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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Manitoba Writers' Guild hoping to turn page on turmoil
That was the message given Tuesday night by the volunteer board of the province's largest writers' service organization in the group's first meeting since it collapsed amid turmoil last summer.
"We're out of gas. We've got a flat tire," board member Maeengan Linklater said. "We're here to figure out what direction we want to go as an organization."
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A standing-room-only crowd of more than 50 guild members lined the walls of the group's Exchange District offices to hear president John Toone itemize the guild's debts.
He said the 27-year-old organization is in the red by $125,000, roughly 60 per cent of its operating revenues.
Owing is $38,000 to the Winnipeg Foundation, $17,000 to the Canada Revenue Agency, $6,000 in legal fees, $6,000 in credit card bills, and $3,600 in outstanding fees for the last issue of its newsletter.
An additional $50,000 is still outstanding to more than 20 creditors, who include individual designers and writers.
Toone said the group will be offering limited member services, including email updates, a monthly reading series and the rental of its two writing studios, on a volunteer basis.
Even if provincial and city grants continue to flow, he said, the guild does not plan to hire paid staff until at least September.
He said the guild's financial problems came to light after last spring's annual general meeting when the board learned that a supposed $6,000 surplus was in actuality a $145,000 deficit.
An often-emotional question period following the formal presentation focused on the rumoured ill will between Toone and the guild's longtime executive director, who was dismissed in September.
One member said the alleged grievances brought by staff against Toone last summer were "the elephant in the room."
But guild vice-president Maurice Mierau stepped in to say that no grievances had been filed in writing. "In a way," Mierau said, "we have always been chasing ghosts on this."
Toone said the guild had called Winnipeg police after it learned of its dire financial situation and that "charges were pending" against the executive director.
However, he said the crown prosecutor recommended mediation between the two parties and that the guild was willing to proceed with this.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 18, 2009 D3
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