ALSO moves on
Victoria’s largest LGBTI advocacy organisation, the ALSO Foundation, is downsizing and moving from its City Village office next week to share a roof with its Collingwood opportunity shop to cut costs.
The ALSO Foundation moved into the Bourke St building in 2008 as part of the City of Melbourne’s City Village initiative.
But the organisation has struggled financially in recent times, posting a $65,900 loss for the 2010/11 financial year and leaving it $133,200 in debt.
In March, the foundation was on the verge of collapse before it received $136,000 in delayed emergency funding from ALSO Care’s Members Resolution Fund.
The move has wider implications for the community though, as several LGBTI community groups have worked under the auspices of ALSO’s tenancy.
The organisation has been in talks with the City of Melbourne and other community groups about the move for the past month.
A city spokeswoman confirmed the move and said it was the foundation’s decision to relocate.
She said Melbourne City Council had been aware of ALSO’s “financial and management concerns” since March 2011 and that ALSO Foundation secretary Daniel Perkins had cancelled the tenancy.
Perkins told the Star Observer the foundation could no longer afford to stay at the City Village building.
“As this year has gone on and the financial situation has been clarified, we’ve decided that it’s no longer viable for ALSO to maintain a presence in the same way it has in the City Village,” he said.
Perkins said the organisation had tried to be as supportive as it could to the remaining community groups on the floor.
“We have tried to communicate our intentions to our partners as clearly as possible,” he said.
Perkins said the foundation would operate from the All So Fabulous op shop on Smith St, Collingwood in the short term as it plans its future.
The foundation is yet to publish its ALSO Directory this year. It is usually released around the Midsumma Festival in February. Perkins said the foundation was still looking to publish the directory this year when it was financially viable.
The idea to save money on rent and move the foundation to the op shop was floated at April’s AGM.
MQFF general manager Danae Gibson said the film festival, which shared an office with ALSO, would not be affected by the foundation’s departure and she was happy to be staying at the City Village.
Perkins said he was hopeful about the foundation’s future.
“I think we feel very confident bringing the organisation to a point at which its profile will be a lot more consistent with its financial resources,” he said.
nothing that the ALSO Foundation has done in the last 12-18 months has been transperent – not with the books not with information.
Just ask the members.
How much cash is left in ALSO Care – I bet the board is after that as well – the same as the last few HUNDRED thousand.
It’s time The ALSO Foundation was would up – this will let ALSO Care and thr OP SHOP survive.
(Revised, edited version of prior comment from Geoff Richards – aplogies for the typos and missed grammar.)
Emma, those she lists, and many others are right to express their concerns about the transparency of Also, and its continuing and then ignored ‘statements of intent’.
Also Directors, including the few current remaining ones, have lived in a delusional world for the past 10 years, ONLY kept afloat by their constant TAKING of funds from the associated BUT, so we thought, independent charity Also Care – whose funds, once $1.65million, are now all but gone! Those funds were intended for application within the gay community, and NOT, as they have been, spent principally upon executive and other salaries, consultant fees and admin. expenses.
Those Directors achieved this outrageous result by ignoring constant member protests and obstructing them from even obtaining up to equal representation on the Also Care Committee. They STILL OBSTRUCT – and ignore the fact that it is an offence!
Thus they have taken $1.65m and achieved little of any lasting or remembered result.
5 years back, when strong protests began, there was hope for a continuing place for Also Care, none for Also Foundation.
By ignoring almost 50% of the then membership, Also Directors achieved the result of destroying, for the immediate and foreseeable future, any notion of bequest giving to the gay community and any reputation it had built to being able to effectively manange funding.
Unfortunately there are a few porkies in this as {also} was very un-transparent about its move and have let a lot of people and organisations down.
The whole of level 8 was kept in the dark about {also}’s move from the premises until the past two weeks when rumours started. The organisation has let many people and groups homeless, some of which include ZBGC, Minus18, AVP, Bent TV, YGender and all other groups using the space for hot-desks and meetings.