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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 15, 1993)
8 ▼ • • p t « m b « r 1 5 . 1 M 3 ▼ ju * t ou* Equality • Vision • Action national news You are invited to A C o n fe re n c e for Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals & P e o p le W ho S upport Us Conference Goal: To create a shared vision and action plan to prom ote equality No experts here. All participants will be equal in the process at this Search Conference facilitated by Len Leritz. Saturday, October 9, 1993 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Masonic Temple Building Torrie Osborn is standing arm in arm with Bill Clinton at a historic meeting with other gay and lesbian leaders from organizations, such as, the March on Washington and the Human Rights Campaign Fund. 1119 S.W. Park, Portland Osborn resigns NGLTF position Cost: $15 (includes lunch). Please make your reservation by September 24th. Limited to 150 participants. Call 503/775-5920 f o r m ore inform ation Endorsed by SOCPAC • E-Page • John E.A.G.L.E./l'S West Resource Baker • Lavender Net Group • Right Watch • work • Cascade AIDS Alternative Connection Project • Rural Organ- • Bisexual Network LESBIAN ▼ ▼ izin8 Project • Family, Oregon • Log Cabin P t/A lX * Friends and Neighbors • Oregon • Gay, Lesbian Oregon Sexual Minority Youth Bisexual Cultural Resource Center • Network • Equal Rights E.A.C., Portland Area Business Association Salem • Human Rights Campaign • GLEE (Gay <S; Lesbian Employees Fund • Gail Shibley • Gay Men’s Everywhere) • Educators for Equity Community Project • by jetfosher1 T% a ^ V C on feren ce R e g is tr a tio n F orm Name Mailing Address T e le p h o n e Organization Special n e e d s Gay leadership meltdown in Washington raises big questions T by Bob Roehr one Osborn announced her resigna tion as executive director of the Na tional Gay and Lesbian Task Force in a letter to the board of directors dated Sept. 3. It will become effective Nov. 1. This continues the leadership instability at NGLTF which began in May of last year when Urvashi Vaid announced her retirement after four years of leadership. Osborn said, “I came to Washington because my interests are to help with strategic thinking, framing an agenda, public speaking and articula tion of where the lesbian and gay movement is going. “The times have changed and exploded, partly due to my leadership but largely due to the times. This organization has just gone through a rapid expansion and the internal management demands, the pull inside, the day-to-day realities of being executive director managing an exploding orga nization did not fit with the woman who came to Washington to do big-picture strategic thinking and speaking. “We’ve become a victim of our own success, not just me but the movement’s success, and I’m plowed under . . . The bottom line is that the growth in the organization created a whole series of internal management demands that just don’t match my interests.” T Elizabeth Birch, co-chair of the NGLTF board, Fax Checks payable to: A d v o c a t e s f o r Gay a n d L e s b ia n E q u a l i t y 8700 S.W. 26th Ave., Suite T - 1 • Portland. OR 97219 said that the mismatch began to become apparent once people caught their breaths after the March on Washington. ‘T one and I together, as well as some other key board members that are close to Torie, we began to notice this, that it wasn’t working, that the mix was wrong and that Torie was frustrated. Some on the NGLTF staff were also frustrated with Osborn. She brought a strong executive management style to an organization which has traditionally run on more of a consensus model. In less than six months she created two new positions and hired three major staff members without following established administrative pro cedures for advertising and filling those posi tions. Osborn discussed in detail her reasons for doing so and concluded by saying, “I think that there are times when the executive director gets to hire whoever the hell she wants.” “I think she left some people spinning,” con ceded Birch. She supported Osborn’s choices but said, “the methodology could have been better thought through.” The most contentious of those new hires was David Smith, who recently began work as direc tor of communications, a post he held under Osborn at the Community Center in Los Angeles. Several on staff question both the way he was hired and his competence. Smith held a similar position with the short-lived Campaign for Mili tary Service, the coalition effort on lifting the military ban. Osborn informally proposed a structural change that would create a senior administrative position to handle internal chores, leaving her free to travel, speak and work on broader issues. She said that “as it was floated around [to some board members], it was clear that people just weren’t ready for it.” Birch added that the board “hasn’t even ad dressed it yet.” She expects they will discuss possible structural changes at their next meeting, in Detroit, in September, 10-11, but acknowl edged they are unlike to move as quickly and as far as Osborn would have liked. Osborn began seriously discussing resigna tion with some of the board leadership at a strate gic planning session in San Francisco in mid-July, at the same time she initiated discussions of possible structural changes. She denied that res ignation was a negotiation ploy to influence her call for the structural changes, saying that the two