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{\bf 1. HISTORY}

Shred of Dignity formed spontaneously in September 86, after we
heard of pending legislation that would ban all skateboarding
from all city property. Unbeknownst to each other, we started
getting the word out, and collecting signatures at popular skate
spots; when we inevitably met, we pooled our resources, got
others involved in the process, and rallied more than enough
support to prevent the ban; we packed the Supervisors meeting
with skaters, parents, teachers, community organizers, and media
people. Even though the meeting time and location was changed
twice on short notice, we were able to keep all participants
informed via our mailing list.

After our success, we did a followup mailing notifying people of
our successes and outlining the process we used, which expanded
into SHRED 'zine \#1. As it turned out there was enough people
and energy that some of these tasks became ongoing projects, and
formed the basis for the Shred of Dignity that followed. 

{\bf\quad 1987}

SHRED zine \#2 published in January. We were involved in the
struggle to keep THE FARM open, after holding a skaters' ``town
meeting'' there. Organized free, weekly skateboard event/BBQ's at
various public places that summer. In September we commemorated
the lives lost in the Gartland Hotel arson (16th/Valencia) with a
multi-media event with Contraband, Ricky Lynn \& the Rangers (now
known as the High Risk Group), and other local performers.

We acted as `consultants' for Berkeley skaters opposing their
city-wide skateboard ban; the ban was dropped. We started a
boycott of THRASHER skateboard magazine in December, in response
to the owner's attempt to stop workers from unionizing their
skateboard component manufacturing plant.

We produced our first `Hit \& Run' show, in October on Daylight
Savings Day. Hit \& Runs are near-zero overhead shows done
usually without permission on various unused lots in commercial
areas during odd hours; for example, Sunday afternoons near the
Bay Bridge Anchorage (now residential). Hit \& Runs are free,
performers not paid, no time nor artistic limits, and the hat is
passed to cover expenses (generator rental, etc).

{\bf\quad 1988}

SHRED zine \#3 published in May. The city of Palo Alto also
attempts a skateboard ban; we again act as `consultants', and
again the ban is overturned.

We produced our second Hit \& Run show, on Easter Day (Daylight
Savings Day). Since this was an election year, we were involved
in a dozen or so political rallies, providing basic services such
as sound systems, lighting, and truck. (For example, we put
together a successful `NO ON 96/102' march/rally in less than 4
hours, after then-Governor Deukmajian endorsed Prop. 102 at 2PM
on a Friday). We provided services for a number of ACT-UP events
that summer. Our final Hit \& Run show was produced in October
88.

The first issue of HOMOCORE zine was published in September;
WARNING, the household zine in October, and HOMOCORE zine \#2 in
December. 

{\bf\quad 1989}

Our first HOMOCORE show, explicitly mixed gay/straight
male/female, at the DEAF CLUB was extremely successful. HOMOCORE
zine \#3 published. In April and May were two more HOMOCORE shows
at the Women's Building, and in June HOMOCORE zine \#4 published.

The ``Tuesday Group'' formed from Shred of Dignity,
MAXIMUMROCKNROLL, and ex-Gilman St. Project people; it produced 5
unsuccessful shows that summer.

3000 attendee's handbooks for the 1989 Anarchist
Gathering/Festival were typeset on the HOMOCORE computer system,
and assembled in our warehouse; Shred staff also provided a sound
system at cost, and volunteered help for the event itself.

Another, less successful HOMOCORE show, at the York Theatre in
July. The city of San Francisco earthquake-damage database work
started in October. HOMOCORE zine \#5 published in December. 

{\bf\quad 1990}

The earthquake-damage database was completed in January.

The HOMOCORE BAD POETRY issue published in March, and HOMOCORE
zine \#6 in May. The largest and most successful HOMOCORE show
(mixed gay/straight) produced so far, at the Russian Center in
June; 1100 attendees.

Illin' Noise Productions formed from Shred of Dignity and 
ex-Tuesday Group staff following the Russian Center show,
specifically to produce further shows; they have put on
successful shows nearly every two weeks from June 90 to present.

{\bf One time and other special projects}

Flyers, zine production and other typesetting services are done
in the Shred of Dignity community space, including flyers and
other printed matter for the Illin' Noise shows; typesetting for
CHAINSAW, FAGGOT and PAVEMENT OF SURFACE zines; announcements and
handouts for THE POPSTITUTES and Klubstitute; many other one-time
productions.

Our building was involved in a ``quake scam'' following the
October 89 earthquake; the landlord/developer had the building
illegally red-tagged. We were able to overturn the red-tag by a
combination of rather large-scale media involvement (daily press
kits, hard-fact hunting in City Hall, culminating with a story on
prime-time TV) and legal action. This prompted some
investigations into city-wide red-tagging practices, and also our
move to our present location. 

Shred of Dignity volunteers and staff also volunteer for many
local groups, including MAXIMUMROCKNROLL (a punk zine with a
press run of 15,000/month); Gilman St. Project, an all-ages,
membership-run performance place for punk/alternative bands in
Berkeley; Epicenter Zone, a not-for-profit music store and
community center; and BlackList Mailorder, an independent
distributor of otherwise underground music and publications.


{\bf 2. ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE}

Shred of Dignity arose spontaneously as a grass-roots response to
a crisis for skateboarders. The mailing list needed to be
centralized, but the rest of the organizing and action was
distributed among many people working independently. We set up an
answering machine with current information, held a `skater's town
meeting', and stayed in touch by phone.

After the initial crisis we started publishing 'zines and having
events. We wanted to avoid the pitfalls of institutionalization
we had seen in most other groups. We came up with some principles
which we generally follow:

{\parindent=14pt\parskip=1pt
\item{\blob} No one has power over any one else.
\item{\blob} It's OK for projects to die.
\item{\blob} What we do should be fun.
\item{\blob} No heroes and no martyrs.
\item{\blob} We are a communications based structure.
}

These lead to some apparently unusual patterns. Not having power
over others rules out democratic structures. Since our activities
are project oriented, people only work on projects they are
interested in.

Projects last for awhile, and then tend to die or evolve.  Some
of the threads, like producing shows, have cycled through
different incarnations with their own themes and people, but each
cycle is stronger than the last, building on experience. It's
difficult to keep communications open and maintain broad
involvement without some form of functional structure. We have
used several mechanisms. We formed a warehouse live-work space as
an intentional community and physical center for Shred. Our
activities are determined by an informal consensus process,
including weekly work groups, often around a meal.

The most difficult aspect to manage with these sorts of ad-hoc
structures is financial decision making and accountability. We
have avoided problems with that by making each project 
self-funded, and by dispersing funds for their intended purposes
as soon as possible. Without significant amounts of discretionary
funds, there aren't budget battles.

The principle of `no heroes' is based on faith that every one can
make a difference, not just the special few. Its more important
for us to produce events than to achieve perfection. Since we
don't put a stigma on `failure', we learn from our mistakes and
end up with a high success rate. We make it easy for people to
try things for the first time, like writing articles and doing
graphics for 'zines.

{\bf 3. MEMBERSHIP}

Our membership is an extension of spheres of activity of the core
group. Being derived from skateboarding, we have always had a
strong emphasis on youth, particularly those who feel alienated
and are inclined toward alternative values. Providing lesbian and
gay youth with alternatives to ghettoization, bar culture, and
assimilation is an important goal. Our events are designed to
break down conventional compartmentalization around sexual
orientation, gender, and popular culture.

{\bf 4. MISSION STATEMENT}

We have struggled with the concept of a mission statement, with
limited success. From a practical point of view, we help build an
alternative culture along with other activity centers, mostly in
San Francisco. It is a utopian vision of a humanistic society
where power, greed, and oppression are not rewarded. We believe
that the experiments that are going on in San Francisco's
alternative scene are an incubator for social forms which are
gradually transforming society.

Our activities integrate people's personal lives into the fabric
of this parallel society.

{\bf 5. REQUEST FOR SUPPORT}

This is a request for general support.

{\bf 6. RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHER GROUPS}

There is an extensive network of alternative groups in San
Francisco and beyond. Many of them are based around intentional
communities like ours. Many of us are bound together through
anarchist networks. Epicenter Zone, Blacklist Mail Order, Gilman
Street Project, MAXIMUMROCKNROLL, Contraband, ACT-UP, Boy with
Arms Akimbo, Queer Nation, Radical Faeries, Bound Together
Bookstore, 1800 Square Feet, Women's Building of the Bay Area,
Klub Komotion, Artists Television Access, Pressure Drop Press,
Naughty Music, Disaster Records, Alternative Tentacles, Film Arts
Foundation, Diamond Youth Shelter.

{\bf 7. EVALUATION OF EFFECTIVENESS}

We have some very specific projects for the upcoming year, and
some grander dreams which may move toward reality. Specifically,
we want to keep publishing HOMOCORE and producing monthly shows.

HOMOCORE has become an important national forum for radical
lesbian and gay youth. Its popularity has caused publishing to
become a major venture. We are having to adapt the structure to
be more systematic and inclusive.

We also want to continue the monthly shows at the Women's
Building, often with themes, like our recent anti-draft show. We
would rather do shows more often and are trying to open a
club/youth center. We will be developing a business plan and
looking for a space and financing starting in early 1991.

Another large project being developed is an organic farm on some
land north of Sacramento. It would be a refuge for us urbanites,
and a home for several of us who are interested in alternative
farming.

{\bf BIOGRAPHIES OF GOVERNING BODY}

{\bf Duke Crestfield} has been involved in community groups and
progressive alternatives in San Francisco for thirteen years. 
His career in affordable housing work began with Hank Wilson (the
Ambassador Hotel). Co-founder of the Central-Page Limited Equity
Housing Cooperative. Worked for Mission Housing Development
Corporation, and Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corp.
Currently he is a structural engineer for Peter Culley \&
Associates specializing in seismic strengthening of unreinforced
masonry buildings. He has been particularly involved with
development of cooperative structures.

{\bf Tom Jennings} is the editor of HOMOCORE zine, and a gay
cultural troublemaker. He is also the architect of the electronic
communications network FidoNet, a privately-owned computer
network based upon anarchist principles, consisting of 9500
computers on five continents, and is a principal member of the
FidoNet technical standards committee. He was the first recipient
of the Software Publishers' Association's Fluegelman award. He is
interested in practical applications of decentralized technical
systems, and has recently built a propane-powered automobile. He
is a computer programmer by trade.

{\bf Shawn Ford} is the editor of SHRED zine, and the main
guiding and organizing force behind most of the public shows and
related events. He and Duke Crestfield were the original
organizers of Shred of Dignity.

{\bf Valerie Stadler} is a performer and organizer of many
talents, including the Russian Center show. She spent two years
as a counselor at Diamond Youth Shelter. She was a principal
staff member at THE FARM, organizing community events, hosting
for MAKE-A-CIRCUS, PICKLE FAMILY CIRCUS, doing outreach and fund
raising, as well as feeding the animals and tending the gardens.
She is also a certified pre and post HIV test counselor and AIDS
caregiver. She attended Antioch College for three years.

{\bf Greta Snider} is a filmmaker with four films in distribution
and showing at film houses and festivals, such as the Pacific
Film Archive, SF Film Arts Festival, Humboldt Film Festival, and
Copenhagen Film Festival. Her film ``FUTILITY'' was included in
the 1990 Parabola Arts brochure. She produced a video titled
``REDWOOD SUMMER'' about the redwood-logging practices and
protests in Northern California. She was also a principal staff
member at THE FARM, performing many of the same tasks as Valerie
Stadler. She also attended Antioch College for three years. She
currently works as a grip.

{\bf Donna Dresch} is a bass guitar player, recently with
DINOSAUR JR. and THE SCREAMING TREES, the editor of CHAINSAW
'zine, and organizer of Make Toast Not War, a multi-media
production company in Olympia WA -- radio shows, concerts,
fanzines and cassette tape distribution. She is also a
contributing writer to HOMOCORE, and she presently works for an
independent record distributor.

{\bf Deke Nihilson} is associate editor of HOMOCORE and editor of
'Pavement of Surface' zine, and is a singer/songwriter in San
Francisco's first explicitly gay punk band, Comrades In Arms.

{\bf Matt Wobensmith} runs an independent record label, Naughty
Music, and works as a pro-choice activist. He volunteers at
Epicenter Zone, works on the Women's Building shows, and is
volunteer for HOMOCORE.

{\bf Honey Owen-Yates} was a principle organizer of the Gilman
Street Project, Blacklist Mail Order, and is one of two trustees
for Epicenter Zone. She has also been a household member, was
involved in the Tuesday Group, and is a volunteer at
MAXIMUMROCKNROLL.

{\bf Sergio Huerta} has been involved with Shred since its
inception and primary organizer of skate events and contributor
to the SHRED 'zine. He has worked for the California Conservation
Corps and has been involved with YouthBuild San Francisco.

{\bf Dave Rock} is a multitalented musician who has been a member
of the household for three years and works at Klub Komotion.

{\bf Richard Northum} volunteers at Epicenter Zone, Gilman
Street, and Blacklist Mail Order. He works on the Womens Building
shows and HOMOCORE, and is a tenure tracked bike messenger.

{\bf A. PAST AND PRESENT FUNDING SOURCES}

Our approach has generally been to make projects cheap and 
self-funding. HOMOCORE is priced to break even, and the Women's
Building shows are designed to break even on the average, or to
make money which goes to a benefited cause. When we do activities
which lose money, such as free shows and free 'zines, we all put
in what we can.

In 1990 we received a \$5,000 grant from the San Francisco
Foundation for work we did on a computerized database of damage
from the Loma Prieta earthquake. It was administered through the
San Francisco Information Clearinghouse and Duke Crestfield. The
net proceeds, after expenses, went into purchases of computer
equipment. We also just received a donation of software from
Borland International.

{\bf B. FUND RAISING STRATEGIES}

Our constituency is generally very low income, and our activities
are difficult to communicate to people who are not involved in
the scene, so we have not pursued much general fund raising. We
funded the first legislative fight through direct appeals, had a
penny drive to finance our first 'zines, pass the hat at events,
but mainly we have been subsidizing operations out of pocket. 
The household fund pays for the cost of the community area of the
warehouse, and all the work is done by volunteers. Most
activities themselves pay their own direct costs.

{\bf C. LESS THAN FULL FUNDING}

If we get less than the full amount, the priority will be on
continuing existing projects. The Vanguard funds will allow us to
take on new projects as well.

We have not received funds from Vanguard before.

{\bf 2. CURRENT BUDGET}

Finances are handled in three main funds, plus a small `other'
category.

HOMOCORE -- Four issues per year at \$1,500 per issue, \$6,000
annual total. This is paid for by the cover price. All labor is
volunteer, and overhead expenses for production and supplies is
picked up by the household.

SHOWS -- Twelve shows per year at \$1,000 per show, \$12,000
annual total. The shows are self-funding. All labor is volunteer
and overhead is picked up by the household.

CENTER -- \$1,500/mo rent total, \$250/mo for community space
\$75/mo utilities, \$12.50/mo community \$50/mo supplies. Total
is 250 + 12.5 + 50 = \$312.50/mo, \$3,750/year. The warehouse is
a center for organizing and about a sixth of the space is devoted
to community space which would not be useful for the household
alone.

{\bf 3. PROJECT BUDGET}

The primary use for the funds would be for the monthly overhead
expense of \$312.50, or \$3,750 for the year. The additional
\$1,250 which we are requesting would be used to seed new
projects. We would expect these to be predevelopment expenses for
the club and farm, but might be other projects.

{\bf 4. BALANCE SHEET}

CASH

\halign{
#\leaderfill&
\ #\cr

HomoCore\quad&\$1,000\cr
Illin' Noize&\$100\cr
Household&\$100\cr
}

{\bf DOCUMENT TAX-EXEMPT STATUS}

Since we are an unincorporated nonprofit association, and have an
annual income of less than \$20,000, the IRS doesn't want to be
bothered with us, and we are presumed to be a qualified
501(c)(3). As you know, it now costs \$800 a year just to be a
corporation, so we will not be pursuing the fully endorsed
501(c)(3) status.  We would prefer to receive the grant directly,
but if we need to, we can have the San Francisco Information
Clearinghouse act as our fiscal agent for this.

\bye