Amos Fortune Forum Will Be Virtual This Summer

The Amos Fortune Forum opens the summer series on Friday, July 9 and will run through August 13. Speakers will be virtual this season rather than live at the Meetinghouse due to COVID precautions. You can tune in on Friday nights at 8pm on the Amos Fortune website and or watch it later if you miss the live stream.

The Amos Fortune Forum, founded in 1946, welcomes residents and friends of the Monadnock region to hear notable speakers present their ideas on issues of public interest and importance. Often they review their recently written books. Many of the speakers have family ties in the Monadnock and surrounding regions. These lectures take place on Friday evenings in July and August, from 8 PM to 9 PM, at the historic Meetinghouse built on the Jaffrey Common in 1775. After the lectures, in pre-COVID years, there has been a chance to talk with the speaker personally at the Parish House of First Church in Jaffrey, where an informal reception is held with light refreshments.  

Amos Fortune Forum discussions on topics of current interest carry on the discussions held more than two centuries ago in this same Meetinghouse, when the foundations of our republic were being established by men and women who struggled for freedom and for human dignity. The enthusiastic response of the individuals who have been invited to address the Forum reflects a similar spirit. Furthermore, the lectures are a continuing tribute to Amos Fortune, one of Jaffrey’s most distinguished citizens. They are given without monetary compensation to the speakers who receive the traditional gallon of maple syrup.

The Amos Fortune Forum is free to the public, however a “Begging Bowl” is traditionally placed near the entrance door for free will donations. Operating expenses are partially offset by a generous annual bequest from the Grimshaw-Gudewicz Charitable Foundation.