Lexie Matheson Auckland Pride Festival board member Lexie Matheson has confirmed she resigned a week ago from what she is describing as the 'dysfunctional' board charged with running the annual Auckland Pride Festival. Matheson, a university lecturer in event, project and arts management, says she had urged the board to be open and transparent over the resignation early last month of Festival Director Julian Cook. She says had earlier counselled against the appointment of an Executive Officer without the position being advertised or the wider gay communities' knowledge. And she says she had warned fellow board members before Cook himself did of what she sensed was Cook's growing dissatisfaction with being required without warning to report to the Executive Officer rather than the board itself but "they gave no sense of concern." Matheson also believes that she was misled when she was told by one of the co-chairs they they had been misquoted by GayNZ.com in a published interview conducted following Cook's departure. "I am proud to have been a board member but, yes, we became dysfunctional. And Julian, as Festival Director, was the person most affected by that dysfunction. We lost our Festival director, a person who was valuable to Pride and to the community in general. To allow it to get to the point where he resigned... yes we were dysfunctional." Rumours of discontent with the direction and operation of the Board culminated in Cook's resignation approximately a month ago, though his departure was not acknowledged publicly until November 10 by which time the Board was already searching for his replacement. In a subsequent interview published on GayNZ.com the Board's co-chairs apologised for lack of transparency regarding the appointment of an Executive Director, a situation which eventually contributed to Cook's departure. The co-chairs also promised greater transparency and increased communication to the glbti communities in future but it has yet to publicly announce the departure of Matheson who has long had a high profile in the glbti community. The Board interviewed possible replacement festival directors last Thursday. GayNZ.com understands an appointment, or appointments, were made soon after the interviews and is awaiting a formal announcement by the Board. GayNZ.com will publish a fuller interview with Matheson this evening. The Pride Board is working on a response.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Wednesday, 3rd December 2014 - 3:55pm