As you know I asked Scott Gunkel, the president of pridefest for his take on what was going on with the financial situation with pridefest. I received an e-mail from him which I am attaching it to this blog for your edification. I was concerned because of all the stuff that had been going on this past season with pridefest especially with all the protesters and bad weather that they had. I was very concerned about how they were doing and I thought that you should know also. The only response we got after pridefest was a very small article in the gay newspapers assuring us that everything was okay, or at least that's what they wanted us to think. After that there was dead silence. This silence seemed to me to be kind of foreboding. As many of you know I have been a landlord for well over 30 years and one of the things I stress with my tenants is communication. If there is a problem I would like you to tell me about it so that we can work it out. I have gotten to the point that when people do not communicate I take that as a very bad sign that something is not right and I am usually forced to become proactive to find out what the problem is and correct it as necessary. I hate to say it, but the same situation as cropped up with pridefest because they have failed to communicate with the community at large I take this, or least took it as a bad sign. As a reporter I thought that it was necessary that I find out what was going on good or bad. Being the eternal optimist that I am I was hoping that the news would be good. I have provided the e-mail Mr. gunkel sent to me for your consideration. In my estimation it does look somewhat good and I am hoping that once the dust settles and Milwaukee world Festival's bill is presented to pridefest that everything will balance out. Let's just hope next year is better than the last one.
You definitely can't say I sugar coat the news. Please find below his response to me, and my original request to him. The sequence of letters is a little backwards , because the first request is at the bottom and the answer is up above. You may have to go all the way down to the bottom and work your way up to get the gist of it, such that it is. Take it for what it's worth.
Gary,
Your tone seems rather harsh and disparaging, and while I am not a master of retoric, I will give you the same information that was sent to all newspapers.
PrideFest does not list detailed annual reports on the website, and we have yet to have a detailed audit for this year endiing in August.
PrideFest is scheduling that to happen in October, the earliest that we have ever been ablt to arrange for our audit.
While PrideFest is very excited that our financial sponsorship is up more than 50%, and that our "in Kind" support is up more than 200%; also our Market Place vendors rented more spaces from us than ever before. Plus our Pre-sale tickets raised more than 2 1/2 times what last years did (much of that was due to the reserved seating section that we developed this year). With all that said, sadly I must report that PrideFest took a loss of around $16,500.00. This figure was only announced after we recieved and paid all the final bills outstanding, which unfornuatly takes time to arrive; Milwaukee World Festivals (MWF) send out our billing after they finish operating Summerfest; in the past that has been in late October. So while some preceive that we are stalling in making our final numbers known, it is due to the late arrival of our MWF billing.
PrideFest still had financial reserves in access of $110,000.00 and is in a strong position for next years Festival. There will be no call for emergency help out of PrideFest. Overall, PrideFest is happy with the final results. As you made mention of past issues, PrideFest's management of the financials has kept PrideFest in a strong position despite the terrible weather this years Festival had.
Let me also remind you that PrideFest is now and has been since the 2004 re-building, a all volunteer organization. Before 2004, some of the people who worked at prideFest were paid,I guess the fact that the community was not informed of such (and many other things)made the community less than trusting of PrideFest. While we hope someday to build PrideFest up strong enough to hire staff, that will not happen in the near future. When it does, PrideFest will proudly announce it to the media.
All of us who work on PrideFest do so as volunteers, and deserve the respect of the community for the work we do all year round to develop this event and organization.
Forward In Pride, Peace and Hope (Obama),
Scott D. Gunkel,
President PrideFest
Below is my letter to Mr. Gunkel requesting financial information about pridefest.
> Okay spill the beans. Give me some kind of financial figures. I think
> you owe it to the LGBT community before next year to really know how
> viable pridefest is. I am really not interested in all the sugar
> coated happy rhetoric that has been printed in the gay rags. If you
> don't know already you and pridefest are in my crosshairs. And I'm
> sure you know that I am not going away until someone comes forward
> with some kind of statement. The sooner the better. You already know
> my history with Wisconsin Light as a photojournalist. Retirement has
> now allowed me to take my journalism one step further and it's so much
> fun.
>
> I would rather have you or someone in your organization come forward
> first, rather than forcing me to dig up the information (and believe
> me I will) and that I assure you will not be good. I just don't want
> to see the same thing happen, that happened with the last Board of
> Directors. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. I just hope that
> history does not repeat itself.
>
> I can assure you the sooner we put this to bed sooner we can get on
> with whatever we have to do and forget this ever happened. For this
> reason I think this should be public and not private. Be assured that
> any information you do give me will be made public. That I can
> guarantee. I owe the LGBT community that much, don't you think?
>
> http://garysdish.blogspot.com/ and http://garyshangout.blogspot.com/
> (The Real Truth) you might just learn a few things. Some people hate
> me and call me all kinds of names, but they still can't stop reading
> my blogs. I wonder why that is? It's like the National Enquirer
> everybody hates it but they can't put it down. Smile
Below is a letter sent by Milwaukee world festivals to Mr. Gunkel at pridefest indicating my request for information.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: sgunkel@pridefest.com [mailto:sgunkel@pridefest.com]
> Sent: Friday, September 26, 2008 11:12 AM
> To: ghawkins@wi.rr.com
> Subject: Your inquiry
> Gary,
>
> I recieved a call from the people at Milwaukee World Festivals
> (Summerfest
> people) about your inquiry. They stated that you had questions
> concerning PrideFest. If you have any concerns or questions, please
> feel free to inquiry directly to me here at PrideFest. I will attempt
> to answer any and all questions you have or get the answers from those
> at PrideFest that might be able to assist you.
>
> Forward In Pride, Peace & Hope (Obama), Scott D. Gunkel, President
>
>
>
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
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