FROM THE CEO
• Chief Executive Officer Lorri L. Jean
VANGUARD | SUMMER 2021
T
hese days I find myself much more focused on the future than on the here and now. Of course, in a year, on July 1, 2022, I will retire from the helm of my beloved Los Angeles LGBT Center. But there is SO MUCH on my mind before then, some of which is about the Center and some that has to do with our larger movement. A few of the things keeping me up at night include: • When will our Ariadne Getty Foundation Senior Housing building open, after countless Covid-related delays? • When will the rest of the Center’s programs return live and in person? • Are people ready to once again attend Center events? And is my own nervousness about everything reopening logical? • Joe Hollendoner begins his one-year tenure as Executive Director in July; how do we make his year of transition a valuable and meaningful one—for him and the staff he will soon lead? • We’re relaunching the AIDS/LifeCycle late this summer for 2022—will it come back full-force? What are the consequences if it doesn’t? • The Equality Act was passed in the House; does it have a chance in the Senate? • Has it really been 40 years since the CDC first reported cases of AIDS, right here in L.A.? For my thoughts on each of these, please read on.
PICKING OURSELVES UP AFTER THE PANDEMIC The Ariadne Getty Foundation Senior Housing This 98-unit affordable housing building designed for LGBTQ seniors has been beset by seemingly countless Covid-related delays. We’ve faced everything from construction staff unable to work because of quarantines to materials shortages caused by the pandemic. As the opening date continually receded, the lucky seniors whose names were drawn from more than 1,500 lottery applicants to secure one of these coveted units have been understandably anxious about when they can move in. If City inspectors cooperate, we hope to have our Temporary Certificate of Occupancy by the time you read this and look forward to celebrating the move-in by early July. Stay tuned!
When will the rest of the Center resume in-person services, including Center events? Since March of 2020, one-third of our staff has continued to provide front-line, essential services onsite, while the remaining two-thirds have been working from home. So, while the Center never stopped providing services, many programs certainly adapted to circumstances, including going virtual. Currently, the staff of programs and departments that were not considered front-line, essential services, and were required to work from home, have either already returned to work or are preparing to safely do so. Directors are implementing
schedules that make sense for each area (and some of our virtual programming worked so well, we’ll likely keep much of it!). Of course, the rules for workplaces like ours and for some of the services we provide are different from California’s general reopening rules, so we’ll have to navigate them carefully. In terms of returning to in-person events, in June we dipped our toes in the water with our Pride Picnic at Hollywood Forever. Some people definitely are ready to get back out there! I’ve found myself very excited about the prospect of seeing (and hugging) friends again. Yet, when a board committee recently scheduled a meeting in a restaurant’s private dining room, even though all of us planning to attend were fully vaccinated, I felt nervous. Clearly, my reaction wasn’t completely logical. I suspect it will take a little while for many of us to get used to doing things we’ve been avoiding for 15 months.
What’s going on with Joe Hollendoner? Joe begins his tenure at the Center on July 6th. He and his husband, Bill, have found an apartment that is close to the Anita May Rosenstein Campus. My team and I and the Board of Directors have been preparing for his arrival for many months. We have a comprehensive and detailed plan for what we hope to achieve in Joe’s “onboarding” year. Most new nonprofit CEOs have no choice but to immediately begin focusing externally, which deprives them
