Shiprock Boys & Girls Club is in dire straits

By Brian Hassler
Staff Writer

SHIPROCK — On Wednesday they found out that their club wasn't getting the funding it needed and that wasn't the end of the bad news for the Shiprock Boys and Girls club.

Following the news that Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. had vetoed the bill that would provided the club with the funding it needed to reopen its doors for area children, the club was notified by the San Juan United Way that its partnership had been revoked on Thursday afternoon.

The move came after Shirley had decided that the $1.2 million needed by the Boys and Girls club in order to maintain its operations wasn't going to be given to the organization because of the financial trouble that the club had gotten into.

Part of that financial debt included over $729,000 that had been incurred by the Shiprock-based chapter of the organization.

"The Shiprock-based non-profit organization has accumulated over $729,000 in debts which are not the responsibility nor liability of the Navajo Nation," Shirley wrote in the memorandum explaining the decision. "The nation did not cause the debt. Instead, poor management and a complete disregard of proper financial management on the part of the independent non-profit organization has caused the debt and the discontinuance of services."

Financial management and responsibility also played a large part in the San Juan United Way's decision to revoke its partnership with the Shiprock Boys and Girls club.

"We've revoked our partnership with the boys and girls club in Shiprock," said Nancy Nelson, Executive Director of the San Juan United Way. "In light of the fact that we have a financial and fiduciary responsibility in allocating funds, we had to remove them as a partner agency because they were not able to continue to provide us the information we required as partners."

Included in the necessary information is a yearly audit that would show how the club spent the money donated by the United Way.

"One of the major concerns of the board is that we haven't had an audit from them (Shiprock Boys and Girls Club) since 2002," said Nelson. "We require that they provide us with their 990 and they have not been able to do that. And that is a major concern to the board."

In addition to the failure to comply with the audit was the fact that without the funding from the Navajo Nation, that the club wouldn't be operating the programs that the United Way was donating to.

"The Shiprock unit had failed to provide documents and figures that we required," said Nelson. "The second piece of it is that the programs currently aren't functioning. We only fund programs. If you don't have a functioning program then we can't continue to give funds when the doors are closed."

Although the club had its partnership revoked, it can regain that relationship with the United Way if it is able to get its programs back to regular operation and will comply with the conditions given by the United Way.

"It won't be hard for them to get it back, they'll have to meet our criteria again," said Nelson. "They'll have to have a recent audit, their programs will have to be functioning and they'll have to have financial stability. They will be eligible to reapply to regain their partnership status for us in the future."

For now the change in partnership is one more challenge for the club to deal with as questions concerning the club's future are still first among employees and volunteers.

"It's important to note that the board and staff of the United Way recognizes the extreme need for the Boys and Girls Club to be a functioning organization," said Nelson. "It's our sincere hope that the Shiprock Boys and Girls Club will be able to get back on its feet and reapply because we do believe in the work they do. It's not a decision that we took lightly, we've been working for the past year to sort out the problems."

Representatives from the Shiprock Boys and Girls Club couldn't be reached for comment.

— To contact reporter Brian Hassler: (505) 360-7862; brainwasher@hotmail.com