Resignations and Redundancies
I applied to be the General Manager of the London Lesbian and Gay Centre in 1989 when nobody would touch it: There had been a series of 'scandals' involving managers dipping into the tills, poor operational management, it was unpopular with many Lesbians and gays who saw it as an embarrassment and the idea to locate it in the arsehole of nowhere had come back to bite it by the end of the 80s. The Board of Directors were disconnected and openly anti "community" separatists who refused a lucrative deal to move into a palatial building off Regent St because they'd have to share 'power' with Gay Switchboard, Body Positive and The Covent Garden Health Spa. They wanted me to price out the riff raff so that they themselves would feel more comfortable visiting the centre. "We do not believe in the concept of a lesbian and gay community; we are in the business of selling food and drink"! I resigned, but officially "accepted redundancy" because they were afraid I'd share my story and affect their business. They closed 18months later as I predicted.
Actors Centre... Hmmm: That was a success! I raised the cash to buy their new building, created The Tristan Bates Theatre, increased membership etc... They just acted like luvvies and drove me mad. I delivered monthly reports that the 16(!) members of the board never read which showed that we were banking £1k per day but we still owed £100K to Sir Anthony Hopkins that he'd lent us for the building. One day one of them read the report and they freaked out. An insolvency practitioner was called in, I gave her the monthly reports, she said "I don't really see the problem" but when the Board arrived later for an "Emergency Meeting" they still refused to accept any responsibility and, at the end of a 14 hr day, I asked for a recess and resigned. I believe that without me they'd still be on top of the reject shop in Tottenham Court Rd. The 'new' building was valued at £2.1m in 2011...
Black Theatre Forum: just ran away from a £37m grant they'd asked me to persue! amateurs fearful for their "reputations" in case the project failed with their names attached to it. The have all disappeared entirely by now (not unlike me!). I resigned and was immediately Head-hunted, which seemed like a brilliant conclusion at first...
Talawa Theatre Company: "The Foremost Black Theatre Company in UK"- but mainly because they'd survived vicious cuts that had removed any black theatre company with any bite or had shown any resistance to the powers that be. Talawa took sycophancy to new heights. When I was head-hunted for the job, I declined. I told the Artistic Director (a deeply deluded woman!) "I'm tired of making other people look good, I am a damned good director! You've been talking about retiring for years, when are you leaving: I want your job!" So we agreed a deal that if I went to them as Administrator for a couple of years, when she was ready to leave I could chuck my hat in the ring. But, once I had sorted out the embarrassing mess that was their financials- which was the real reason I'd been hired, she did her best to stop me moving on any of the things I'd set out as actions in my interviews. I took the piss by dressing as a Nigerian chief for my 6month probationary interview where I was able to demonstrate that what the AD said, did and told the trustees where usually completely different things and that I entirely understood why my predecessor had had a breakdown and would be out of there ASAP! They'd been awarded £5m by the Arse Council, I KNEW they'd fuck it up, so I wasn't surprised when a couple of years later it was announced that the money had been reallocated.
In 2009 I submitted the first in a series of reports to the trustees of Intercultural Arts warning them about the likely impacts of the 'world economic crisis' on UK Arts in general and that organisation in particular. I campaigned about diversification of funding because I predicted that the Arse Council would cut funds to non-art-producing ("Infrastructure") organisations. I secured contracts that demonstrated new ways of working but the trustees didn't take me seriously until the CSR in 2011 when the Arse Council announced its cuts that included funds to IcA. I did get an apology from the Chair. I suppose that I COULD have stayed but we'd recently employed an administrator who was a new dad and I was tired of working for people who didn't listen to me so I accepted redundancy but they'd closed down within a year.
In 2014 I handed over leadership of the cic I'd created to take up a job at the Phoenix Theatre in Blyth. I was doing what I'd been asked to do and was praised for it, BUT I found out that "The real reason for your job is so that Trustees don't have to work as many evenings and weekends"! Well: that isn't what it said in the job description except "Some evening work". They're lead by this guy who acts like a Byzantine Emperor when he is on site. of the 25 organisations I engaged on behalf of the theatre, 23 of them volunteered the observation that he was a bully. I despise bullies and enjoyed being unimpressed by this non-entity who thought he was something special. I didn't need the job and was happy not to complete the probation.
in 2015 I went to work for an organisation who'd got hold of a community centre from the council. They'd paid this truly awful cuntsultant (sic) who tried to impress and bully me when I arrived, but I shut her down and soon told her I didn't need her further input. I was doing extremely well, until I discovered that this well-paid cuntsultant had missed that the creation of the job I was doing was contrary to Charity Law. This wasn't necessarily a deal-breaker but it was soon clear that the current trustees had not been involved in the decisions to move to the building and create 'my' job and, that they didn't agree with that strategy so they now had an excuse to reverse it. Rather than coming clean about their intentions I was kept in ignorant limbo for TEN months acting as a bloody caretaker until I demanded they took action and made me redundant.
I would LOVE to work for myself again. I am revamping and revising the CIC into a CIO and, despite continuing to look for work, my real aim is to get the new organisation registered ASAP so that I can lead it to complete the big projects we have been working on for the last couple of years. Got to raise £250K to make a particular purchase and grow.
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