IFGE Consistently Disappoints (1998)

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Date: Tue, 10 Feb 199811:57:45 -0500

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From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org>

Subject: AEGIS Internet News 2/10/98—Special Edition

AEGIS Internet News is a service of the American Educational Gender Information Service, Inc. To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to aegisnews@gender.org.

AEGIS Internet News Special Edition

10 February, 1998

Winslow Street Whistle Blower Dismissed “For Cause”

Kerri Reeder, the trustee of the IFGE-administered Winslow Street Fund who alerted the transgender community that the International Foundation for Gender Education had used Winslow Street monies for its internal operations, has said that she received a letter from Winslow Street fund trustee and IFGE Board member Abby Zapin, informing her that she has been dismissed for cause as a WSF trustee.

In an open letter sent to the transgender community on 5 February, Reeder wrote, “After waiting for more than nine days after the IFGE Board Meeting, I received a letter from Abby Zapin explaining that I was dismissed, For Cause, as a WSF Trustee. The Cause was that I did not contact the Trustees or IFGE Board with my dispute but took it public.”

Reeder disputes this: “Yes, I did take it public after I received no response from the Chairs of Winslow Street and IFGE…. For the public record, I contacted both Abby [Zapin] and Linda Buten via E-mail and the receipt on my message was confirmed by AOL. I sent by US Mail the text of those notes to all IFGE Board Members. With no response, I turned to an open forum because the Chairs of IFGE and WSF and the Board of Directors would not respond. It was my duty as a Trustee to see that any action done by the Trustees lived up to the trust contributors had when they made donations.”

The Winslow Street Fund, named for a street in Provincetown, Massachusetts, was set up for the transgender community, and is administered by IFGE. For years, IFGE’s solicitations for donations to the Winslow Street Fund promised that WSF monies would never be used for IFGE’s internal operations—yet last October, IFGE borrowed $10,000 from the fund. Reeder and others, who were aware of IFGE’s plans to borrow the money, approached IFGE staff and board members and WSF trustees beforehand during Fantasia Fair to voice their concern.

On 13 November, Reeder widely distributed by e-mail a letter voicing her concerns about the WSF Loan to IFGE. In it, she detailed her attempts to communicate with both IFGE and her fellow WSF trustees: “On November 13, hearing nothing, I decided to go to the Community and forwarded my letter…”

In her 13 November communique, Reeder stated that her primary concerns were that there was no loan document, and that proper WSF procedures had not been followed.

Reeder claims her action was to “preserve propriety, honesty, and ethics which continue to plague IFGE and its activities. It is to preserve the Winslow Street Fund.” Reeder has called for the replacement of WSF trustees, herself included, by new trustees with a well-developed sense of ethics. As for the loan, Reeder has consistently asked that the community be provided with evidence that a promissory note was signed.

Nancy Nangeroni, Executive Director of IFGE, confirmed that Reeder’s dismissal had been discussed and decided upon at a meeting of the IFGE board, with a decision being made to dismiss Reeder for violating WSF rules, including confidentiality.

Nangeroni said that a promissory note exists and was signed by herself and other parties in December. She said she does not feel comfortable providing Reeder with a copy of the note, but that Reeder is welcome to come by the IFGE offices in Boston to view it. Reeder lives in Rhode Island.

Nangeroni emphasized that the IFGE board and the WSF trustees and she herself all feel that the loan was not improper, but was in the best interest of the community. She said, “I want to be clear that—I would like to give people confidence that IFGE is being run responsibly.”

A number of transgender activists have been critical of the loan. The most vocal has been Judy Osborne. Her November column in the Transgender Community Forum referred to the loan as “Rape on Winslow Street.” JoAnn Roberts also criticized the loan in her column in Renaissance News and Views.

Despite having been warned beforehand by Reeder and others that the loan would be controversial, neither IFGE nor WSF informed the community about the loan until after Reeder’s November letter was mailed.

Responding to Reeder’s criticism, Nangeroni wrote last fall in an e-mail message that Reeder could no longer be a WSF trustee after going public with the news of the loan.

Return-Path: <aegis@gender.org>

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Date: Tue, 10 Feb 199811:57:45 -0500

To: aegis@gender.org

From: Dallas Denny <aegis@gender.org>

Subject: AEGIS Internet News 2/10/98—Special Edition

AEGIS Internet News is a service of the American Educational Gender Information Service, Inc. To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to aegisnews@gender.org.

AEGIS Internet News Special Edition

10 February, 1998

Editorial

IFGE Consistently Disappoints

The International Foundation for Gender Education seems unable to differentiate between its own welfare and that of the transgender community.

In authorizing a loan from a fund it promised never to touch and then congratulating itself that it was a proper thing to do because it was “for the good of the community,” the IFGE board is engaging in circular logic.

In failing to inform the community of the loan, IFGE has been irresponsible. And in continuing to force out those who, like Kerri Reeder, attempt to keep it on an ethical course, IFGE is sowing the seeds of its eventual demise.

Considering that a number of community activists warned IFGE beforehand that a loan from the Winslow Street Fund would be controversial, it’s mystifying that IFGE did not tell the community what it had done until it was caught with its hand in the proverbial cookie jar. It seems rather maladaptive, like a burglar who decides to ransack the house even though there is a police car parked outside—or perhaps it is merely arrogance, a serene assumption by its board that IFGE is not accountable for its actions, whatever they may be. However, I suspect the real answer is simple inefficiency.

For an organization that considers itself the future of the transgender community, IFGE consistently disappoints. Considering its large budget, it is decidedly underproductive. Its publications are uninspired and often amateurish. Its database of support groups is famous for not being updated. The statistics it gives reporters often seem to be made up on the spot. It uncritically distributes information, sending flyers about questionable procedures like needleless hair removal schemes and herbal hormones out alongside flyers for more legitimate products and services.

In a word, IFGE does not seem to be the polished, professional, and efficient organization the transgender community needs, but rather like an overgrown support group with a $300,000 budget.

IFGE is in perpetual financial crisis, bailing itself out once or twice a year by sending out panicky fundraising letters—which causes one to wonder why it imagines it will be able to pay the WSF loan back rather than sliding more deeply into debt. It is in perpetual identity crisis, having walked away from the one thing it was truly good at—being an umbrella organization—in favor of doing gender education it is intellectually unprepared to do. And it is in perpetual moral crisis. The present instance—IFGE’s failure to disclose the loan from WSF until forced to do so—is but one of many ways IFGE continues to disappoint.