L GB T community center, what's up?

Last Thursday on January 26, 2011 the Milwaukee LGB T community center held a meeting to discuss its future. Now for health reasons I was not able to make the meeting but I still want to know exactly what went on at that meeting. I was assured that at the time that the minutes of the meeting would be published so that those people who could not make the meeting would know what went on. At that time I posted my concerns on Facebook and was told by a person who apparently volunteered to do advertising, marketing and promotion for the centerthat the minutes would soon be published. She indicated that the minutes would be published soon and another person that I know very well and emphatically told me to lay back and chill out. It's been over a week and nothing's happened. Being the impatient soul that I am I called the interim director who indicated also that the minutes would be published. Apparently he really didn't want to talk to me because conveniently in the middle of our conversation indicated to me that there was somebody else on the other line, a common tactic used by people on the phone when they don't want to talk to you or answer any more of your questions because you're delving a little bit too deep and making them very uncomfortable.

I still have questions however that remain unanswered, for instance when Maggie Cage was involved with the center and she demanded that Murrieta Cardenas from the cream city foundation, when she came to inquire about how some money was being spent told Maria to get out, which she did in tears. It wasn't until I and the Wisconsin Gazette inquired about this and other incidents including the $70,000 in debt that was revealed in 2011 auditthat she suddenly resigned her position and was reassigned to the mental health position. Later on as we all know she was fired and is no longer associated with the LGB T Ctr. Unnamed sources who desire not to be named and indicated that the debt has increased to over $100,000. Why the board didn't immediately call Maggie Cage on the floor for her actions is beyond me. As far as I am concerned the complete board is culpable for their actions including the acting interim director. For the LGB T Ctr. to survive a complete new board has to replace the old board. The old bylaws must be thrown out and new bylaws instituted replacing the ones that were not followed. Their self perpetuating board needs to be dissolved and a democratic form of leadership instituted. As a worst-case scenario I think the LG BT center may need to dissolve its corporate status and start over under a new name and a new location. Unfortunately this I think is the only way than LGB T Ctr. can survive.

I understand Diverse and Resilient's decision to cancel negotiations with the possible merger of the LGB T Ctr. I don't think that Diverse and Resilient could handle the monumental debt that it would incur. The fact is that certain fairly wealthy people within our community no longer want to contribute monetarily to the center. Because of the recession many of the grants that the center depended on have dried up also, and contrary to popular belief the rest of the gay and lesbian population don't have as much disposable income as people would like to believe. I really don't believe the fundraising activities that they are trying to institute will be enough to keep the center going.

I do understand that there are certain activities such as Project Q and the breast cancer program are important to our community. The problem is however that many of the other activities that the center supports are duplicated by other organizations. However I do believe that some of these other organizations will in turn suffer if the LGB T Ctr. goes belly up.

A similar situation happened with Action Wisconsinof  when they sturred  up a hornets nest concerning the marriage issue. At the time I was on their board and I told them that they needed to get domestic partnership first, and once they got that then and only then go after the marriage thing. But they wouldn't have it, it was all or nothing and unfortunately now we have nothing because the religious right changed the Wisconsin Constitution banning gay marriage and only making marriage between one man and one woman. Action Wisconsin in order to continue realized  that they had to change their name and location in order to continue operations, which they did. This is what I think would be the next and most logical step for the Milwaukee LGB T Ctr. to do. Believe me I take no pleasure in being a doomsayer but I think that this is the only way our LGB T Ctr. will ever survive.