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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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