The Island Housing Trust is dramatically increasing its fund-raising as part of its aim to become a self-sufficient organization, after a thorough reexamination of its organization over the past year was prompted by financial fallout at its longtime funding source, the Island Affordable Housing Fund.

Apple Appreciation

Katie Brewer won an Apple i-Pad as part of the Martha’s Vineyard Savings Bank’s customer appreciation week, when customers and visitors were treated to refreshments and gifts from Feb. 22 to 25 in all eight branches of the financial group.

Each branch held a raffle drawing for a $50 American Express gift card with one winner per branch, and at week’s end one grand prize drawing of an i-Pad.

On Monday the Up-Island School District agreed to grant West Tisbury more representation during the completion of more than $1.5 million worth of repairs to the West Tisbury School in the coming months.

While selectmen had hoped to assemble a formal building committee to oversee the repairs, on Monday they were content to heed the recommendations of the school committee and simply add three members to the school district’s own building committee.

Grants Awarded

Social Media Talk

Mounting a social media strategy can be a tongue tying experience. It’s an essential component to business strategy today and yet the world is still so new the path is foggy at best. This Tuesday, March 22 from the 6 to 8 p.m. the lighthouse blinks through the mist.

The scope of one homeowner’s unpermitted dredging and filling work on Mink Meadows Pond became apparent on Tuesday night when conservation commission members heard from a land surveyor and the contractor who carried out the work.

Oliver Carson Wins Bee

For the second year in a row, Oliver Carson, now a seventh grader, won the Oak Bluffs School Geography Bee sponsored by National Geographic. Oliver edged out sixth grader Ellie Hanjian in the final round by knowing that the tallest mountain in Africa is Mt. Kilimanjaro. Oliver has taken a written exam to try to qualify for the Massachusetts State Geography Bee which will take place in April. The winner from the state bee competes in Washington, D.C. in the National Geography Bee.

Chilmark fire chief David Norton took a little heat of a different kind on Tuesday night, as he pushed his case with selectmen for a pay raise of more than 50 per cent.

Mr. Norton’s current stipend is $21,000. He wanted it upped to $33,000. And that figure, he suggested, was giving the town a discount.

Vineyard residents between the ages of 15 and 19, in the upper one third of their academic class, who want to be a world traveler, should take note of the Rotary Club of Martha’s Vineyard offer of a short-term exchange in 2011. With the short-term exchange the Island student will go overseas for about three weeks during the summer vacation, staying with a Rotary family abroad that also has a teenaged student. At the end of the stay, the foreign teenager will return and spend about three weeks with the Vineyard student’s family.

This is the big centennial year for the Martha’s Vineyard Rod and Gun Club. While the club members haven’t yet figured out how to celebrate, they’ve taken one first step to capitalize on the milestone: They’ve come out with 100 special, limited edition, numbered hats.