LA PINE – The La Pine Boys and Girls Club has been in turmoil for the past four weeks. The club’s largest community fund-raising event was canceled, the club’s director was fired, all the members of its advisory council resigned and the La Pine Chamber of Commerce offered to return money raised in a joint fund-raiser with the club.

”Change in leadership is difficult for any organization, profit or nonprofit,” said Kirk Utzinger, president of the Boys and Girls Club of Central Oregon, an umbrella organization that runs nine branches, including the one in La Pine. ”But with that change comes opportunity … to take the club to higher levels. We’re very excited about the club’s future in La Pine.”

Utzinger said he hopes to have a new branch director hired by April 1, and a new advisory council of volunteers in place shortly after that.

Despite Utzinger’s optimism, former members of the advisory council are worried about what the changes will mean. The club provides a vital service to the community.

It offers a safe after-school environment and an array of athletic, educational and art programs for 80 to 100 kids each day, Utzinger said.

La Pine residents have paid especially close attention to the club since it announced in May 2003 that the La Pine branch would close for the summer due to lack of funding.

The community raised $17,000 in approximately one month following the announcement, enabling the club to remain open.

But the club’s struggles did not end there.

The club’s comedy and casino fund-raiser, slated for March 31 at the Sunriver Resort, was scheduled to be the branch’s largest fund-raising event of the year. The event was canceled on Feb. 24 by regional administrators, according to advisory council members.

”The Joker-Poker night was canceled once we realized that the event would not be successful,” Utzinger said. ”We didn’t want to hold an event that would lose money.”

Members of the council, who were planning the event, said they were surprised by the organization’s decision.

”It doesn’t make any sense to me at all,” said Linda Court, who served on the council for five years until she resigned three weeks ago. ”We were still planning everything; how could they have known it would fail?”

Less than a week after the event was canceled, the branch director, Marcie Morgan, was fired.

”We’re grateful for the three years of service that Marcie provided. And we appreciate her dedication to the kids,” Utzinger said of Morgan.

Utzinger would not explain why Morgan was fired because he said it is the club’s policy not to comment on personnel matters.

Morgan said she received a letter from the Boys and Girls Club that listed three reasons why she was fired. Morgan said the reasons were vague, and she did not understand them.

”My own personal integrity and reputation is really important to me. And I don’t want people to think that I was terminated for any wrongdoing on my part. I still don’t know what their reasons were,” Morgan said.

Members of the advisory council said that when they heard Morgan had been fired, they were not prepared.

”I was really in shock,” said Becky Ferns, a member of the council since May 2003. Ferns resigned three weeks ago for what she said were a number of reasons, one of which was Morgan’s dismissal. ”I respect their legal reasons for wanting to keep quiet, but I would like to know why. I think everyone on the board wants to know why.”

Court said she was angry that the decision to fire Morgan was made without consulting members of the advisory council.

”I guess the only thing (the council) is there for is to raise money, and their opinions don’t really mean anything. What is an advisory committee for? To advise,” Court said.

Despite the reactions of council members, Utzinger said he thought most members of the La Pine community were understanding of the organization’s decision to terminate Morgan.

”Once they understand that this is a business decision, versus a personal attack, and that there were valid reasons for the decisions that were made, their support for the kids and the Boys and Girls Club remains,” Utzinger said.

Utzinger said the club is currently looking for a new La Pine branch director, as well as five to seven business and community leaders to serve on the branch’s advisory council. All seven members of the La Pine council resigned following Morgan’s dismissal.

Utzinger said it is not unusual for the council to resign when a branch director is dismissed, because they work so closely together.

More recently, Paul Cathcart, executive director of the La Pine Chamber of Commerce, sent letters last Monday to the 11 people who bought advertisements in a business directory that the chamber had planned to publish as a fund-raiser with the Boys and Girls Club. The letters explained that the project was put on hold, and the chamber is currently deciding whether to go ahead and publish the directory or refund the approximately $2,000 collected. In the letter, Cathcart offered the donors a full refund.

Cathcart said the project was put on hold when Morgan, who initiated the fund-raiser, was fired.

Last year, the La Pine Boys and Girls Club printed a regional phone directory, in which advertisements were sold to raise money for the club. The club told Morgan she could not repeat the fund-raiser this year.

”It wasn’t a good business decision for us,” Utzinger said. He said publishing the directory was not an efficient fund-raiser because it took too much time to produce and yielded little money in return.

However, Morgan said she considered last year’s directory an effective fund-raiser. She said it raised approximately $9,000 after expenses.

Morgan said she approached Cathcart in January, after Utzinger told her not to undertake the fund-raiser. She proposed that the chamber and the club work together to publish the business directory. She suggested that donors make out checks to the chamber, but that net profits be split among the two organizations.

”So it wasn’t the Boys and Girls Club’s thing, it was more of a personal venture, with the exception that 50 percent of the proceeds would come back to the Boys and Girls Club,” Morgan said.

Cathcart said he had already been thinking of publishing a business directory as a project for the chamber.

”This was a way to get more people involved. We could help the chamber and help the Boys and Girls Club at the same time,” Cathcart said.

Cathcart said he did not sell any ads. Morgan, Court and one other person had sold approximately $2,000 worth of ads when Morgan was terminated, he said. The money is currently in a savings account with South Valley Bank, Cathcart said.

Since he sent letters to the donors, Cathcart said one person has requested a refund.

Utzinger said that when he fired Morgan, he did not know about her plan to engage in the fund-raiser with the chamber.

”We are still now learning things that would support some recent decisions that we’ve made,” he said.

Utzinger said that despite rumors that the La Pine club might still close, the Boys and Girls Club of La Pine is here to stay.

”Financially, we’re in a better situation now than we have been in years,” he said of the La Pine branch.

”We’re at a point in the Boys and Girls Club of Central Oregon where we’re growing up,” Utzinger said. ”We’re beginning to turn our organizational model from one of a typical, grant-funded charitable organization to one that runs itself like a business to ensure stability in the community.”

Lily Raff can be reached at 541-617-7836 or lraff@bendbulletin.com.