My name is John Funkhouser, and I am a musician living in Needham. I teach at Berklee College of Music and am a regular performer and Jazz Jam host (3rd Tuesday of every month) at TCAN.

I am dismayed to hear of the Board's decision to fire Michael Moran. I think the Board has made a disastrous mistake. Michael Moran IS TCAN. He is the the heart and soul and the public face of TCAN that all of us volunteers know and love. He is the reason TCAN (and its Board) even exists! Michael built TCAN from nothing into a wonderful and vibrant organization. He built it by investing unbelievable amounts of engergy into getting people to come to listen and play music and volunteer and
teach and perform, etc. ,etc. TCAN is his BABY, his vision. How can you expect to find someone else that would put that kind of energy into TCAN?

Personally, I don't come to host the Jazz Jam or perform with other groups at TCAN because I get paid well (I'm lucky to make $20 in a night there). I come because Michael has fostered a beautiful comminity of musicians which I enjoy and deeply value being a part of. I go to many jam sessions at other jazz venues, and TCAN is the best, most friendly place to play jazz in Massachusetts. Most club owners ignore the musicians completely, or aren't even there in the evening. The first time I walked in the door of TCAN, however, Michael walked right up to me and introduced himself and gave me a warm welcome. He already knew my name and made me feel like I mattered to him. And I know I do. And I know every other musician and volunteer matters to him--personally. That's the way he treats everyone who comes to TCAN and it is that passion for people and networking combined with his incredible and
sustained enthusiasm for the whole TCAN project that make Michael indispensible and irreplaceable.

If TCAN were just an organization, (which it would be without Michael), I never would have taken an interest in it. A great Arts Center is not built by fundraising (although I clearly understand that fundraising is of paramount importance), it is built by developing a community of interested people like myself, ONE PERSON AT A TIME, one connection at a time. Anyone you find to take Michael's place will certainly do his job and may work very hard, but it's very hard for me to imagine anyone having the kind of utter devotion and sense of mission that Michael has for TCAN.

In closing, I would like to reiterate that I believe the Board is making a grave and terrible mistake in letting Michael go. I believe in TCAN and what it stands for and what it does, but I do not believe in TCAN without Michael Moran. Until the Board works out its differences with Michael, you can count on my LACK of support for the Board and for TCAN in general. I plan to boycott TCAN and encourage everyone I know, including the entire Berklee Community to do the same until the Board's
differences with Michael Moran have been resolved.