April 1991
PAGE 13 Q-Notes
[The Stars are Ours...Make Them Yours
Oleens 1991
The Legend Lives On...
APRIL
Drink Specials
Sun Mon Tues Wed
$1.50 House Drinks
Mon Tues Wed
250 Draft
Thurs
$4.00 Draft
"All You Can Drink"
Fri., 5th The Virgin Goddess, Miss Gypsy Starr
along with the new talents of Brittany Michaels
and the Bold and Beautiful Tiffany Storm
Sat., 6th Oleen s Own Legends, Boom Boom LaTour,
Brittany Gwynne and Veronica Leigh
Fri., 12th The New Wave Sensation Martina Desiree
with the Dancing Toes of Ashley Jordan
and Miss Oleen's Veronica Leigh
Sat., 13th Our Special Guest Martina Desiree
returns with Soul Sister Kasey King and
The Human Hurricane Tiffany Storm
Fri., 19th How about a Little Salt and Pepper to Spic
Things Up?
Our Own Brittany Gwynne and Kasey King
with Our March Talent Winner
Sat., 20th The Legend with Class, Miss Toni Lenoir
with Sex Goddess Gypsy Starr and
Trash-ly Ashley Jordan
Fri., 26th If you've got star quality come star with us
TALENT SHOW
$100 plus Booking to Winner
Hosted by the Lovely Veronica Leigh
Sat., 27th Funny Lady Boom Boom LaTour
with the Sensational Vanessa Richards along
with the Hunk Greg Richardson and
Tommy Lee
COMING SATURDAY MAY 4,
MR. CHARLOHE LEATHER
and don't forget Kasey King's Sunday
Night Bargain Basement.
OLEEN
1831 South Boulevard, Charlotte, N.C.
(7041373-9604
Community Center
Continued from page 9
should do what they need to do, and at the
sam e time respec t what another person/group
needs to do."
Ruth Derrow used similar language. "We
have to promote a real respect and mutual
appreciation," she said. "We're all trying to
improve the quality of life — we have to be
united." Derrow went on to state that it was
always a handful of individuals doing the
work and setting the tone, and that we needed
to be supportive of each other.
"More communication" is what Kimberly
Melton,chairofWOW and owner of Lambda
Connections, felt was the key to creating a
bettercommunity. "In the past we just wanted
a community, but didn't think through what
that meant." Melton said it was positive that
all these Gay and Lesbian organizations now
exist in Charlotte, but that more individuals
still needed to get involved.
"I challenge members of our community
to volunteer even just one time this year," she
said. "If everyone would do this, we would
create an incredible feeling and community."
Back to the beginning
In the course of talking with these leaders,
Q-Notes received a more detailed account of
what the Community Center committee plan
entailed than has ever been made public.
The Community Center committee began
as an outgrowth of MCSP thinking about its
own space needs. Ruth Derrow asked that
board to fund a study about starting a Center,
and then went about asking a wide variety of
community members to serve on the com
mittee.
The committee met regularly for more
than a year, doing surveys of individuals,
schools and organizations, and they also
talked to several other Centers around the
country. Two community meetings were
held. At the first meeting in the Spring of
1990, orpnization leaders were invited to
share their thoughts and possible space needs
with the committee. At the second meeting in
November 1990, organizations were given a
statement and asked to take it back and en
dorse it so that the Center committee could
begin fundraising for the project.
In a conversation with former Center
committee members Zay Kittredge, David
Parsons and John Fryday, I learned that the
project was poised to move forward very
quickly upon the endorsement of the estab
lished community organizations. The Center
committee had concluded that there were
two options: 1) if they could get the building
donated, they would need to raise $250,000
to cover outfitting costs, provide a salary for
one staff member, provide annual operating
expenses, and create an endowment to ward
off future financial difficulties; or 2) raise a
total of $750,000 to buy a building and pro
vide everything else as noted in option 1.
The Center committee had a tentative
commitment for a donated building, pledges
for $85,000 of the $250,000 goal, and pros
pect lists for another $140,000. That would
leave $25,000 to come from grassroots
fundraising from the community. A special
escrow account had already been set up, so
contributions coming in would be protected
in case the Center never came about (the
monies would then be returned to each do
nor). The committee maintained that while
they would operate as a separate entity, the
backing of MCSP gave the project a cred
ibility that donors wanted to see.
The Community Center Study, a report
preparedby the committee in February 1990,
was based on 174 completed surveys. The
surveys were received from 50 people who
attended the MCSP coffeehouse, 21 com
munity leaders/Coalition members, 45 bar
patrons and 58 persons from the MCSP
mailing list.
In addition. Centers in Dallas, Los An
geles, New York City, Tampa and Wash
ington were contacted for advice. The sur
veys showed 3 to 1 in favor ofrthat there was
a high need for a Center.
In ranking facility needs, the survey
showed meeting space first, followed by a
bookstore, office space, an auditorium/li
brary, and possibly a coffeehouse and fitness
center.
Eighty-three preferred to have the Center
located in the Uptown area, with 16 suggest
ing a suburban location. A majority (number
not available) felt the Center should be owned
so that no one could throw us out for catering
to the Gay/Lesbian community.
Ninety-three wanted the Center open to
the public, 87 wanted a moderate profile, and
16 wanted the Center to be highly visible.
The main consideration listed was that the
Center had to be a safe place to go. The study
eventually recommended that the words Gay
and Lesbian should not appear on the signage
out front.
In discussions with other Centers nation-
ally,recommendations included: 1) startsmall
and evolve; 2) try to have expansion capabil
ity as once a tenant group b^omes success
ful, they may need more space; 3) locating
near gay bars helped to make people feel safe
at night.
Some Centers had trouble with visibility
and vandalism; 4) using paid staff early in the
project helps to ensure better management;
5) have anchor tenants, such as a bookstore,
but be careful about building around an ex
isting health organization. Either they be
come too big and have to move out, or the
Center becomes too identified with health-
related issues; and 6) the mmn responsibility
of the Center Board is to provide fundraising
programs.
In deciding not to go forward with the
project, the Center committee suggested to
MCSP that there was too much dissension
among community leaders over who would
"control" the Center. Derrow felt that the
moderate people/organizations made up their
minds too late, or that they weren't aware of
the seriousness of the dissension being caused
by a few vocal people.
Robert Waymack, past president and now
community liaison of MCSP, said there was
no animosity toward anyone about the deci
sion made. He felt that MCSP needed to do
some work on their image in the community,
so that more people would know about the
valuable services they provide.
When asked, he said that MCSP "would
take any offer to join (a new Center) seri
ously. It was actually a valuable undertaking
for MCSP, and we stand ready to help if
asked."
Starting from Zero
"We all have a tremendous yearning for a
Center — the same goal," stated Tonda
Taylor. "We have some serious differences
on the way we get there." As a feasibility
study on renting space was not a formal part
of the final Community Center Study, the
Leadership Coalition is starting from ground
zero with information on this possibility.
Several people feel this is a way to in volve
the community as a whole at the beginning of
the project. Dick Woodhouse and Keith
Bernard, both Board members of First
Tuesday, stated that it was a good idea to
begin with some rental space, as it would
help define what a Center would become.
First Tuesday has already budgeted monies
to install a phone line for themselves in
whatever space is found.
Others talked about the commitment it
will take from individuals to volunteer their
time — to any organization — that will truly
start building a community which in turn
could lead to a healthy Center.
The Leadership Coalition will be dis
cussing all these issues at upcoming meet
ings. Their options range from renting to
rethinking MCSP's plan to few ideas not yet
conceived. If they rent, they will have to get
by the fact that they don't have a track record
to go to a bank or negotiate with a landlord,
and that a renter might change his/her tune
once they find out who the Coalition repre
sents.
Whatever the outcome, Taylor described
the process as "no lack of dreams," and
Waymack stated "the dream still lives on."
The true outcome may depend not on the
established leadership, but on hundreds of
individuals finding a way to voice their in
terest, concerns and dreams so that the
building of a community can begin before the
bricks and mortar are in place.
MetroLink BBS
Charlotte's Gay/Lesbian computer
bulletin boand, member of GayCom,
a network of Gay/Lesbian BBS'
throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Large message base, Magazine
section, files and travel information.
300/1200/2400 bauds supported. 24
hours. 704-568-6124.