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June 15, 1979

Betty Berzon, President
Gay Academic Union
P.O. Box 927
Hollywood, CA 90028

Dear Betty,

I am enclosing a check for $25 from our local chapter for the scholarship fund. We thought you might like something in hand right away, but rather than take much out of our chapter treasury, will work on it in other ways. We have run off a batch of the sheets about the fund and will pass them out during Gay Pride Week; is there any way you could keep track if checks come in from the Dallas area? We also handed some out at our last meeting. We also plan to have the September meeting [sic] a party with proceeds and donations going to the scholarship fund. We presume the deadline isn’t till the applicants have to have their materials in, at least?

BIll took off for a summer in Mexico, and I am running the chapter till the middle of August as well as I can by remote control from Denton. At our last meeting June 3 he brought up the possibility of Dallas being the national headquarters, but didn’t get any decisive feeling from the chapter. Several of our best people were already on vacation, and we all needed to think about it. It’s an exciting prospect, and normally I would be very enthusiastic. However, I do have reservations connected with our small number of actual members, the number of organizations and level of responsibility in other groups at which too many of us currently serve, and for myself, the strong possibility of heavy involvement with an MLA-sponsored bibliography of gay authors.

Bill said you as president tend to spend about ten hours a week on GAU activities; could you estimate about how much an average (high and low too?) board member spends? What does the regular running of the organization really involve? He said that Los Angeles would be willing to handle the newsletter and scholarship fund–could you outline for our summer discussions what else would be expected? Also, is there any possibility that you people might be willing to keep it there one more year, so we could work on building up membership first, perhaps along with the convention?

I am enclosing a recipe for the cookbook, figuring I’ve probably put it off too long. If you’re still looking, have you asked Kathy Deitsch, head of the Texas Gay Task Force, or Louise Young, head of the Dallas Gay Political Caucus and a GAUNT member?

We’re looking forward to a good Gay Pride week here, with a GAUNT program on gay fiction Tuesday night and cosponsoring a booth at a Doubleday-sponsored gay bookfair & crafts show with TGTF. And I’ll be in Lake Tahoe at the Science Fiction Research Assn. mtg., darn it, and miss the bookfair. But [sic] am on the program. We;ll [sic] be sending a proper note for the newsletter.

Edra [signature]