DECember 2009
the newsletter for Nuçi’s Space, a nonprofit musicians’ support/resource center
Getting It
nuçi’s space by
Bob Sleppy
A big challenge we have had at Nuçi’s Space since our inception in 2000 is trying to convey the full scope of our mission to the general public. Our audience often seems to be divided into two groups: those who “get it” and those who don’t. As some of you may know Nuçi’s Space has been involved in a dispute with our local tax assessor’s office regarding a property tax exemption we applied for in 2007. Unfortunately we do not have the space in our newsletter to effectively discuss the complexity of this issue. However, if you’d like to learn more about the case please visit our website to read a collection of newspaper articles. In general, our county government contends that Nuçi’s Space is not a “purely public charity,” as required for exemption of property taxes, because we generate income from the rental of our rehearsal rooms and performance area. The county, despite knowing that all of our earned income is used to fund our professional counseling assistance program, continues to challenge our exemption. To be clear, this is not a challenge to our IRS designation as a 501(c)3, charitable nonprofit. This dispute is strictly related to our exemption of local property taxes, a privilege that many other local nonprofit organizations and churches, with similar income sources, currently enjoy. The court process of this dispute has been long and tedious. However, Nuçi’s Space has been extremely fortunate to have Jim Warnes, our attorney in this case, as our guide and friend. The first time Linda and I met Jim was during a meeting to ask him for help with our case. He seemed to “get” Nuçi’s Space right away and offered to work on the case pro bono. Although we knew there was something special about Jim, it wasn’t until we heard him speak during our first appeal to the Board of Equalization that we realized the depth of his understanding of Nuçi’s Space and our mission. He spoke about us in a way that very few people can. Simply put, he “got it.” I often wonder why some people get us while others don’t. Obviously there are a plethora of answers to this question, and we know that we may never be able to
reach some people. There are, however, people who “get it” for one simple reason: they want to. We are thankful there are so many of you out there who want to support us just because you believe that Nuçi’s Space’s approach to providing treatment and a caring environment works. We know that this approach works because Nuçi’s Space has provided assistance to over 675 individuals, and made a positive impact on countless others. The concept of Nuçi’s Space is quite simple. Our goal is to create and maintain an environment that is friendly, supportive and free from stigma, and to provide access to professional help for those who need it. We do this by inviting community members to rent our practice spaces, providing a place for support groups to meet, and hosting music and art performances where the community can gather to appreciate the local arts scene. While they visit our facility, we introduce them to our mission and the programs we provide to the community. As a result, a relationship of friendship and mutual respect is formed, and those who once thought of themselves as guests to the Space soon realize that they were never guests. They are, and have always been, a part of the Nuçi’s Space family. I am hopeful that our case will move forward and will be reviewed by the Supreme Court of Georgia. However, my optimism is grounded in reality. Now it’s time to let this issue complete its course and hope for the best. In the meantime… We will continue to increase awareness of depression as a disease. We will continue to prevent suicide. We will continue to support those in need. We will continue. Thank you to everyone reading this letter for continuing to “get it.” We appreciate you more than you will ever know.
396 Oconee Street Athens, GA 30601 706.227.1515 space@nuci.org www.nuci.org
Newsletter Contributors
Bob Sleppy Will Kiser Michael McGough Laura Ford Design & Layout
Larry Tenner
S.P.A.C.E. Race 2009 Nuçi Phillips
Memorial Foundation
Board of Directors
President: Stephanie Sharp Vice President: Matt Justus Treasurer: Robert L. Bachman, CPA Secretary: Rebecca Hood, Drive-By Truckers Linda V. Phillips Pierre Phillips Patterson Hood Dr. Bill Orr Sally Speed Benjamin Roberts III Ellie MacKnight David Barbe Natalie Glenn K.P. Devlin Executive Director
Bob Sleppy Legal Counsel
Mike Lavender Jim Warnes
This year’s S.P.A.C.E. Race turned out to be the best one yet. There were 246 registered runners and 10 teams. The race itself was exciting with an incredible performance by overall race winner Sarah Madebach with a time of 17:42. Susan Adams and Allison Duncan were the second and third place females respectively. Michael Hague was the overall male winner with John Kellough and Ryan Bertram rounding out the top three. Full results and pictures are posted at www.nuci.org/ spacerace. The S.P.A.C.E. Race raised over $15,000 for the mission and programs of Nuçi’s Space, as well as raising awareness of the issues of suicide and depression. For many of the runners, this is their only interaction with Nuçi’s Space, so this was a great opportunity to share with them what we are all about. For others, Nuçi’s Space
Recent Donors
40 Watt Club Andrews, Jeffrey Bryan, Philip & Jane Casey, Noleen & John Cauthorn & Nohr, P.C. Clarke, Al & Sara Ferrelle, Dodd & Cameron Bliss Hays, Allison Hicks, Brandon & Heidi Lester, David Moore, Robert & Marina Mule Train Records Nettles, Victor Nicholls, Anna M. Pettigrew, Sharon & Harry Purdin, Heather R.E.M. Raeburn, Susan Delaney
Rosenberger, Charles & Chandler Schmidt, Christopher Schools, David Starrs, Chris Venable, Lucy Ward, Laura Watkins, Cathianne In Memory of Owen Beatty Glazer, Judith
is a part of their lives. Team Jared, this year’s top fundraising team, ran in memory of Jared Mclean. Team founder Sarah Walpert described this event as a “chance to make something good out of something that caused so much hurt and pain.”
Thanks go to all of the sponsors, runners, phantom runners, volunteers, staff, donors, and interns that made this event a huge success. We couldn’t have done it without you.
In Memory of Caroline Blackwood Blackwood Chance, Rachel
In Memory of Christopher M. Page Page, Cathy
In Memory of Andrew DeBona MCG SONAT Class of 2011
In Memory of Ben Hardman Hardman, Mary Talmadge
In Memory of Jon Guthrie Mallonee, Bill & Muriah Winthrop, Dr. Carol & Richard
In Memory of Pat Roberts Roberts, Don
In Memory of Randy Bewley Middleton, Laurie Crowe Crowe, Peggy
In Memery of Ted Hafer Bierema, Laura Emily, Todd Hourihan, Carrie
In Memory of Brian Cook Leeman, Karen Rosenfeld, Myra Becker, Linda & John
In Memory of Nuçi Phillips Carlin, Drs. Richard & Enid Ellenberg, Richard & Virginia McCarthy, Frances
In Memory of Alan Sleppy Sleppy, JoAnne In Memory of Brittany Stadler Hretz, Stevie In Memory of Sarah Anne Yaker Synge Yaker, Helen
“Just in case she gets locked out…” Nuçi’s Space founder gets key to the city Nuçi’s Space founder Linda Phillips was given an honorary key to the city on Saturday, October 24th from Athens mayor Heidi Davison. Phillips
Linda Phillips and Mayor Heidi Davison
founded the non-profit support center for musicians after losing her son Nuçi to suicide in 1996.
Phillips received the key in front of a packed house at the Space’s 9th Anniversary Celebration. The crowd included local musicians, family members, friends as well as patients who had benefited from Phillips’ service to the Athens community. The building on Oconee Street near downtown opened its doors in the fall of 2000 and since then has helped over 650 musicians obtain professional counseling for depression. Mayor Davison commended Phillips for her ability to turn the tragedy of losing her son into the creation of Nuçi’s Space. After 10 years of tireless work, Phillips is retiring from her role as counseling advocate and president of the Nuçi’s Space Board of Directors. In her time as mayor of Athens, Davison has presented keys to exiting commanders of the U.S. Navy Supply Corps School, AthFest founder Jared Bailey and the filmmaking team behind “Darius Goes West.”
Mule Train Records recently presented a check for $2,500 to Nuçi’s Space. The support of local businesses and organizations like Mule Train Records helps Nuçi’s Space continue to provide services to the creative community of Athens, GA.
nuçi’s space Staff
Bob Sleppy Will Kiser Laura Ford Michael McGough Dan Nettles Chris Byron Terrance Medina Roy Coughlin Kane Stanley
Camp Amped After School nuçi’s space
Student Organization President
Lindsey Epperly
Camp Amped After School, Nuçi’s Space’s year-round youth outreach program based on its successful summer camp, just finished its inaugural session and is already looking forward to Spring 2010! The 13-week program, produced in conjunction with the Athens School of Music, has both a private lesson and ensemble component. For CAAS Fall 09, a total of 13 young musicians formed 3 bands that wrote and learned original songs that they performed in a Grand Finale show at the Melting Point on November 15th. 2010’s session will last from February 4–May 2, and past participants of Camp Amped programs have until January 4th to apply. Young musicians who have not yet participated in a Camp program are welcome to go ahead and apply, and if there are still spots left after January 4th, applications by non-camp alumni will be reviewed in the order they were received. Applications are available now at Nuçi’s Space or at www.nuci.org. More information is available by visiting Nuçi’s Space’s website or by emailing Laura Ford at laura@nuci.org
CAAS Fall 2009 Participants: Nick Brown Philip Carpenter Robby Casso Ana Colon Jacob Conley Jack Hafer Kelton McAllister Sage Meneses Marisa Mustard Gedia Powell Jacob Samuelson Sean Van Meter Seth Walsh
CAAS Fall 2009 Instructors: Dan Nettles (Lead Instructor) Claire Campbell Thayer Sarrano Seth Hendershot Allen Owens Betsy Franck
Volunteer UGA Nuçi’s Space wouldn’t be able to get by without the help we receive from our dedicated volunteers. The projects we undertake would be way too big for our small staff to handle without the dedication of those people who dedicate their time and resources to Nuçi’s Space. We get help from families, individuals and groups—as evidenced by some of the projects that have taken place this fall. Volunteers set up and helped put on the S.P.A.C.E. Race 5K, the 9th Anniversary Party. Volunteers helped collate and label the newsletter you’re reading right now, which helps us save on printing cost and man hours. In early October we had a group of students from University of Georgia come clean up at Nuçi’s Space for an afternoon. The group is called Volunteer UGA and their executive board
chooses a service project each semester to work on. The Volunteer UGA members who helped clean up were Stephen Dorner, Sarah Alongi, Amy Forester, Kayla Calhoun, Pranav Kaushish, and Gaby Garcia. The group’s advisors, Lisa Kendall and Mark Torrez, were also on hand to help out.
FALL FUNDRAISING Nuçi’s Space has been busy this fall with fundraising—we auctioned products and gift certificates from local businesses as well as signed memorabilia from Drive-By Truckers, R.E.M. and Kris Kristofferson at our 9th Anniversary Party on October 23rd. We also raffled off a trip to Voodoo Fest 2009 in New Orleans and a brandnew scooter from Owl Scooters. All the proceeds from these raffles and auctions will help us to continue providing counseling as well as other services to local musicians and artists here in Athens. Here are some details:
an all-inclusive trip to the Voodoo music festival in New Orleans during Halloween weekend. The festival included sets from Drive-By Truckers and Widespread Panic, KISS, Eminem, Jane’s Addiction and The Black Lips among many others. The raffle winner received hotel, airfare and backstage passes as well as signed memorabilia and a little bit of spending money for the trip. Congratulations are in order to Sharon Burns of Duluth, Georgia, who won the raffle. The best part about Burns winning the raffle is that she
Rock N Raffle 2009 Our Rock N Raffle 2009 Fundraiser was a huge success—we sold over 11,000 tickets (in the form of $1 donations to Nuçi’s Space). The prize was
didn’t enter as a fan of any of the bands, or even as a music festival fan. She entered to support Nuçi’s Space because she was one of Nuçi Phillips’ teachers when he was young. Sharon’s ticket was selected at random at the office of Plexus Web on Pulaski Street on October 2nd. Many thanks go out to Stephanie Sharp and Plexus Web, Patterson and Rebecca Hood, Ellie MacKnight, Voodoo Fest and Natalie Glenn for making the raffle so successful!
Owl Scooter Raffle
Lily Buckley
The winner was selected randomly after our 6th Annual S.P.A.C.E. Race 5K on October 24th. Lily Buckley—a musician who also works at the 40 Watt Club downtown— was the winner. Thanks to the generosity of Jim Langlois, Ryan Lewis and the rest of the crew at Owl Scooters and Top Dog Scooters we were able to raise money to help support our nonprofit mission.
Interns
Allie Brantley Lindsey Epperly Tara Sutton Active Volunteers
Margaret Akinhanmi Isik Benson Devin Campanella Phillip Carpenter Michelle Carrier Wick Cauthorn Jayne Clamp Lesley Cobbs Mark Cunningham Kelly Defilippis Lori Dionne Fred Galyean Deborah Gimson Teresa Groover Katherine Guffey Emily Harper Meredith Hubbard Gina Jackson Joey Kegel Cynthia Krafft Kate McCann Julie McCollum Lorin Milk Nancy Milligan Katie Parker Paul Prae Norma Pylant Rischa Releford Jessica Rogers Morgan Ruedlinger Sarah Samuelson Mark Sanz Justin Schrampfer Lynne Seymour William Smith Amanda Sue Maddie Taylor Emily Thompson Erica Weber Kevan Williams
An Entire Decade This December 1st marked Executive Director Bob Sleppy’s 10 Year Anniversary with Nuçi’s Space. He worked with Linda Phillips to literally build Nuçi’s Space from the ground up, and the organization would not be where it is without him today. Bob, you will never know how much your efforts are appreciated by your staff, the many supporters of Nuçi’s Space, the citizens of Athens, and the families of over 600 musicians who have received assistance through Nuçi’s Space. Thank you for everything that you do.
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nuçi’s space 396 Oconee Street Athens, GA 30601
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