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by Rick Cullen
TEXTS
AND CONTEXTS:
AN INTERVIEW WITH
CHOLI's
WALT RATUCHNY
(continued from page 2)
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 RC:
With all the ongoing activities at CHOLI which you've described
and the recent economic downturn and increase in the cost
of providing services, how are CHOLI's finances at this time?
WR:
Truthfully our funds are low. We're behind in our bills.
We have grant money coming but grant money takes time. I
don't think a lot of people realize we have close to $55,000.00
to $60,000.00 coming in grant money but that takes time
to arrive. We need money to operate: it costs us around
$6,500.00 a month just to operate the building, what with
the telephones, heat, cooling fans, electricity and the
rent. It all adds up so that money goes fast. We haven't
done many fund-raisers in the last few months because we
don't want to drain the Community population of their funds;
there are other groups that need that money also. We were
hoping that we could exist through grant funding and our
membership funds. Our membership is very important. What
happens in membership is it shows that you buy into the
concept of the CHOLI mission - and I think that's important.
A lot of people in our community have bought into the concept
generally, but not financially. I think that's important.
If you have some extra money come down to CHOLI, get your
membership: you get event discounts, CHOLI pins, and other
incentives. There's going to be a Coming Out dance in October,
2001, which will hopefully become one of our signature,
traditional events, and members will get a discount.
RC:
And what is that CHOLI concept?
WR:
When I say the "concept," I think many have bought
into the idea that we need a place to unify our Community
and a place to call home. I think that's what I mean when
I say they buy into the "concept." The goals would
be to have a larger facility that's air conditioned and
heated and has several rooms for meetings so that more organizations
can take advantage of the CHOLI center and what's going
on there. We have the LGBT Switchboard now now sharing half
our offices and space is tight. But all of this takes money.
RC:
So that one of the goals is to bring in all the current GLBT
organizations physically under one roof?
WR:
The idea is not only to bring all the established groups
together but also to encourage the creation of new groups.
As I said before, several groups have already sprung up
like L.I.
Trans Experience headed by Donna Riley, a transsexual
person on our Board. Diana is phenomenal: she has a great
deal of knowledge and she's been very good in the group
she's built. The group has a membership of 25-30 people
and meets at CHOLI two to three times a month. Further,
the N.Y.C.
Service Center is recommending CHOLI to people who work
in N.Y.C. but live on Long Island. I think that's a great
testament to what CHOLI has accomplished to date because
we're being recognized by major organizations throughout
the State. And we do belong to the LGBT Community Network
of N.Y.S. run by the Empire
State Pride Agenda PAC, the NYC Service Center, and
are involved with the Health and Human Services Network
as well. CHOLI is also a member of the Northeast Regional
Conference so we get to meet a lot of people throughout
our regional area. Thus the projects and activities CHOLI
attempts are really collaborative and informed by the experience
of other LGBT organizations and activists which have already
been there or are thinking of doing the same types of things.
We try not to repeat mistakes made in the past.
RC: Obviously raising money to support this type
of organization and its goals must be a tremendous undertaking.
Do you have a current financial director?
WR:
Up to recently we had Warren Perine, who has just resigned.
Thus we are looking for a new treasurer and financial director.
So if you know someone who is good with books and accounting,
we'd be interested in speaking with her or him. We're looking
for someone.
RC:
Do you have any kind of general fund-raising program to insure
those funds are coming in? Do you have any specific plans
for addressing the immediate financial situation that has
to be solved?
WR:
Yes we do. We're going to begin a massive campaign to sell
memberships. Of course we will be reaching out to all our
GLBT brothers and sisters as well as our allies in the heterosexual
community. Hopefully we will be able to get quick money
that way. We are also thinking about running another bar
fund-raiser like the original "Raising the Roof"
event, our first fund-raiser sponsored by all the bars which
took place at Thunders.
RC:
Are you currently looking to do joint activities, fundraising
or otherwise, with any other LGBT groups to solve this problem?
WR:
We have a strategy meeting tomorrow and will discuss different
avenues of successfully raising funds. I don't think CHOLI
is gong anywhere soon. I don't see anything negative happening
there because CHOLI is too strong for that and I think we'll
pass this financial crisis successfully. It's like any other
small business. When you're into it a year or two you begin
to feel financial pains because you put so much into the
business and are not getting anything back yet. We need
to build our base.
Further,
we're planning an event to be held in September, 2001 at
the Irish Coffee Pub in East Islip in conjunction with LIGALY,
Suffolk NOW, and the Islip NAACP - a formal civil rights
awards dinner. Its nice and the beginning of opening doors
for working with other groups on L.I. In addition, we are
hoping to do something jointly with the Eastend Gay Organization
to enhance community unity and to achieve CHOLI's goals.
RC:
So tell me, what's your vision of CHOLI a year from now? Where
would you like to see CHOLI a year from now?
WR:
Well I hope CHOLI is financially secure in a year; I hope
the new facility is larger and will accommodate more groups.
I am hopeful that in a year CHOLI will not only have a general
meeting space and walk-in and information center as we do
now, but that it will have a library and Community archives.
We have the beginnings of a modest library right now. We
also want to collect archives. We're trying to get people
to donate materials concerning the history of the L.I. LGBT
community. So if anyone has any information they can share
with us so we can build a set of archives, that's a great
thing to do in my opinion. I think its important to know
your history.
RC:
To remember where we came from?
WR:
That's right. Not that I'm that old...You're not going to
have a picture with this are you? (Laughter).
Continues
on page 4
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