Letters – Melbourne issue 129

JAIL PLEA
Spare a thought for all the gays, lesbians and transgenders who are in jail.
It can be a very lonely place for us despite living entirely with our own gender.
The chance to mix with people from our own community can be very limited.
We in jail are commonly viewed as ‘society’s rejects’. Yes, we have committed a crime and deserve to be where we are.
But as a lesbian in jail I feel isolated from the community which I love so much.
We are doing our time in here but please spare a thought for our loneliness and isolation.
I am asking any gays, lesbians and transgenders out there in the community and those in jails everywhere to write to me: Karen Kramer, #372483, Silverwater Women’s Correctional Centre, Australia Post Business Centre, Locked Bag 130, Silverwater NSW 1811.
Perhaps together we can set up a support network for those of us ‘doing time’.
— Karen

ALSO VOTE
I urge ALSO Care members to vote ‘No’ by proxy now or in person at the Special General Meeting of ALSO Care and Benevolent Society on April 20.
By ceasing to be an ‘at call — magic pudding’ for the continuing big spending of its ‘sister’ — ALSO Foundation — there is an opportunity for ALSO Care to survive and only then, in my opinion, can realistic steps be taken to ‘trim the cloth’ of the foundation.
Indicating that such steps may be taken, but without any useful detail, we now find ALSO Foundation has the gall to propose a budget income receipt for 2011/12 of nearly $1 million! This is despite having never achieved income streams anywhere near such an amount in at least their last three annual budgets! Over this same period, foundation directors repeatedly refused calls to rein in their spending.
The current CEO suggests external funding is “just around the corner”. We’ve been told that one before. Living on hope is no way to manage the last of reserves.
Where are statements of income and expenses for the current eight – nine months of trading since the announced financial crisis in ALSO Foundation? Indeed, no meetings have been called of ALSO Foundation, the body in crisis, to allow examination of the situation. Why not?
Surely if it was your own money you would be most unlikely to follow such a risky path without details and controls on what was to happen?Perhaps, in order to maintain their spending, ALSO Foundation directors will stump up their own financial guarantees — once they squeeze every last drop from ALSO Care? I think not.
Their latest action is a last deperate attempt to stave off the probability of descending into administration or worse.
ALSO Care members, by voting ‘No’ on April 20, can set about a realistic return to the true objectives of their organisation.
— Geoff Richards,
Past and initial formation, committee member of ALSO Care