Michael Stevens A former chair believes the New Zealand AIDS Foundation Trust Board's decision to hire Shaun Robinson as Executive Director shows its vision is about management, something he believes it perceives to be more important than community engagement and leadership. Researcher Michael Stevens is a Life Member of the NZAF who was the board chair responsible for hiring the Foundation's last Executive Director, Rachael Le Mesurier. He applied for the Executive Director position this time around, something he felt was clearly important to disclose before commenting on the hiring decision. "I put myself forward for the role because I'm passionate about reducing infection rates and believe that it's really important that there is leadership in our community for this to happen. To succeed I believe NZAF must re-engage with the core group at risk - gay men. This is the only way we will beat HIV," he says. "I disclose this because there is an important debate to be had here and I don't wish there to be any distractions about my having sour grapes over the decision. To be honest I was pleasantly surprised I got short-listed." Stevens says the reason he applied for the position is the very reason the board's decision needs to be discussed and critiqued now. "It is obvious that the board has shown that their vision is about management, which they perceive to be more important than community engagement and leadership," he says. "This seems strange as one of the criticisms I've heard again and again of the NZAF over recent years has been that it is too managerial and process driven, and drifting further and further away from the people it is paid to serve, and people forget, or don't know, that the NZAF was set up and is funded by the Government specifically to provide HIV prevention for gay men. It isn't paid to run prevention campaigns for hetero teens for example. The Ministry of Health funds it to reach out to the gay world. "Bill Logan is completely right when he says gay men will not listen to others telling us about our sex-lives, yet the board has mystifyingly decided to put someone who can't communicate with these groups as its leader." Stevens says although some people think it shouldn't, the sexuality of the incoming Executive Director does matter. He says the ED has to be able to lead the groups the NZAF is paid to serve, and a straight man has no credibility in this. "Now, anyone can actually manage the organisation – it's not rocket science. There are hundreds of men out there who could run the Ministry of Women's Affairs. You could find a 50-year-old Mormon who could run Rainbow Youth quite adequately. But they can't provide leadership or connect to the core groups that those organisations are there for, because they have no understanding of what it is like for those groups. You can't change a culture if you are an outsider to that culture. He can't stand up at the Big Gay Out and speak as one of us – he isn't and never will be." Stevens says there is a difference between a great organisation which achieves its mission and an adequate organisation which just bumbles along. He says managerialism is not going to stop the spread of HIV in gay and bisexual men in New Zealand. "The key point I think we need to look at here is that this signals a move away from what has always been the underlying ethos of the NZAF - care for our community by our community. The Board has made this major strategic shift with no consultation or stakeholder input," he says. "The Board has re-stated their key strategic goal as achieving a significant reduction in the number of HIV infections – they have failed repeatedly in doing this over the last few years: it's hard to see how appointing a heterosexual man with zero experience or knowledge of HIV can do this. But good luck to him – he'll need it."
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Tuesday, 21st December 2010 - 8:54am