s time to take the next step and it’s a big one. But it’s got to be done. Thank you readers, contributors, subscribers and supporters and don’t worry, number 33 is just around the corner.
