T.S. Eliot wrote “This is the way the world ends….Not with a bang, but a whimper.” I thought of that line from “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” when I read the headline in the City State section of the Indianapolis Star on November 10th, detailing events that will probably lead to the demise of AIDServe, Indiana.
T.S. Eliot wrote “This is the way the world ends….Not with a bang, but a whimper.”
I thought of that line from “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” when I read the headline in the City State section of the Indianapolis Star on November 10th, detailing events that will probably lead to the demise of AIDServe, Indiana.
It was nearly twenty years ago when I helped a couple of clients/friends incorporate a new organization called The Bag Ladies. It was the second group in the entire country to be formed to fight the new, strange disease that was then afflicting a disproportionate number of gay men, a disease we have come to know as AIDS. I remember the very first Garage Party, and the naiveté that led to its raid by the Indianapolis Police Department for lack of a liquor license. (I also remember being the lawyer who was sent to negotiate with IPD—unsuccessfully—for return of the confiscated booze.)
I recount this bit of history because the entity that finally was known as AIDServe continued to be characterized by the efforts of concerned people in the community. The Bag Ladies became Indiana Cares, and the later merger with ICAAN created AIDServe. And all the while, the level of responsibility grew faster than the expertise to manage it.
In March of this year, I was asked to join the AIDServe Indiana Board of Directors. What I found was a Board unsure of its mission and responsibilities. Some of the members had a sophisticated understanding of their roles; others clearly had little or none. Many were trying valiantly to be helpful and productive; others indulged in considerable sniping and backbiting. Meanwhile, several years of disorganization and poor business practices, combined with the confusion and “culture shock” attendant to the merger, were culminating in the problems that have been detailed in this newspaper and in the Indianapolis Star.
It bears emphasizing that there are no villains in this story. Despite the tendency of the press to frame reports in ways that suggest wrongdoing—the Star alluded to the fact that AIDServe was “under investigation”—that investigation is an audit to help figure out accounting problems, not a search for illegal or unethical behavior. Despite Mark St. John’s unfortunate description of “robbing Peter to pay Paul,” which the media has consistently quoted, no one has even remotely suggested that misbehavior occurred. What Mark did was what businesspeople do all the time—apply the first available dollars to the most pressing claims. Unfortunately, when you do business with the State, you are sometimes obliged to earmark those dollars; you do not have the option of allocating them in order of priority. Whatever the strengths and weaknesses of the management team that has now resigned, it is beyond question that the problems had been building well before the tenure of these particular people. If AIDServe closes, as seems likely, it will be because a whole series of good people lacked the management skills necessary to keep pace with the growth of fiscal responsibilities assumed by the organization.
There are certainly lessons to be learned. As government units all through the country hasten to contract out the provision of social services, this is one more example of the hazards involved. The Indiana Department of Health had contract and oversight responsibilities that certainly should have been exercised more carefully and consistently. Had the Department been more involved and more responsive earlier, many of the later problems could have been avoided.
The community hasn’t covered itself with glory in all of this, either. When the AIDServe problems first hit the general news media, I got a call from someone identifying himself as an original member of the Bag Ladies, who said he was calling everyone on the Board to say he wouldn’t rest until the organization had closed its doors. Other sniping was less overt, but no less unproductive. Rather than offering assistance to a troubled agency trying to solve problems and provide services, too many personal agendas took priority over problem solving. When the dust settles, the people who will be most hurt by all of this are precisely the people most in need of help and support: the clients.
I resigned from the AIDServe Board when it became obvious I was not in a position to be helpful. But as someone who was there at the moment of birth, I am saddened by the probability of death. So many good people worked so hard, gave so selflessly, cared so passionately, and are left with so little.
The self-righteous fingerpointers may feel vindicated, but the truth of the matter is, we are all losers.
A jaundiced look at the world we live in.