GLEC: more than just networking

 

by Paula Martinac

Michael Testa and Deb Acklin, chair and vice chair, respectively, of Pittsburgh’s Gay and Lesbian Executive Committee, share an easy camaraderie, as if they were lifelong friends. Yet, they met less than two years ago when Testa was visiting the Oakland offices of WQED Multimedia, where Acklin is vice president and chief operating officer.

“George [Miles, president and CEO of WQED] introduced me to this delightful woman,” says Testa, president of Right Geeks, a technology consulting firm.

The two professionals clicked immediately, and Testa decided to approach Acklin with an idea he’d been bouncing around for a while.

“I wanted to start a networking group for LGBT professionals, but we didn’t have a venue,” Testa explains.

Although his idea was still in a formative stage, Testa knew what he wanted to avoid: a group that met in bars and was focused on corporate professionals.

“Deb was receptive, and we kicked off the group in January of ’09” with WQED as the sponsoring agency.

Acklin says that offering WQED as GLEC’s sponsor and primary meeting space was not a stretch for the pioneering station. WQED was already hosting a similar African-American leadership group, founded by Miles, to help that community connect.

“We have a commitment to diversity,” Acklin observes. “It’s part of the DNA here. Being a sort of community center is what we do. We’re a place that’s about people.”

WQED’s sponsorship, she adds, gave the fledgling GLEC “credibility” and “a serious anchor.”

For the first GLEC meeting, Testa and Acklin pulled together about 20 people they personally knew who are LGBT leaders and executives.

“Mike knew a lot of high-powered women, and I didn’t know any,” Acklin quips.

In fact, most of GLEC’s meetings have achieved gender parity.

“We have damn good gender balance,” notes Testa.

At the kick-off, “We discussed whether we even needed to exist,” Testa recalls.

The answer was a resounding yes—although GLEC has never held a membership drive, the mailing list has grown to almost 400 people, solely by word of mouth.

About 30 professionals attend each monthly meeting. Members exchange information and business cards, making valuable connections in a social atmosphere.

“I like to call them events,” says Acklin. “Who wants to go to another ‘meeting’?”

Some events have been particularly well-attended, like last year’s summer social held at the Firehouse Lounge and sponsored by Steel City Volleyball League and Paragon Foods. More than 250 people turned out.

At the beginning of each year, “the members plan the agenda,” says Testa. “Deb and I are the gel for the group, but we don’t just want it to be the ‘Deb and Mike Show.’”

Events are eclectic, and not just social. From month to month, members might attend a play at City Theatre or Pittsburgh Public Theater, or welcome a speaker on LGBT issues.

One month GLEC took a tour of the WQED studios designed specifically for GLEC members, which included a live broadcast of OnQ with a panel discussion on LGBT issues—“everything from marriage to faith,” said Testa. 

Last fall, GLEC sponsored a “speed networking” program. Patricia Putman, Barbara Schwarck and Nancy Stampahar, three members with their own personal coaching practices/businesses, guided GLEC members through the most effective ways to network. Forty-two people practiced their “elevator speeches,” then the speed networking began in earnest.

GLEC’s invited guest speakers tend to be high-profile.

In May of 2009, for example, State Rep. Dan Frankel addressed the group on HB300, which prohibits discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations and other areas based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

At this year’s May event, members rubbed elbows with Stephen Glassman, chair of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission.

Testa says the advocacy component is intentional, because the local LGBT community needs to be aware of what’s going on with its rights and to take action.

“Our community is very apathetic. We let politicos fight for our rights. But leaders on the other side are calling in supporters by the thousands.”

When an anti-gay-marriage initiative bill hit the Pennsylvania legislature, GLEC members got the word out and called in their disapproval to their representatives. The bill eventually died in committee. “This group is doing its job,” Testa says proudly.

The “grand event” Testa and Acklin are most jazzed about is a Jobs/Services/Organization Fair to be held at WQED on October 11, 2010, for the gay and gay-friendly community (time to be announced; possibly 12 to 9 pm). “This is the first time this has ever been done in Pittsburgh,” Testa notes.

Held in the Fred Rogers studio, the fair will feature booths for businesses and organizations that want to recruit LGBT employees; information on local LGBT advocacy groups and services; food and beverages provided by local restaurants; and entertainment by Dreams of Hope, the queer youth performance troupe.

There will also be a mentoring component, in which younger people “come in and see the community. We can help each other out—that’s the goal,” says Testa.

The booth rental fees will benefit WQED, but the event itself is free to the public. Persad Center donated its September ad in Out so that GLEC could advertise the event to the community.

This summer, GLEC took a sporty turn, with a wellness/sports event in June in which all the LGBT sports and wellness groups in the area got a chance to present themselves to the membership. Then the group heads outdoors in July for a kayaking event.

In August, GLEC will be back discussing a serious matter: the topic of religion, which has posed so many difficulties for LGBT people of faith.

Testa says that GLEC has already become “a go-to organization” on LGBT issues, and that he would like the group to evolve into a clearinghouse that “takes the mystery out of what to do” on issues of significance to LGBT people—all while retaining its social roots.

“Networking is power,” he says.

And the fun, social aspect keeps many people coming back.

“We work because it’s not so formal,” observes Acklin. Basically, “we’re an ad hoc group that’s come together to meet people.”

For more information about GLEC, visit http://sites.google.com/site/glecpittsburgh. To join the mailing list, email glecpgh@gmail.com.

Paula Martinac is a journalist, playwright and fiction writer. She blogs about LGBT history at http://queerestplaces.wordpress.com.