Southern Comfort Conference Closes After 26 Year Run

[Ginger]

The SCTC (Southern Comfort Conference) Board of Directors posted this message yesterday:

Dear SCTC family,

It is with a heavy heart that we must announce that 2016 was the last The Southern Comfort Transgender Conference (SCTC) as you have known it for the past 26 years.

What most of you don’t know is that we, the Southern Comfort Board of Directors (both current and a couple of past members), have been involved in a five year lawsuit that only recently concluded. Please don’t ask. As part of the settlement, we cannot discuss it at all.

Suffice it to say that it was a five year nightmare that completely handcuffed the BOD. Some have wondered why there were no new people brought onto the board. Now you know. Anyone that would have joined the BOD would have become unnecessarily involved in the litigation.

Fortunately, we did have liability insurance and that covered the legal fees of the case. However, as a result of being in a five year lawsuit, we were dropped by our insurance company (though they were obligated to continue until the lawsuit was resolved, which they did). Subsequently, SCTC had to find a new insurance policy. Only two companies would even offer a policy to us. Our premium went from $1300.00/year with no deductible to $11,000.00/year with a $25,000.00 deductible.

We just can’t afford this and, this lawsuit proved that we (the current BOD) simply cannot afford to run the conference without insurance. Had we not had the insurance policy, we would have been personally liable.

There is talk amongst a couple of the BOD to try to reorganize SCTC into something very new. Please continue your Facebook and Yahoo group presence to stay informed; any future updates on any plans will be posted to keep you informed. Otherwise, any money that is left in our account, which is being held in escrow by our attorney, will be donated to a worthy trans organization.

We’re sorry to bring you this sad news right before the holidays, but you deserve to know what’s going on.

It has been our extreme honor to serve you all throughout the years and we wish you all the best!

With love,
Your SCC/SCTC Board of Directors:
Shanti Keshavi devi dasi (Stefanie Schumacher)
Alexis Dee
Christy Anderson
Phyllis McCall

[annie]

I'm saddened to see this happen, as it's been one of the longest-lived TG events ever, but it's not really unexpected.

IMAO their model was such that it did not scale downward, and with the decreasing demand for TG events, they got squeezed. Their bean counters realized that if they continued they would surely end up with far more red beans than black beans. Thus, they made the difficult decision to kill it rather than to take a very cold and wet bath!

They did have a long and successful run. I think only Fantasia Fair has them beat as far as longevity.

We don't know how much, if any, this will affect us. It may be that our pool of potential attendees has gotten larger. However, we may see no effect at all.

ObTrivia: There were once some preliminary plans for a second annual SCC event, a "SCC West" in, you guessed it, Las Vegas, to be co-sponsored by a local club. This fell apart when a personnel issue caused said sponsoring firm to quickly implode.

[External Poster]

This posting is from: Vera Delmar
----------

It looks like it's time to send out a Welcoming Invitation to those
former SCC attendees to join us in Las Vegas next year.


----------
(This posting was entered by Vera Delmar, an external user of MyDLV.)

[External Poster]

This posting is from: Marcia Leah-Dina
----------

Unfortunately it conflicts with the large keystone Event which is taking
place on the same dates as Vegas.

http://www.keystone-conference.org/2017/

---
Regards

Masha-Leah


----------
(This posting was entered by Marcia Leah-Dina, an external user of MyDLV.)

[annie]

> Unfortunately it conflicts with the large keystone Event which is taking
> place on the same dates as Vegas.

Actually, this year, Keystone wraps the day we start, which is Sunday, March 26.

I know that one of our organizers will be doing Keystone before jetting out west for DLV. I'm sure we'll have a few others who will do both.

Besides that, our program and Keystone are quite different. Those who like the convention aspects of SCC will most likely prefer Keystone. Those who are more into the social functions ("A Vacation, not a Convention") will probably prefer DLV.