Homo Clark and Rasmussen
posted by on May 11 at 15:30 PM
I spoke with Sally Clark and Tom Rasmussen about the quick end to SOaP and the LGBT Community Center’s agreement to work together on sponsorships for both of Seattle pride parades.
“Everyone was pretending that everything was fine,” said Sally Clark about the meeting she brokered between SOaP and the LGBT Community Center. “But in one of her e-mails Shannon says something that hints at, ‘I’m in trouble with my board for cooperating with those guys.’ Shannon made commitments [at the meeting] that apparently her board was uncomfortable with. That’s unfortunate. You don’t want to waste people’s time and their credibility.”
Nevertheless Clark felt Cindy Baccetti’s decision not to work with Shannon or the LGBT Community Center seemed disproportionate.
“It’s definitely weird that Shannon moved the meeting without telling Cindy, but it seems that Cindy took that as an opportunity to say, ‘You can’t be trusted and I’m out.’”
“I’m sorry if anyone feels it was a disproportionate response,” said Baccetti, who is a professional corporate-sponsorship coordinator. “But these sponsor relationships are very fragile at this point, for reasons everyone knows. I take my commitment to my sponsors very seriously. And Shannon missing the meeting made me uncomfortable in what is an already fragile situation, and under the time pressures that exist. What if that had been a meeting with a sponsor?”
Baccetti says that she is, however, continuing to promote the LGBT Community Center’s events to potential sponsors.
“I sent e-mails out to all of my sponsors telling them about Shannon’s events on Saturday,” Baccetti said. “I’m still telling people about the events on the hill on Saturday, and I’m directing people to her website. I continue to try and sell the whole weekend.”
Baccetti says sponsorships for the downtown parade are going remarkably well, and an announcement is planned for Monday. According to SOaP the list of confirmed sponsors includes Macy’s, Bank of America, The Leavitt Companies, Naked Juice, Relay Ready Survey Company, Tylenol PM, Gilead Sciences, Hotel Deca, Hotel Monaco, Alexis Hotel, Hotel Vintage Park, MacKay Restaurant Group, Gameworks, Clean Scapes, Cruisy-T’s, and others.
For his part, Tom Rasmussen said that he is now concerned about other aspects of the agreement reached by SOaP and the LGBT Community Center at the meeting last Friday.
“Among the things agreed to was holding weekly meetings and having a communications person,” said Rasmussen. “I want an update on that.” Asked about the missed meeting that prompted Baccetti to back out—and Thomas’s odd explanation for missing the meeting—Rasmussen said, “It is what it is.”
Maybe it's not all about the money, honey.
@1. I actually think it is all about the money. Or rather, lack of money. The poor management skills shown by LGBT staff and board would never be tolerated in the corporate world. It's like they are treating their org as a clique instead of participating out in the real world where real services and professional behavior is expected. I'd lose my job in the corporate world in a heartbeat if I ever wasted the time of two elected officials to attend a meeting they had brokered and give the appearance of cooperation when I really wasn't authorized to do so.
I simply cannot care.
zzzzz. . . zzzzzz. . . zz zz zz huh? wha? oh. were they saying something about Pride? wake me when its june. zzzzz. . . zzzzzzzzz . . .
If the LGBT Center can't even stay open or keep regular center hours and their PAID Executive Director can't make scheduled metings, why should then who's going to attend the weekly meetings City Hall and SOaP?
I don't know what is going on with these so called meetings, but if Shannon and her board do not want to work with SOAP, Kudos to them!!
Rasmussen and Clark, get a clue!
SOAP via their own conduct is a walking timebomb of liability.
The public knows their past president Dale Kershner skipped town, they have yet to show any financial statements from 2005 and 2006 and they WAY overextended the partying in their last event and you want people to work with them and sponsor them now?
Hello!!
The LGBT Center certainly has the right to work with and the right NOT to work with anyone they choose.
If they choose not to work with SOAP, I don't blame them!!
And I don't think anyone - even a city counsel person or the President himself should force anybody to do business with such an unprofessional and irresponsible organization like SOAP that put themselves into such a massive debt.
Let them run themselves into the ground and not drag anyone else down with them.
Shannon and the LGBT Board, stick to your guns.
The LGBT Center's reputation is taking a huge hit in all this mess. They are coming across as divisive, petty, unprofessional, and just as disorganized as SOAP. They've had many opportunities to step in as true leaders of the community in the last month or so and it seems like every choice they've made has made them look worse and worse. I don't know if the problem is the LGBT Ctr board, or Shannon Thomas, but whoever's calling the shots there is seriously lacking in leadership skills.
The LGBT Center lacking leadership skills?
Excuse me?
I seem to recall they took leadership in spearheading the Broadway March last year when nobody else stepped up.
Worst you can say about them this year is they are trying to be too diplomatic for the sake of appearances.
It appears that certain people are trying to smear the LGBT's name without citing any reasons.
In all fairness if I were to compare the LGBT Center and SOAP in matters of responsiblity, the Center is by far more trustworthy.
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