Recently, circumstances forced us at Revitalize Gillett, Inc. to sit back and re-evaluate how we could best serve the community.  We were forced to terminate our manager due to lack of funds which put our Main Street Program, the largest program in our organization in jeopardy.  To be a member in good standing in the Main Street Program, a community must maintain a paid manager’s position.  We decided to turn to our mission for guidance in our organization evaluation.

Since our discussions and decisions could have an impact on the future of the Gillett Community, we decided to use this column for the next several weeks to outline our plan to the community and explain how we reached the decisions we have reached.  We hope that you will help us evaluate our approach.  Whether you agree or disagree, we hope you will contact us with any constructive criticism or positive thoughts you have.  You can contact us by e-mail at revitalizegillett.org or by phone to Kurt Darrow at 855-1554 and Brandon Miller at 855-1888.  No crank calls, please.  As you will see from this and future columns, your input and participation in the future of this organization will be critical to its success in its role for the future development of the community.

Our first discussion of the organization was whether to continue at all.  We have been so involved with the Main Street Program and it looked like we would not be able to continue in that program without a paid manager, and it was getting harder and harder to raise the funds to pay the manager. 

After much discussion we decided that the organization was not only defined by the Main Street Program and the organization should continue whether the Main Street Program continued or not.  We, as an organization, have achieved 501(c)(3) non-profit status which allows us to receive tax deductible donations from individuals and makes us eligible to be grant recipients in many instances.  We felt that designation alone was too important to lose.  We also decided that many of the projects in progress that we are involved with should not be abandoned, so the decision was made to continue the organization.

Once we decided to continue the organization, the question became  “ What direction should it take? “  For guidance along those lines, we turned to our mission statement.

TO BE CONTINUED