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Manitoba Writers’ Guild struggles on

After a year marked by financial problems, tensions between staff and board, and the ouster of executive director Robyn Maharaj, the Manitoba Writers’ Guild has taken drastic measures in an attempt to regain financial footing. As the Winnipeg Free Press‘s Morley Walker reports, the Guild is operating without paid staff and cutting back on programs:

[Board president John] Toone said the group will be offering limited member services, including email updates, a monthly reading series and the rental of its two writing studios, on a volunteer basis.

Even if provincial and city grants continue to flow, he said, the guild does not plan to hire paid staff until at least September.

This came out at a membership meeting on Tuesday, where the board also detailed the Guild’s financial problems; it’s currently $125,000 in the red.

Walker also notes that the meeting included an “often-emotional question period … focused on the rumoured ill will between Toone and the guild’s longtime executive director, who was dismissed in September.” Some of that ill will is mentioned in a previous Free Press story, and this week, Maharaj sent members an e-mail in which she documented at length her grievances with Toone’s management style.

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