- Almost every gay bar had benefits for us - all unsolicited. We were also big recipients of the annual "Possum Queen Contest".
- Thanksgiving MilMad Bowling almost every other year for a long time. The old Boot Camp was a regular supporter and contributor.. Bob Schmidt at M&M provided all of the food for our Symphonys rehearsal which we held at the First Unitarian Church, which they provided. Bob also provided an after show party for the principal soloists, conductor and some of the clinic volunteers after the Pabst performance.
- The Faye McBeth Foundation provided funding for our 1994 renovation, so we came out of it debt free.
- Mimma had a $100 plate dinner for folks who were going to the Symphony - she provided a bus to the Pabst.
- Outreaches in the early days were something. We had to take a centrifuge with us (a big old clunker) to spin each specimen as it was drawn. Clients had to come to the Clinic in two weeks. After each Pridefest we had results appts scheduled on multiple days in both afternoons and evenings. Ross and I spent all day Monday at home bubbling forms from the weekend's Pridefest tests. We were so busy, the counselors filled in only the basics and we did the rest from the questionaires.
- We did regular testing at UWM Student Union for awhile. Also at Marquette, MSOE, Alverno, Rufus King High School, among others.
- Women's clinic was started on Saturday mornings by Jamakaya and another woman. It was run pretty erratically and sometimes on Saturdays volunteers didn't show up and it wasn't open. A couple of men got involved and it was moved to Thursdays (every other) and run entirely by women, except for HIV. It was staffed by two providers, lab and intake. Gradually, volunteers started to leave and we had trouble recruiting women. Casey from STD Specialties did some of the clinics as provider. Eventually we had to close it because of lack of staff.
- For years, we were reimbursed at $20 per HIV test and result given. When the State starting going to contracts, they set a minimum annual test quantity of 1000+ to get reimbursed on a per test basis. That covered us just fine as we were always well over that. It is only recently that the Clinic was in a contractual basis. Unfortunately, they keep cutting the annual reimbursement.
- At one point, BESTD was offered a $40,000 annual contract to do OTR testing at the bars, etc. That would have involved a payroll, unemployment comp, etc and the Board turned it down. The decision was made to remain an all-volunteer agency. We had two Clinic Managers "employed on a small stipend" to do the day to day routine tasks. Both turned out to be disasters and we scuttled that idea for good and forever.
- During their active years at the Clinic, and especially during the 11 years that Ross was President, founding fathers Erv and Ross each put in about 60 hours a week as volunteers. When they decided to "retire", Jeff Miller facilitated a Board brain storming session. They set up a two year period to begin transitioning to divest their tasks to others. A committee was set up, with Jeff Miller as chair, to search for a new President. A young volunteer named Kevin Lynch was approached and talked into taking on the Presidency, which he did to notable success.
