GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE AUGUST 20, 1993

Rainbrook's challenge: internal overhaul and sensitivity

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Wertheim's replacement. Rainbrook is proposing to change the job description and have the title be "volunteer-program manager," but that requires board approval. She expects that, if the board goes along with her suggestion, she'll have the position filled in late September or early October.

Then there's the Living Room: That Center program needs replacements for both of its part-time coordinators, Jalal Naeem and Kyle Rose. Naeem left in early July to take a job in Washington, D.C.; Rose has turned in his resignation effective October 22. The new director wants to combine the two parttime positions into one full-time job, but again, that requires board approval before the posting and interview process begins.

And perhaps the most frustrating thing for Rainbrook is to have scores of volunteers that must be turned away or put on hold because there are not enough volunteer managers.

"The energy level is so high; more people are willing to do things than we can handle," she said. There is a whole interview, training, categorizing and managing process that volunteers go through, but "we don't have enough staff, we don't have enough volunteer managers. There's this terrible conflict between needing people but not being able to manage the overall task of what needs to be done," the director said.

Another high priority-one that Rainbrook stressed when she was being considered for the position—is a need to invite input from all community members and to build consensus on how the Center can best serve it. Notably, it was during the executive director hiring process that Center board member Peggi Cella accused the board of being insensitive to minorities and failing to serve a significant part of the community.

In a written opinion piece that was re-

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leased to the Chronicle and published in What She Wants, Cella cites three years of frustration, trying to get "the board to make anti-racism training (a workshop, a retreat) a priority. You'd think I asked people to change their sexual preference and go straight."

In the article, Cella writes, "In the fall of 1989, [I] was expected to be capable of bringing people of colors to the Center. I have definitely failed at this but the failure is not mine alone. It is a set-up to bring people of colors into a Center where 'diversity' rhetoric is continually coming out of the mouths of people who are not willing to do their anti-racism work first. What would people of colors be coming into?"

In reaction to her urging that the board make the hiring of a person of color as the new executive director a priority, Cella says the board's answer was unacceptable. "The response I received from the board president [Dolores Noll] was that we would make hiring a qualified person a priority. I can't imagine why 'people of colors' and 'qualified' never seem to be spoken in the same room on the same day much less in the same sentence."

Other parts of Cella's critique are directed at Rainbrook, Noll, the board, and what Cella says is the Center's general failure at self-education on racial sensitivity. She summarizes, "It is my feeling that presently, the Center is not serving the needs of this community, especially the needs of the women and people of colors in this community."

Noll was contacted for her reaction to the accusations, but declined to do so verbally, citing the seriousness of the charges. She is considering whether to issue a written response to Cella and the community. The board president did say, "I know Peggi is supportive of the Center. All of us on the board want the Center to be strong and include all of the community; it's important for all of us to keep this in mind."

As a result of Cella's outcry, Rainbrook

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found herself immediately playing peacemaker: "Feelings were kind of high for awhile because it had been sort of confrontational, but there's no question in my mind that the people on the board are committed to sensitivity to cultural diversity. ... I am, certainly, and I know that's true of the staff."

Rainbrook called the three black board members-Cella, Charles Kuykendall, and board secretary Scott Bibbs-and expressed her willingness to work with them and the African-American lesbian-gay community.

The black board members expanded their approach and are now coordinating with other people of colors and the group Stop Oppression and Racism (SOAR) to prepare for a forum scheduled for the evening of September 10. In this "fishbowl" presentation, the selected people of color will sit in the middle and speak their minds; white board and staff members along with others attending will be positioned along the outside perimeter and must remain silent.

The stinging commentary from Cella surprised the new executive director and made her rethink her attitudes. Rainbrook reflected, "I feel like all my life I've worked for civil rights... I have this vision of myself as this person who's really sort of racially sensitive and aware and Peggi has been able to make me realize that I still have these really condescending assumptions... And that's very distressing to hear because I don't see myself that way. It's a very painful thing to be confronted with. At the same time, it's true. It says to me that I need to be doing some work on myself in terms of paying more attention to this issue."

As the Center's new chief administrator, Rainbrook has several more challenges, some of which tie in with the minority bridgebuilding efforts. She is committed to getting the Center's word out through other organizations' mailing lists, and wants the Center's list to grow from the present 2,000 to at least 10,000 names. Adding mailing lists gives the Center a broader base for its fund raising purposes and allows it to connect with a larger non-gay community, she said.

that will take some time, "especially if we work with other organizations to share space," she said. Possible co-tenants could be any non-profit social change organization, not just a gay or lesbian one. "That will give us more flexibility in places we look at."

Now that she has had a brief chance to assess the Center's inner workings, Rainbrook has concluded that "The organization itself is not in good structural health; it's trying to do too much with too little resources. It's not clear about its priorities."

This has made Rainbrook turn her attention inward, instead of toward public-relations activities, at least for now.

"My highest priority for the next few months is going to be to address the internal issues and not worry too much about what the big world is doing and how they feel about gays," she said. "Because if we don't have these kind of things in order, we're going to continue to be tripping over each other and getting on each other's nerves."

And afterwards? "I feel like we do need to take a much more pro-active public relations role. It feels like the Center pretty much has been responsive to the media, but we as a center and as a community haven't had a program that says, 'This is the image we want to portray in the community,' and how do we go about doing that. That is something I would like to see addressed, but [not] until spring."

When asked if the Center will move beyond its traditional role of meeting space and information focal point, the director said, "It could, but I don't see it as a priority. I see the Center taking a more visible role in the community, participating more fully in the traditional non-profit sector and business community, and getting ourselves out of our own homosexual ghetto."

With all of these goals, Judy Rainbrook will be busy for the foreseeable future, reaching out to not just the disenfranchised lesbian and gay community, but to Greater Cleveland as well.

Her emphasis on databases of members, New York killer

potential donors, volunteers and community organizations means that another administrative person, not yet budgeted, will be needed. Also on her wish list is a staff person with group facilitation experience. "[Most of the] Center's programs are based on selfhelp and support," she said. "We need more support training from a staff person." That post, too, remains to be budgeted.

Her fund raising focus will be on donations more than grants, which will only be sought as seed money to start new programs. "It's real important for us not to become heavily dependent on grants, because they have a way of disappearing and wiping out your program. My emphasis is more on building our support base and going to a much wider community, including our straight friends," Rainbrook said.

Some of those donations are needed immediately to complete the Center's renovation project. While Rainbrook expects the Center to move out of its current building,

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berment deaths is "starting to get adequate and appropriate."

Foreman held a news conference August 8 along with Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and Mayor David Dinkins to announce the "Safe Bar" project.

The project-long planned but moved up because of the murders-will entail setting up lines of communication between bar owners and police precincts as well as leafleting at the bars and posting safety warnings around gay neighborhoods.

"The problem of pickup crimes has plagued gay bars for years, fed by perpetrators' recognition of the unlikelihood of the crime being reported," Foreman said.

So far this year the Anti-Violence Project has received 32 reports of pickup crimes.

"To say that's a fraction is an understatement," said Foreman.

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