What on earth is going on at the Auckland Pride Centre? Since leaving their K' Rd offices in May because there wasn't enough money to cover the rent, Auckland Pride have been ensconced in the Anzac Ave offices of Auckland's Gay and Lesbian Welfare, a larger organization which performs most of the functions of Auckland Pride. "We said that we could provide them with some office space on a temporary basis," says Gay and Lesbian Welfare's Neville Creighton, "and we have a letter of agreement for three months." Creighton says that having two queer welfare organizations working out of the same office has not been problematic. By combining the two centres' libraries, a greater resource is now available to the public. In terms of staffing, Auckland Pride's resources are limited. According to Creighton, Pride Centre mainstay Edward Bennett is doing most of the Centre's work from home. "Edward's only here a couple of hours, three or four days a week, so there's no clash from that point of view," he says. "It's when he feels the need to at the moment, it seems all the calls are going to an ansaphone at his place, and then he goes home and answers them all from there." It is perhaps from home that the Centre now sends out an occasional small list of links to gay news stories on other websites, including GayNZ.com. But there's no other visible activity. The Centre's own website still headlines material from last year. Pride stalwart Angus Stutter has been overseas and was unable to answer GayNZ.com's questions on the current state of Auckland Pride, referring us onto Bennett. A week's worth of emails and calls made to Bennett on the Pride Centre line were not returned. Auckland Pride's answerphone message has apparently not been updated for some time, with the message inviting callers to visit Auckland Pride in their 'new' premises on K' Road. In terms of funding outlets, Auckland Pride applies to many of the bodies that Gay and Lesbian Welfare does. For the past year, the Pride Centre had been having difficulty obtaining funding, amid debate that the Centre was no longer fulfilling any useful purpose. Things came to a head in May when former centre co-ordinator Martin van der Reit was blamed for missing funds totaling $30,000. He claimed the accusations were part of an elaborate plot to cover up mismanagement. Police and the Centre are still investigating. The unavailability or unwillingness of Pride Centre representatives to talk to the media is unfortunate, as there are questions that need to be answered, perhaps the first of which should be why calls aren't being returned. How about the van der Reit fraud allegations? Has there been any feedback from the police? Where are the Pride Centre's lawyers and accountants at with their investigations? Auckland Pride received some funding to continue its operations from COGS late last year. Funding from COGS is allocated on an annual basis, with decisions made in September/October. A former COGS committee member tells us that applications have been declined in the past for organizations where the financial systems are believed to be unsafe. The ASB Trust says they have made no recent grants to Auckland Pride. Checks revealed an application they had in the system some time back had been withdrawn. Is the Pride Centre managing to continue any of its operations? Have its funders been scared off by the van der Reit case? Auckland Pride's current relationship with funding bodies remains a speculative matter for now, as does their worth and effectiveness as a community organization. What services does Auckland Pride provide these days above and beyond services already available elsewhere, such as from Auckland's Gay Chris Banks - 2nd August 2004