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Pride peace pursued
To the E ditor :
The board of Pride Northwest Inc. again
would like to thank all the volunteers who spent
pride weekend working at the event so we could
all have a sun-filled celebration of our lives and
our families. It was the biggest pride celebration
we have had, and there were the most volun
teers we have had for several years.
At the beginning of the year, we asked the
community to help us produce the event, and
you did! We really could not have done it with
out all the help we got. Thank you!
Financially, pride was also a success this year.
Several years ago, pride was operating in the red.
This year, we raised approximately $52,000,
and our expenses were approximately $45,000.
A copy of our 2000 budget to date is available at
www.pridenw.org.
We still are receiving bills from this year’s
event. We continue to struggle with the best
ways to financially maintain pride.
There are advantages and disadvantages to
all of our fund-raising efforts. Every year, we dis
cuss the pros and cons of the different options.
A considerable amount of time was spent at
a community meeting last fall discussing fund
raising options, and some of the suggestions
were implemented this year. At that meeting,
there was also strong interest in pride hosting a
second stage during the event, which we were
able to successfully produce this year.
As some of you know, two of our board mem
bers from Pride 2000 are no longer on the board.
Our board is self-electing, as are many boards.
Every year, we hold a board election. Ten
board members were voted upon by the other
hoard members. (Our bylaws do not allow us to
vote for ourselves.)
Only two of the hoard members received un
animous votes. Two others failed to get a majority.
The board is continuing to carefully consider
and review the dissatisfaction expressed by some
individuals. When our review is complete, we
will publish a forma! response to the community.
Lastly, the Pride Northwest board will con
tinue to have open meetings, and we encourage
members of the community to join us. We will
be setting the meeting schedule at our retreat
later this summer, and the meeting dates and
location will be listed on our Web site or avail
able on our phone line at (503) 295-9788.
T he B oard
of
P ride N orthwest I n c .
Reconsider the process
To the E ditor :
Dear Members of the Pride Northwest Board:
First, I want to congratulate you for completing
another Portland pride celebration. This event is
very important to our sense of community.
It is especially important to the children,
youth and newly “out” adults who have no idea
of how many and how varied we are. I’m grate
ful that although the pride hoard was laboring
under the stress of internal differences and hurt
feelings, you were able to work together to com
plete Pride 2000.
I am deeply distressed to hear of the removal
of Tamara Swan and Janna MacAuslan from the
pride hoard. Both of these women have dedicat
ed many hours of volunteer labor and love to
serving our community, and it disturbs me to
hear that their efforts have been met with rejec
tion of their offer of continuing service.
Working together is never easy. It is espe
cially difficult for people who face the daily
stress of discrimination. It is more difficult still
when you deliberately gather a diverse group of
people who have different expectations and
work styles.
I do not believe organizational problems can
be solved through the elimination of several
participants. All too often, groups under stress
decide to “solve” the problem by identifying one
or two people as “the problem” and eliminating
them. This form of internal warfare will leave
the dominant group with more sense of control,
but it rarely solves the underlying issue of meet
ing the needs of a diverse community.
I know many of you and have worked with
you in a variety of situations over a number of
years. Each of you brings unique skills and per
spectives that strengthen our community and
move us toward the common goal of gaining jus
tice for sexual minorities.
I urge you to reconsider the process you used
to address your internal group process conflicts.
I hope you can find a way to bring Tamara and
Janna back to the board and to work together. I
hope you will seek this solution not as a com
promise but as a positive step toward celebrating
your work and strengthening the community.
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Accountability demanded
To the E ditor :
Everyone who attended Pride Northwest’s
community meeting July 13 or read “The Wait
ing Game” in the July 21 issue of Just Out is
aware we have brought forth several serious
complaints concerning nonprofit guideline vio
lations and financial mismanagement by the
board. Most of these issues are described in a for
mal letter of complaint we addressed to the
board of Pride Northwest.
After a dissatisfying conclusion to the com
munity meeting, several attendees asked that a
second community meeting be held specifically
to address the issues we had raised. At that time,
Jack Keegan, Pride Northwest’s chair, agreed the
board would consider the request.
We have received word that the board of Pride
Northwest has decided not to schedule another
community meeting as requested. The board also
has declined requests for private mediation to
resolve the issues in the letter of complaint.
Because Pride Northwest has tax-exempt,
nonprofit status, it is owned by the community
and is required to be an open, accountable and
completely transparent organization. (Complete
details about nonprofit organizations can be
found on the Web site of the secretary of state,
www.doj .state.or. us/ChariGroup.)
We would like to invite the community to a
meeting 6-9 p.m. Aug. 23 at Metropolitan
Community Church of Portland, 2400 N.E.
Broadway. We would like to fully disclose our
concerns and ask the community for an appro
priate resolution.
To receive our list of complaints, please send
a request to tamaraswan@hotmail.com.
T amara S wan
J anna M ac A uslan
N ancy C ook
Portland
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Conte (productive cure
To the E ditor .-
We appreciate Jonathan Kipp’s article expos
ing the undemocratic policies and actions of the
Pride Northwest board members. The concerns
expressed by Jordana Sardo, who is the local
organizer of Radical Women, are not new.
Radical Women, a co-founder of pride cele
brations in Portland, has been raising the lack of
accessibility and democracy and free speech vio
lations to Pride Northwest for years. We identi
fy with the frustration and outrage generated by
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