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Chair of Winslow Street Fund Responds:
Loan Was Proper
By Abby Saypen
This letter is in response to certain allegations published in Transgender Forum in an Nov. 17 article by Judy Osborne.
Fact #1:
The Winslow Street Fund was established and supported
by IFGE. To this day Winslow Street uses IFGE personnel, equipment,
money and offices to perform it's day to day functions and until
the last appeal Winslow Street used IFGE funds to support it's
mailings, stationary and other things. IFGE gave Winslow street access
to it's mailing lists, publicity in it's publications. All of
this was done at considerable direct expense to IFGE. This does
not count the indirect costs of competing with IFGE for donations.
Fact #2
As far back as 1992 when the new lease for the office
in Waltham was signed, Winslow Street guaranteed a ten thousand
security deposit. This occurred when Winslow Street was chaired
by Laura Smiley. so the precedent of Winslow Street making a guarantee
for IFGE was in place a long time before the current guarantee
Fact#3
Winslow Street is a part of IFGE It is an asset shown
on the IFGE'S balance Sheet. This has always been so. It was only
recently that there has any discussion of turning Winslow Street
into a separate 501(c)3 organization. This was considered not
feasible because of the costs associated with this action.
It is still not feasible. Winslow continues to grow and prosper
unfettered by the normal day to day cost of running an organization
and IFGE continues it's support of Winslow Street. If IFGE had
not been willing to pick up the costs associated building Winslow
Street you can be sure that our endowment and our ability to provide
funding for projects in the community would be substantially diminished by much more than the $15,000 we guaranteed on IFGE'S behalf
Fact#4
The trustees of Winslow Street need only a majority for
it's decisions on what to fund or what not to fund. In the case
of the guarantee that has raised so much controversy, the trustees were unanimous. That includes Kerri Reeder for
Kerri was part of that unanimous vote
It was only later that Kerri requested that some type of agreement be drawn. Even though
we didn't need Kerri's vote to extend the guarantee the trustees
agreed and an instrument was drawn. There was no time limit set
for the signing of the agreement only what the trustees felt was
prudent. The first communication that I received from Kerri on
the issue was by letter that I received today, November 24th.
You would think that Kerri would have at least have contacted
me as the chair of Winslow Street to express his concerns before
going public and accusing the trustees of raping Winslow Street.
Kerri Reeder is accusing the trustees and chair of rape and pillage.
What Kerri has done is to attempt to destroy the reputation of
Winslow Street, IFGE, Laura Caldwell and Myself. If you get past
the accusations and inferences, outright lies and character assassination,
what we are talking about is a guarantee of $15,000.
Mind you not one penny has gone to IFGE. Is this rape and pillage? All
of Kerri Reeder's statements should be viewed in this context.
And Judy Osborne should be sure to confirm her facts before she
publishes them under her byline. She says that she attempted to
contact me. I received a message from Judy and promptly returned
the call leaving a message on her machine. You would think that
before someone published something this incendiary they would
make at least one other call. Judy never had any trouble contacting
me before. Judy and I met in October
at Fantasia Fair. At that time I told her of Winslow Street plan
and she told me how much harm she thought IFGE was doing to the
community. What is this all about? A $15,000 loan guarantee!
IFGE is going to be hurt by all this. Of this I have no doubt.
Winslow Street will also be hurt.
Will the harm be irreparable? This I cannot say. But I do know
that the resources of the organizations in this community are
paper thin and we as a community cannot afford this type of name
calling and accusation. And anyone who does it should be held
up to the light of day and have their motivation questioned
So please support your local and national organizations.
Right now IFGE and Winslow need your support as never before So please
support us with a kind word and if you can a check. Our address
is P.O. Box 229 Waltham Ma.02154-0229.
Respectfully Submitted
Abby Saypen Chair
Winslow Street Fund
Judy’ Osborne Responds:
Whew! Lots of “facts”!
Whether IFGE took a loan or a “loan guarantee”, the single fact remains that
money was taken out of the Winslow Street stock account, it must be paid back
to that account or the account will be diminished, and no loan papers or
repayment schedule have been circulated to the community despite repeated
requests. The curious logic that says IFGE set a precedent by getting away
undetected with borrowing from Winslow once earlier, offers no justification.
Abby disputes one and only one item in my article; that she tried to
call me back and left a message. I didn’t get one. I continue to stand
by everything I wrote, including that.
IFGE has a tradition of operating in secrecy and shooting the messenger
whenever something that’s not spun properly gets out into the community.
Kerri Reeder, a Winslow Street trustee, was one of my sources for the
article, though by no means my only source. Kerri disputes many of Abby’s
“facts”. IFGE’s new Executive Director, Nancy Nangeroni, already has informed
Kerri that “you cannot hope to continue as a WSF trustee after this.” Abby’s
roasting of Kerri is still another example of that same IFGE tradition, and
it needs to stop immediately. IFGE should be, and in fact must become, openly
accountable to the community which provides its support and its reason for
being.
It all boils down to one fact. IFGE promised not to use that money, and they
broke their promise. Dallas Denny, a student of history, said it best: “...if
IFGE doesn’t like the WWI that’s currently raging, it should never have shot
the Archduke Ferdinand.”
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