COURTESY OF Q-MOB
Q-MoB offers more than 15 monthly events, including hiking, arts and culture outings, potlucks, game nights, restaurant outings, bar and pub outings, fitness classes, and an online weekly support group.
a broader community,” says Bruce Moore, a Q-MoB founding member and architectural principal at Red House Design in Great Barrington.
“ If they’ re going to be here, or they’ ve got friends they can stay with, they’ ll come up because of an interesting event,” adds Church,“ and they can meet local people who also love the arts. Our core audience is definitely rural queer men that need community and connection while doing activities that they love. But there are lots of tourists and lots of people in the region who also are looking for the same kind of community, and they’ ll drive to come to things that are really interesting to them that they can’ t get elsewhere. We have world-class art and food here, and people will drive just because it’ s pretty special.
“ The secret sauce to building robust friendship networks is regular, fun activities that you can get to know people over time. That’ s why I think what we’ re doing is working out so well.”
Author’ s note: Bart Church was instrumental in helping to pull together this special section that will become a regular feature in Berkshire Magazine. Bart is not only Q-MoB’ s interim webmaster and program coordinator. He helps Q-MoB’ s steering committee and group co-facilitators to build the organizational infrastructure necessary for Q-MoB to become a 501( c) 3 non-profit organization and manifest its mission and values across the large rural region it serves. Church founded the Human Rights Campaign’ s AIDS Lobby Project in 1984 that went on to being instrumental in getting the first major funding for NIH & CDC retrovirus research and got the Americans with Disabilities Act amended to include people with communicable chronic diseases. Church also was the founder of SMYAL( Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League) in 1986 in Washington, D. C., which has grown into one of the largest queer-youth serving organizations in the U. S. Church was the founding executive director for nine years of Manifest Men’ s Wellness Community, a nonprofit organization in Portland, Oregon, that provided extensive wellness and prevention programs, activity /
support groups, and resources. He now works as the Strategic Projects Facilitator for Aztech Geothermal, LLC helping to coordinate 17 large community geothermal / renewable energy projects in cities across upstate New York and Massachusetts. n
Check our events listings on the following pages for more Q-MoB happenings.
Q-MoB Monthly Activities
Potluck Salons on 2nd Sundays Hikes 1st & 3rd Sundays, 11 a. m.-1 p. m. Fitness Classes 1 – 2 times / month Game Nights 3rd Tuesday evening
Restaurant Outings( Dining Club), 1st & 3rd Sunday lunches & 2nd Saturday dinners
Arts / Music / Theater Outings 2 times a month at various venues & dates
Bar / Pub Outings 1 – 2 times a month at various venues & dates
Dance Events 1 – 2 times / month at various venues / dates
queermenoftheberkshires. org
May / June 2023 BERKSHIRE MAGAZINE // 73