Founding of the Erie Sisters in September of 1991

by Pam Dresser

Editor's note: This was originally posted to the Erie Sisters web site. We are including it here as part of our efforts to preserve and inform about local LGBT history.

Erie is a small city in northwest Pennsylvania located halfway between Buffalo and Cleveland on the south shore of Lake Erie. With a population of 250,000 [including suburbs], Erie had, in 1990, most of the social amenities one would expect of a city that size, except one: a crossdressers' club. Vivian Allen, the editor-in-chief of Tapestry, asked me to write a few words about the formation of the Erie Sisters to be included with articles by other Erie Sisters members concerning personal impressions of our club and its activities. The idea for founding a CD club began with my first issue of Tapestry, which I read several times from cover to cover in absolute awe to find that there were several thousands of people just like me. I also found, in the organization listings, there was a crossdressing club in Cleveland, about 100 miles west of Erie. 

I wrote to Alpha-Omega and received a personal reply from their president,  Jenny Higgins, who said an A-0 member was from the Erie area and would  contact me. A few weeks later, Diane and I talked for hours about Alpha-Omega.  That was October 1990. The next month we drove to Cleveland for my first-ever CD club meeting. Of course, that meeting was very special to me, as were future meetings with Transpitt, Paradise and the Canadian CD Club in Toronto. These clubs allowed Pam to blossom, but just as importantly, also provided me with the impetus and knowledge required to attempt to start a crossdressers club in Erie. Any game plan, no matter how well thought out, is useless without players. My only  resource for prospective members was Tapestry and only one Erie-area crossdresser was listed in the magazine. I wrote to her in May 1990. A reply arrived in April 1991.

In the meantime, I ran my own listing in Tapestry and mentioned I wanted to form  an Erie club. The listing resulted in letters from some wonderful girls with whom I still correspond, but none close enough to Erie to help. What finally brought a few local crossdressers out of the woodwork was an advertisement I placed in a local weekly newspaper: Yes, it was a rather strange-sounding ad, but the only one acceptable to the Greensheet. Earlier submissions, which contained the word "crossdresser" or "transvestite," were rejected as inappropriate for a family newspaper.

I ran the ad every two weeks for more than a year. Although I received lots of replies (you wouldn't believe some of them!), only two were genuine crossdressers who were interested in helping form a new club. There were five of us now willing to add structure to the impromptu outings we enjoyed during the spring and summer of '91. 

I called a non-dress meeting at a local Arby's in late September of 1991 with the object of getting organized and in three hours emerged with a business plan for Erie's first crossdressers club. We began by assigning titles and names to form a Board of Directors. Ann Hill, who had a great deal of business experience, became our business manager. Diane L. and Jennifer White chose to be co-vice presidents. As founder, I assumed the duties of president. The fifth position, director-at-large, was vacant until filled by Becky.

We needed a name and I've always felt that groups or businesses are remembered best if their name reflects where they are and what they do. We  would be sisters who meet in Erie to crossdress. Why not the Erie Sisters Crossdressers Club? No one had any better ideas, so that was the name which stuck.

We also needed a mailing address. Since mine had been used for the newspaper ads, we decided to use it for the Erie Sisters address with the cost of the box to be split 50-50. Meeting dates were initially set for the third Thursday of each month, but changed by the end of the year to Saturdays to offer more hours of meeting time. We chose the fourth Saturday of the month to avoid conflicts with the meeting dates of neighboring clubs. 

Our dues structure was initially set at $25 per year for single membership,  $35 for couples and $15 for associate membership (newsletter only). Meeting fees were set at $8 per person. Within a few months we found our fees were higher than necessary to maintain our treasury and that wives of members should not be charged to join their mates to do  something of little interest to them. Dues were reduced to $20, including wives. 

The wives of members would not be asked to pay the $8 meeting fee. Associate memberships remained at $15 per year. With the exception of Ann, each of us belonged to at least one other CD club and two of us were Tri-Ess members. We pooled our experiences from other groups to develop a plan of operations, which we felt would satisfy the needs of the majority. 

The activities of any crossdressing club center around its monthly meetings, and we knew that meetings held month after month in the same place would soon become stale regardless of the meeting format. We also realized holding meetings at accepting establishments around town would provide too much exposure to those who aren't comfortable with going out en femme. The solution was quite simple: We would hold odd-month meetings behind closed doors and even-month meetings at places where we would be seen in public.

Business would not be conducted at our Saturday meetings unless absolutely necessary. Executive board meetings are held on the first Thursday of each month to keep our social meetings unfettered by lengthy business discussions. 

The executive meetings are always open to any member who would like to assist in planning the club's future. With the meeting venue settled, we next tackled club philosophy and by-laws. Our philosophy, which is printed on the membership application, is largely that of common sense; members are expected to dress tastefully and emulate their non-birth gender to the best of their ability. Sexual orientation is a private matter and not allowed to be exhibited at meetings. Our actual philosophy fills up half a page, but basically that's it. 

Our by-laws are simple. We wrote one page covering the mechanics of Erie Sisters' club structure and operation. We addressed the major points of Title, Purpose, Membership Requirements, Officers/Board of Directors, Discipline and Dissolution. 

It was thought one paragraph covering each point would be sufficient at this time; if more detail was required in the future, addendums could be voted upon and added later. With the completion of a form letter and membership application, we were ready to start operation as a bonafide crossdressers club. Our first Mirror Images newsletter was published in September 1991,  just prior to our organizational meeting at Arby's. I mailed it to a dozen or so crossdressers I knew within an easy drive of Erie and invited them to attend a dinner at an accepting restaurant. I rented a motel room for changing where we would gather to go to the restaurant as a group and later return to socialize. 

My motive was to start building the foundation for the Erie Sisters Club during the course of the evening, but we were all having too much fun as our femme  selves to let business matters intrude. I did manage to interest a few in attending a non-dress organizational meeting the following week, which worked out quite well. 

The October issue of Mirror Images (named by Jenny White) officially announced the formation of the Erie Sisters CD Club and contained a copy of the organizational format we developed in late September. We have published a monthly newsletter ever since to keep members abreast of what's happening within the club and in the crossdressing community as well. 

Publishing a monthly newsletter is a very important function of our club as many members are unable to attend meetings, but belong just to be on our mailing list. I produced the first 13 issues until an angel named Pam Howard appeared with a marvelous computer and assumed the duties of editor. With dues now coming in we found out rather quickly that the club needed a checking account to handle funds. I chose the First National Bank as it had the lowest cost checking services and would accept our club as an account. The signature card was completed using the femme names of each board member (two signatures required to authorize a check), which wasn't a problem. Their insistence on a valid Social Security number for the account was another story. We weren't a 501(c)3 group at the time and didn't have a TIN (tax identification number) to use. Diane volunteered the use of her SS number until the club had its own TIN. 

The Erie Sisters grew rapidly to 40 members with a newsletter circulation of 55. Marketing plays a key role in attracting new members. We've taken full advantage of the listing services available in all the national and regional crossdressing publications. We continue to place ads locally in three weekly newspapers from time to time (the word crossdresser is now acceptable). We also are listed as a TV/TS/CD self-support group with the Erie Hotline (United Way) information referral service. The Erie Gay Community Newsletter offered to list us in their publication and we accepted with the proviso that we were to be listed only as a TV/TS/CD support group. I've approached the daily Erie newspaper (Times-News) several times to run a classified ad or write an article about our group, but the paper refused us each time. The Erie Times-News does, however, accept an annual donation from us for their Needy Fund! Erie is indeed a small town, at least mentally. By April 1992 I had been to several crossdressers' conventions and picked up enough experience to feel confident that Erie Sisters also could sponsor at least a mini-convention. I proposed the idea at our April '92 executive meeting; 

The idea was turned down by two board members who thought the club was too small to serve as host to a convention. But three board members thought the idea had merit, assuming an appropriate site could be found nearby. The motion was approved 3-2 and the search for a site began. Diane said the Ramada Inn would have us, but had little to offer beyond sleeping rooms and a meeting hall. The convention would be held in November, a time of year when the weather in Erie, which fronts Lake Erie, would keep us girls indoors.

We needed a place that offered indoor amenities not found at the average hotel. The search continued until June, when my wife and I were driving through a small town just south of Erie. Cambridge Springs is the home of the Riverside Inn, an 1890's Victorian hotel with 54 rooms and thousands of square feet of turn-of-the-century ambiance. The place was perfectly suited for a memorable crossdressing weekend, except for the fact that it's a white-collar resort in a blue-collar town. I had previously rejected the inn as being unapproachable, but my wife suggested we stop there for lunch and at least think about asking the question. 

Well, ask I did and after more than three hours of intense discussion with the owner, I was granted approval to hold our convention at the Riverside Inn in November! Now that we had a site, the next step was to form a committee to run the Riverside Gala Weekend. I met with the board and all agreed the Riverside Inn was an ideal site. I asked each member to assume an area of responsibility; this project would be too large for one person to handle and I needed commitments from at least two others before continuing. 

After a fair amount of discussion, each board member took on a job, including the two original dissenters. I would chair the event with Diane handling vendors and Lottie in charge of the banquet. Ann would book the entertainment, Becky handled advertising and Jenny managed the seminars. 

I told the group I would push for perfection and that the pressure would greatly strain friendships before the end of the convention. Each person was informed of what they would have to do in volunteering for a convention to function and offered the opportunity to back out now rather than become frustrated later. All stayed with me but two wish they hadn't and I lost two good friends by pushing too hard. Their absence from the Board of Directors and future Riverside Gala committee chairs was missed, but fortunately, their vacancies were capably filled by two other members of the club.

In August I arranged a meeting at the Riverside Inn so each committee member could meet the owner and become familiar with the inn's layout. The brochure Becky and I designed was sent out in September. We had 800 copies printed  and 50 were sent to each club within a day's drive of Erie along  with a personal letter asking that they be distributed to their members. 

About 75 brochures were individually mailed to friends, CD publications and prospective vendors. The balance were kept on hand to answer inquiries. We had no intention of making a profit on the convention, so we very carefully calculated our fixed costs and added a $10 per person contingency buffer to arrive at the price we would charge attendees. Forty-four people attended Riverside '92, a good turnout for a first-time event, but below our break even point. The buffer just barely kept us in the black. Except for a few problems within the committee, the convention was a total success. Riverside '93 was even better with an expanded venue, nearly double the attendance and far fewer organizational problems. We applied what we learned from the first convention to make improvements and were able to back off considerably in directing committee volunteers. Lottie, Kris and Diane knew what to do and did it well. 

By the end of 1992 the Erie Sisters was a fully functional CD club with a strong, active executive board and an ever-increasing membership. Our newsletter was better than average, meeting attendance was strong and our checking account was always in the black. But our bank balance wasn't quite fat enough to cover the cost of incorporation or applying for 501(c)3 status. Although the chances of the club being named in a liability suit or fined by the IRS for failing to file a tax return is small, it was an uncomfortable feeling to know the club officers could be held personally liable in any possible legal action or lawsuit against the Erie Sisters.  Incorporating would limit our liability and filing for nonprofit status (501(c)3 would satisfy the IRS as well as provide us our own TIN. We would need at least $500 to hire a lawyer and we just couldn't afford it then. In December 1992 I proposed a Life Membership Program to raise the necessary funds. For $100 any full member of record during 1992 could become a lifetime member and be free from paying dues to Erie Sisters for the rest of her life. The program would close in January 1993 and was never to be offered again. Refund contingencies were included to cover dissolution or expulsion and a plan (with a 40 percent deposit) was offered to make it affordable.

Lottie H., Diane L., Pam H., Janice G., Ann H. and myself hold the blue Charter Life Membership card and our treasury had the funds for us to incorporate. The Erie Sisters CD Club has come a long way since its inception in September  1991 and I'm sure it will keep improving with age. Hugs to all my sisters.