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Title
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[Letter from Edra Bogle to Bettie Naylor, July 8, 1980]
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Identifier
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MSS380_letter_19800708
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Type
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Letters
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Manuscripts
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Date
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7/8/1980
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Description
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Letter from Edra Bogle to Bettie Naylor, regarding her lackluster fundraising efforts for the upcoming Dallas Gay Pride Week. Bogle is unhappy with the way Naylor has been operating and intends to investigate other regions to see if they have had similar problems with Naylor. Bogle CCs the entire TGTF board on this letter.
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Originally formed as the Texas Gay Task Force, the TGLTF was the first statewide gay/lesbian organization in Texas. Organized in 1973 for the purpose of planning annual conferences (until 1990), the TGLTF served as the parent organization for the Lesbian/Gay Democrats of Texas and the Lesbian/Gay Rights Advocates.
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Subject
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Texas Gay / Lesbian Task Force
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Bogle, Edra
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Naylor, Bettie
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Barnett, Douglas
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Artale, Bonnie
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Brock, Gary
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Calkin, Al
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Eggers, Woody
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Henley, Steve
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Hogan, Ame
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Lewis, John
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Shaffer, Debbie
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Thomas, Steve
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Waller, Kenn
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Wilkinson, Jack
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Format
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2 pgs.
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Language
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en
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Rights
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Materials may not be used without permission. For more information, contact us at (940) 898-3751 or womenshistory@twu.edu.
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Is Part Of
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Texas Gay / Lesbian Task Force Records, 1970s-1991.
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Accrual Method
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Gift
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Provenance
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Bogle, Edra
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extracted text
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[redacted]
July 8, 1980
Ms. Bettie Naylor
Human Rights Advocates
P.O. Box 2036
Universal City, Texas 78148
Dear Bettie,
As I told both you and Kathy individually on the phone, I have not been happy with the way you handled the fund-raising possibilities of Gay Price Week in Dallas. I want to record the events both for myself and so that the other board members will be informed, since the fund-raising function is such an important one and since it seems to have gone so slowly in 1980.
On Saturday April 5, I attended the TGTF board meeting in Austin, where I heard of the lack of progress in fund-raising, that Woody Eggers had not been paid, that the interpretation of when you and kathy were to be paid was somewhat different from my understanding, and that there was no money for advance work for the next legislative session. Because I believed that all these items were important, I decided to lead a major membership and fund-raising effort in the northern region for Gay Prode Week. Therefore on Sunday April 6 I attended a meeting of the Dallas Gay Pride Week Committee, told them of our problems, and received enthusiastic support, including; 1) a decision to ask you to be the main speaker at the rally, so everyone would be informed of the lobbying effort 2) a willingness to include some other TGTF event on the schedule, should we decide in favor of one 3) commitment to support selling lobby dollars at the rally and beer bust, as well as at the preceding week’s carnival booth, should TGTF sign up for both. I used $125 of my own money to pay the TGTF half of the rental for the crafts fair information table and a carnival fund-raising booth, arranging to share each with GAUNT, so expenses and staffing would be less for each group.
On Wednesday April 9 I wrote about all this, asking for immediate reply, especially about lobby dollars and about possible other events, as they had agreed to solicit business to redeem $ at the time they were lining up donations for the auction to be held May 6. Debbie Shaffer called you about the speaking engagement for the rally, and I gather discussed redeeming with you. I don’t know the details of when it was decided not to solicit for lobby dollar redemption until after the auction, but you told me you and Debbie decided this because of a belief that it was too much to ask at one time. I received no response concerning any other activity by you on your paid trip to this region, so dropped the idea.
I was involved in GLAD and GAUNT activities the next four weekends, and in the Democratic meetings May 10, but checked with Debbie several times, and was assured she was in touch with you and would be receiving information about lobby dollars at any time. On May 14 I left for Iowa on family business, not returning till May 31. When during the next week I learned from JohnLewis and from Debbie that nothing more had been heard from you on lobby dollars, I was too tired and too involved in preparations for product sales to push it.
On June 9 I received a copy of the letter you sent Debbie, which bothered me very much since it assumed that we were prepared to sell–but we had never received information or support from you on this project till that letter–for instance, on how many people we’d need, how to line up businesses, copies of a form I presumed you had for them to sign saying what they’d do, or information about how your cancelled November and January Dallas preparations had done, (Later you said you had no such
form which I would consider necessary so that each party can be sure of the exact arrangements about redemption.
Although very upset at such slowness in your response, making a lot of last minute effort necessary if we were to do anything, I talked to Debbie and decided to try to arrange things. I won’t go into details of lining up Doug Barnett and Willie Reeves to help, nor why the project was cancelled; the businesses deciding (quite reasonably) that they did not have time to get advertising benefit from their sponsorship of lobby dollars. Also, I have been told by reliable sources that the businessmen had agreed to redeem dollars one night in January; but that no one ever showed up to sell them. Though the board member for the region, I was not informed in January that you had contemplated selling. You told me recently on the phone that you had cancelled because you decided it was too close to Christmas; it would have been better to let the businessmen know of your decision prior to the evening the dollars were to be sold.
I am very disappointed at this failure. I can see no reason why we could not have sold $1000-$2000 worth of lobby dollars had we started lining things up in April or even early May, when you were appealed to. Instead, not only the opportunity to make money went to waste, but the sponsorship by the Dallas Gay Pride Week committee of your trip to Dallas went to waste, since it had originally been planned to sell the dollars, and to pay your way here where you could advertise TGTF, possibly speak at another time, and secure more memberships. Indeed, you spent as little time as possible in Dallas, since you flew in about 1 p.m. and left at 8 p.m.
I am sending a copy of this letter to each board member and to some other persons involved in TGTF and HRA. At the next board meeting, the time of which is apparently still has not been set though it replaces a June 14 meeting, I intend to ask for discussion of any similar problems that may have occurred in other regions.
Sincerely,
[Bogle’s signature]
Edra Bogle
Cc: current TGTF board members
Douglas Barnett
Bonnie Artale
Gary Brock
Al Calkin
Woody Eggers
Steve Henley
Ame Hogan
John Lewis
Debbie Shaffer
Steve Thomas
Ken Waller
Jack Wilkinson
