It was a dark day today (December 4th) at Pride Calgary’s AGM, where owners, staff, and customers of the Twisted Element stacked the membership to attempt a hostile overthrow of the organization. Remaining directors Sharon Boutilier, Sig Moser and male Co-chair John Skorka could only look on in earnest as the group commandeered control of the meeting and began passing resolutions without regard to the non-profit group’s procedures and bylaws. This included a demand that Skorka resign prematurely from his elected two year term.

Co-chair Skorka was clearly not prepared for the barrage of challenges made to the underlying foundation of the organization. Without a copy of the by-laws handy, he was unable to contradict the free-for-all that ensued.

“This is a three-ring circus, this is not the way a board meeting is held,” commented Kim Clarke, a secretary appointed specifically to assist during this meeting. Chosen for her experience chairing meetings in the business world, she got her first taste of gay community politics in action – she has never seen anything like it. “It was the most unprofessional meeting I have ever attended.”

At the beginning of the meeting, most members kept things civil (relative to past meetings) asking legitimate questions and voicing criticisms and concerns – such as the late date of the AGM. Although the Pride Board was chastised for not involving more gay businesses in the production and execution of Pride Week, those same members agreed on a suggestion to shift the group’s promotion and marketing away to an impartial company outside of the gay community.

Former Media Outreach and Volunteer Coordinator Tawde Clark (who resigned just short of this year’s Pride Week) asked Skorka to explain in front of the membership why a number of situations occurred – such as the last-minute cancellation of advertised events, and the lack of follow-up on the dissemination of incorrect event information to some media outlets. In many cases Skorka could only point to the lack of manpower on the Pride Board, created by the void left from the resignation of numerous directors. With only 6 individuals pulling the weight of 13 positions by the time of Pride Week, and the crippling lack of volunteers, Skorka admitted many things were overlooked. The resignation of numerous directors has been commonplace over the recent history of the group.

In fact, Twisted Element employee Arin Chilton brought up this lack of volunteers, stating it was time Pride Calgary turn back to the gay community to rally volunteer support. Skorka agreed whole heartedly, and stated he was open to suggestions, but none were made at that time.

When it came to the treasurer’s report, things started to get hairy. Before anything else could be said, Twisted Element club owners RayJean Fafard and Cliff Andrews put doubt in the membership’s mind by stating that the audit was not valid without an official seal and letterhead of the auditor. Skorka explained that the report was indeed signed by their chartered accountant as required by Pride Calgary Association by-laws, but did not know anything about the alleged requirements Fafard and Andrews were touting – most likely because their statement referred to a formal audit, which has nothing to do with the yearly audit requirement common to most non-profit groups.

Section 7.1 of the Pride Calgary Association’s by-laws states: “The books, accounts, and records of the Secretary and Treasurer shall be audited at least once each year by a duly qualified accountant or by two members of the society elected for that purpose at the Annual Meeting.”

A formal audit this was not, but another member agreed with Fafard and Andrews that a stamp was required even for this regular audit to be valid. Just like that, the credibility of the audit report was undermined, leading to intense scrutiny from the membership, and renewed misgivings regarding the Pride Board’s rocky past. However it should be mentioned that the meeting minutes from last year’s Pride AGM report that Fafard abstained (meaning he neither favoured nor opposed) approval of that year’s audit, also lacking the characteristic stamp of a formal audit, for no reason listed.

A motion was made by an unidentified female member to hire an “actual certified accountant to look at things” next time. Skorka responded “the current accountant that does it is a chartered accountant.” But Fafard scoffed, “obviously not if the audit is not stamped and sealed. …As a member, how do I notify this guy – there’s no letterhead, there’s no phone number, there’s no address, there’s no nothing.” Nevermind that the name of the accountant is clearly shown and signed in the Accountant’s Statement page of the report. A.K. Ross, a certified general accountant is, in fact, a well known accountant in the gay community. Contact information is readily available on the GayCalgary.com website and from many other sources.

Upon reviewing our records, the audit reports from ARGRA (2005, 2006, 2007), Apollo/OutGames (2006, 2007), Calgary Outlink (2007), and even that from a condo board (2005) all follow a similar format to that of Pride Calgary’s. Clearly Fafard and Andrew’s objections should have fallen flat – but without research or expert knowledge to cut them off right then and there, how could the rest of the membership have known?

Former directors asked for additional paperwork and records, past and current, that Skorka could not produce - in some cases grilling him on their own vague memories about accounting discrepancies that went all the way back to 2005. Tragically without an official treasurer to give an informed explanation of the current audit and clarify any confusion, the membership’s and directors’ confusion had them hacking the financials to smithereens.

In all this commotion, members failed to realize that the report showed this year’s beer gardens with the 2nd highest profits in the past 6 years (best in 2003, worst in 2004); and though tickets sales for the dance were the worst yet in a steady decline since 2001, their total income was third highest in the past 6 years (best in 2002, worst in 2004). They managed to bring their expenses down from last year by close to $20,000, resulting in their second highest net income over the past 6 years (best in 2004 by only ~$500, worst was last year with a deficit of approximately $12,000). Aside from a pending expense dispute, the Pride Board has pulled themselves out of the hole this year, and may very well be on an upward rebound – that is, if the angry mob doesn’t get to dismantle the organization first.

Fafard’s contempt for the Pride Board became more evident as he took charge of the meeting and pushed things on to the elections. “Let’s start this [board] from scratch and do it the way normal people do it? Let’s do it the legal way.”

A bold statement considering the actions that followed were anything but legal. Tawde Clark asked if Skorka would be retiring from the board, to which Skorka responded that he had only completed the first year of his two-year term as elected Male Co-Chair. Fafard asked again if Skorka would be retiring, and he responded no. Clark immediately motioned that Skorka resign from the board – an unidentified female seconded, and a membership majority voted in favour. Fafard proclaimed, “The aye’s have it.”

Immediately some members cited that this was not acceptable procedure for impeachment according to the by-laws. Indeed section 14.1 states “Any officer or director of the Board of Directors may be removed from office, at a Special Meeting properly called and constituted for such purpose, upon a one-third vote of all members of the society.” 14.2 continues, “Such meeting shall be called by the Co-chairs upon receipt by them of a petition signed by 10% (ten percent) of the members in good standing stating the reasons for impeachment.”

Though the exact details of the by-laws were unavailable at the time, Fafard ignored this point of order, stating “majority rules … if he wants to run again, he can. Right now everybody has resigned, there is no board. Let’s start from scratch, let’s get some new policies, and let’s stop bickering back and forth and let’s start acting like something we can be proud of.”

Secretary Kim Clarke stepped in to once again remind the membership that the organization was required to abide by the by-laws, to which Tawde Clark chanted “Pull the by-laws!” Fafard announced “The by-laws are written by the members. Ladies and gentlemen we are the members of Pride Calgary – we have made a special resolution,” once again showing a stunning lack of understanding for terminology.

A Special Resolution is passed at a general meeting of which at least 21 days notice specifying the intention to propose a resolution as a special resolution has been given. A special resolution requires a 75% majority. Fafard’s declaration that a special resolution had occurred did not, in reality, make it so.

Quite suddenly Skorka stood up from his chair and firmly stated, “Ladies and gentlemen…the by-laws [to force] anyone to resign is by special resolution, and because this is turning into a bickering session, this meeting is adjourned – it will be rescheduled.” But he was left standing as the contingent of mutinous membership continued to conduct the meeting.

“We all can sit right here and start up a whole new Pride Board,” Fafard proposed, to the agreement of the mutinous members. He went on to say “John, it’s in your best interests right now to step down.”

“This is a group of people that are concerned about an organization that isn’t working,” lamented Chilton.

“Obviously the members that are sitting here are not happy with the way Pride has been running for the last 2 years – that’s a given,” said Fafard, presuming to speak for everyone in the room. “So the honourable thing to do would be to step aside, let’s start from scratch.”

“Instead of asking him to resign,” interjected Kim Clarke, “why don’t all of you who feel so impassioned about it run for the [12] other positions…?”

“No,” said Fafard flatly, cutting her off.

Fafard, Andrews, Chilton and Clark continued pressuring Skorka to resign, citing everything from “problems with the image of the organization” to “discrepancies” from his previous one-year pick-up term as Male Co-Chair following the pre-mature resignation of former Male Co-Chair Dean Burton. Skorka defended the necessity of this previous one-year term to satisfy the by-law imperative that Male and Female Co-Chair positions be staggered such that both do not resign simultaneously.

Section 2.3 of the by-laws state, “For the first year of these amended by-laws one Co-Chair position will be for a term of one year and the second Co-Chair will be for two years. (This creates overlapping Co-Chair terms). Thereafter each Co-chair position will be for a term of two years” Section 2.6 states, “With the exception of the Co-Chair who is in the middle of their two-year term, the whole Board shall be retired at each annual meeting. All retiring Board Members are eligible for re-election if otherwise qualified.”

But it was clear that the rogue members wanted to affect change in this organization whether legal or not, offering Skorka the lame assurance that he could run again for the position if he wanted to, provided that he agreed to tender his resignation. Skorka would not budge.

“Everybody [here] wants to do something for Pride Calgary and you’re refusing it,” Tawde Clark accused Skorka, “You will single-handedly destroy Pride if it kills you.”

Then Fafard got on his soap box. “I make a motion amongst all of us, that we start a new Pride organization…because I bet you five bucks that [Pride Calgary] hasn’t paid their renewal fees for the last four years. I want to say one thing before we leave. Saturday was World AIDS Day. I got up on stage and you know, it was funny. I had half the [ISCCA] who walked out because they were pissed off from politics. It is high time this community we pulled together – for the better of the community, not for ourselves – I couldn’t give two shits about what goes on. But when it’s representing Calgary, the gay community, I think we need to put our [problems] aside and work as a team. You should need to be wanting to sleep with your worst enemy to get five bucks out of them to further the cause in life. That’s the way it should work – not ‘I am not doing this because it doesn’t serve my needs.’ And that applies to everybody that’s in this room. I’ve said this from the get-go and I will always say it. …Most of us here have this agenda right now that it’s all about them and not the greater good. Even Nixon had the good sense to resign when he knew he wasn’t wanted and was impeached. If I was standing here and nobody wanted me, I’d be like, for the good of Pride Calgary I’m stepping aside, have a nice life. For the good of Pride – not for yourself, not for me, not for the Bunker or not for the Eagle, or who ever – for Pride Calgary. That’s what we need to be doing and this is why, for the last three years it’s gone downhill…and if you think it’s gone downhill this year, it’s going to be even worse next year. So I suggest if this is the way they’re going to operate, then we push them aside, we contact Calgary, and we tell them this is the new board. We will be taking over from now on, because I bet you five bucks you guys have not mailed out your incorporation [forms] or paid for them, so therefore this is not even a legal corporation to begin with. Your Rules of Roberts, if you want a copy…I have two – I sit on two condo boards. We have to follow by the law.”

As the newly formed mob filed out of the room with promises from Andrews of a free meal at “Smuggler’s” for their valuable time, we were left to see the other members who had sat so quietly that we didn’t even realize they were there. These are people we have known for years – many are upstanding, active and contributing GLBT individuals that have good intentions for the gay community, driven by an honest concern for the wellbeing of the people in it. They want a successful Pride too, and they showed up to this meeting to offer their help. But each one looked drained, broken, and eerily switched off after witnessing this shameful scene. This is not an unfamiliar look, especially in the GLBT community - the horror of seeing one of our own kind effectively “gay-bashed” – the onlookers too afraid to do anything, and hating themselves for it. Is this really how we want the next Pride Board to come about? Would it not be an abomination of everything a community stands for? What happened to the spirit of friendship, support, and cooperation? Are we to be reduced to Fafard’s idea of sleeping with our worst enemies to get “five bucks” to further our “cause”? What worth is our cause if all we have to look forward to is hating one another, but fucking anyway?

If John Skorka was shaken up by the abuse he and the organization received, he did a valiant job of hiding it. There is no doubt that Pride Calgary Association has some serious problems to overcome in the next few years – starting with securing a stable and reliable panel of directors, and an able force of volunteers. This will not be easy with the incessant bad-mouthing Fafard and Andrews began two years ago. Is it any wonder the dance failed when the duo was informing their customers months in advance that it was going to suck? The development of this new “Anti-Pride faction” is more likely to the the death of Pride in Calgary – not Skorka.

Still, commendations should be handed out to Skorka, and the handful of directors with and before him who, despite their mistakes, did not buckle under the pressure of these school-yard bullying tactics. That is not to mention the amazing feat of pulling off a Pride each year with half a panel of directors (the outgoing half often sabotaging their efforts) only to get torn apart for “lack of effort” at subsequent AGMs. If Skorka had given in this day, it might have set a dangerous precedent that could see other non-profit groups bullied out of their autonomy.

Now with the future of the official Pride Board at stake from the threats of an unsanctioned competing organization, will anyone stand up to help get Calgary Pride back on it’s feet the proper way?

Skorka has rescheduled the meeting for 7:00pm on Wednesday January 9th at the Knox United Church (506 Fourth Street SW), with assurance that measures will be taken to ensure the same shenanigans don’t disrupt the organization a second time.

Quotes in this article were taken directly from an audio recording of the Pride Board AGM, with the permission and knowledge of the acting board. All captured statements were made in a public forum already subject to being recorded in the meeting minutes – and thus considered public information. Public information is not subject to individual permission or approval, and can be freely published unless said information is proven to be falsified or slanderous in a court of law. For the sake of completeness, the full audio recording will be made available on the GayCalgary.com website so that readers may verify the accuracy of the selected quotes in full context.