Page 4

GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

Center

August, 1990

Continued from Page 1

part of his job from day one was to raise his own salary."

Laycock said he then made it his "personal number-one goal" to raise two year's salary for a high-caliber executive director, "so the director would not be immediately consumed with raising his or her own pay, but could work on consolidating the growth of the Center."

The Center's growth has been substantial. In the three years since it reorganized and moved to its present location, the Center's staff, programs, and budget have increased fivefold. Prior to 1988, the budget never exceeded $20,000. Last year's was $98,300, and projected expenditures for 1990, including the first year of the Cleveland Foundation grant, are $129,000.

With this growth comes the need not only to include an executive director on the staff, but also to create a workable structure for the organization and enhance the focus of the board of directors.

Under a grant from the Community AIDS Partnership Project, the Center board last winter began a series of retreats led by Ruth Goldberg of Allerhand & Associates, an organizational development and management consulting firm. During these retreats, a plan was developed for the Center's operation and growth for the next few years.

The board also hired two consultants to prepare a five-year comprehensive fundraising plan, and for the first time, a formal, outside audit was done of the Center's books for fiscal 1989. Board president Laycock says these audits will be done from now on.

"The Center is becoming more professional," said Laycock. "This is not always painless. It's hard to grow up, for people and for organizations.

During the retreats the directors worked out over a dozen goals for future expansion of the Center and its

programs. These include reaching out to closeted gays and lesbians, increased youth support, working to pass a Cleveland rights ordinance, and education of the heterosexual community, including media appearances and a speakers bureau.

Also on the horizon is a PRYSM spinoff group for lesbians and gays in their 20s, and additional rap groups, including one for gay and lesbian activists, dealing with issues such as internalized homophobia and burnout. Some of these programs are included in the $48,000 grant portion the Center is still seeking funding for.

The Center is also proposing an annual Lesbian-Gay History Month, to coincide with the Pride festivals in June. Laycock said this would include bringing in early gay and lesbian activists to speak.

"I'd like to see Quentin Crisp here in June, 1991, if we can pull it off," he said.

The history of the Center itself goes back 16 years. It was founded in 1974 as the Gay Education and Awareness Resources (GEAR) Foundation, which published High Gear newspaper, and began the Friday night rap group at the Free Clinic in University Circle. This group continues to meet at the Center.

The "Gay Switchboard" opened in 1976, forwarding calls to volunteers' homes from a dingy second-story room at West 25th Street and Clark Avenue.

GEAR opened the first Gay Community Center in the late spring of 1977 on the third floor of Coventryard Mall in Cleveland Heights. The following winter, an electrical fire destroyed the mall.

In the nine years following the fire, the GEAR center and hotline moved four times, the last in 1987 to the current location on West 29th Street, where the foundation reorganized and changed its name to the Lesbian-Gay Community Service Center of Greater Cleveland.▼

New date for Dancin' in Streets

by Rusty James

This year's fifth annual Dancin' in the Streets, originally scheduled for July 22, was postponed due to unfavorable weather on the day of the event. However, it will be up and running again on Sunday, August 19, from 1:00 to 10:30 p.m., at the same location, West Ninth and St. Clair.

Becaue af all the rain, there was a danger in operating the sound system

We've moved!

The weekend after the Fourth of July found Chronicle staffers packing and carrying as we moved to our new offices in the Flats.

The Chronicle offices are now at 2206 Superior Viaduct, on the first floor. Our phone number has been changed to 621-5280, but our mailing address is the same: P.O. Box 5426, Cleveland, 44101, as we cannot receive mail at the office.

"I'm so glad to have a private home again," said publisher Martha Pontoni. For the past three years, the paper has operated from her home in Cleveland Heights, making for turbulent living as staffers came and went, often at odd hours.

"The paper is growing," Pontoni went on, "This is just another step in the Chronicle's maturation from an all-volunteer operation to a properly run paper with a paid staff." Pontoni expects many more changes in the coming year including publishing on a bi-monthly basis.

"We will be having a grand open house to celebrate our new offices sometime in September" added Pontoni, "Watch the Chronicle for details."▼

outside, and without the sound system,

Center supporters gather in the lush gardens of the Schweinfurth home.

Photo by Pat Young

Garden Party benefit and auction

all the Dancin' just had to put on hold. raises $12,000 for Center

Dancin in the Streets began in 1985, as one of Jeff Swindler's spirited ideas for raising money to help a friend with AIDS, and soon blossomed into the most effective fundraiser for the Health Issues Taskforce, drawing over $33,000 last year alone.

The postponement of the event took place around 3:00 on the afternoon of July 22, when Swindler and his gang got the bleak news from the National Weather Service. It resulted in quite a bit of money down the drain, most of it spent on rented chairs, tables, and audio equipment. In addition, the food prepared for the street fair was set to be freely donated to shelters for the homeless, as it will have to be re-purchased for the next time around.

Though Swindler was quickly able to list the estimated four to five thousand dollars in losses caused by the unexpected downpour, he seemed optimistic and at ease in readying the crew for the fundraiser's new August date.

At about 3:30 that afternoon, the Dancin' volunteers were just about finished loading up a large moving truck, with a sidewalk full of drenched tables, chairs, and trellises to go. Surprisingly, there was still a crowd of partying young men and women smiling, laughing and of course, flirting, reluctant to leave even as the party was being torn down. These sights, and the optimism of Swindler and his crew, will promise more people and more fun when the weather improves.

If you would like more information about the August 19 date or are interested in volunteering for Dancin' in the Streets call the HIT office at 621-0766.▼

by Kathy Snyder

About 150 people attended the Lesbian-Gay Community Service Center's first major fund-raising event, the Garden Party Benefit, on July 15.

The benefit was a success, raising approximately $12,000 for the Center. These proceeds will be used to cover the routine expenses for which grant funding is not available. The Center has operating expenses of $350 per day.

The benefit was held at the Schweinfurth Home on East 75th Street in Cleveland. The gala began with a brunch catered by To Michael's/Catering Innovations and continued with an auction which ran through mid-afternoon.

Tickets sold in advance for $25 included the brunch and auction, while patrons who paid $50 were received an hour earlier and treated to a tour of the mansion by owners Richard Van Petten and Dale H. Smith.

Named after its architect, the Schweinfurth mansion was designed by the man responsible for many Cleveland landmarks, such as Cleveland State University's Mather Hall, the elaborate bridges over Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. and Trinity Cathedral.

Van Petten and Smith have opened their historical residence of 18 years before to tours benefiting such organizations as the Cleveland Play House and the orchestra.

"It was especially nice to be able to do [the benefit] for the Center," Smith said. "It struck home. These are people we love and want to help."

While ticket sales covered the event's expenses, the main moneymaker was the auction in both its live and silent forms. Over 60 silent-auction items were dis-

played and described on tables in the auction tent, and ranged from jewelry to art to professional services such as house cleaning and therapy for couples.

Nearly 30 more items went up for bid in the live auction, which was moderated by professional auctioneer Evelyn Hayes (also of the feminist comedy team Iris and Evelyn). Live auction treasures included a catered brunch for 20, an antique Western saddle, and a four-day weekend in Key West, Fla.

Articles to be auctioned were donated by a variety of sources, as Center board president Robert Laycock explained.

"Not all of the donors have been gay and lesbian," Laycock said. “There have been a lot of donors who are themselves straight who participate in and support the efforts of the community and the Center."

In addition to acting as a liaison between mainstream society and the lesbian-gay community, the Center offers more than a dozen services and programs. To maintain the annual operating budget of $128,000 for 1990, the Center realizes its need to host at least two special benefit events per year, and solicit members to become major donors. One-third of 1989's operating expenses were covered by such donors.

Laycock said: "We invite anybody to become a major donor it's not all that hard. Those giving $10 or $20 a month can become a major donor. A monthly payment spreads the contribution out, makes it a little bit easier, but what that amounts to in the course of the year is a very significant contribution to the Center."