Basic Information You May Want To Know
About The Billys
We provide an opportunity to get together as a group every two
months, starting with Mid Winter gathering or Visioning Retreat,
May Day, July 4, Labor Day, Halloween, and ending with a New
Year gathering.
Gathering Registration
You can register and pay online with a credit/debit card/PayPal, or on a paper form with a check.
Our communal username is billy and our communal password is heartspace. There are no
individual usernames or passwords. The email or paper we send will tell you more about that
gathering. If you signed up with us after we already sent that info, contact the office for
assistance. We do need everyone who attends to register in advance.
Costs/Fees
We try very hard to get you to a Billy gathering, even if you think you cannot afford it. The way
we do that is through the Richard Locke Scholarship Fund (RLSF) to directly pay for part or all of
the registration fee, and we try to keep our out of pocket costs low. We also use a sliding scale,
asking for folks to pay more than the minimum and we do extensive fundraising to help pay for
other expenses and running the Billy office.
Do I Have to Camp?
No, but Billys do love to play in the outdoors. And when the weather is great, we love to camp.
Asking for help pitching your tent is a fun way to make new friends. But there is always indoor
housing available. Be prepared to bring your own bedding.
Private room availability can be limited, and most of us sleeping indoors need to share rooms.
We save facility costs this way, making the gatherings more affordable. Some of us however, due
to AIDS or other medical conditions, need more attention for their housing. Be sure to tell us
when you register if that is the case with you. We do not charge extra for indoor housing nor for
private rooms, and we do not discount fees if you are camping.
Housing assignments are made by the volunteer housing coordinator for that gathering. Here are
our formal housing priorities: first priority goes to the general gathering coordinators, then those
with special needs interpreted as medical in nature and not "my drag needs a private room,"
then resource coordinator and board members, then whoever asks. So even if you don’t have a
special need for a private room, you can always ask anyway. Different facilities will have
different housing, so ask the housing coordinator or the Billy office for more information. And
timing can be important – don’t expect much if you are registering late.
What a Great Vacation!
A Billy gathering can feel like the best vacation ever, hanging out with 50-150 gay men,
someone else cooking, someone else doing dishes, a fabulous talent show, etc. But wait dear
Billy, in order to keep costs down we need dozens of volunteers to manage many chores. The
Cook needs help prepping meals, and the Dish Dude needs help cleaning up after each meal.
Beverage offerings are also a coordinator position, as well as Workshops, Volunteers, Snack
Table, Talent Show, Set Up, Housing, Tear Down, Ride Share and many others. Even if you don’t
have well-developed management or coordinator skills, we still need dish washers, tear down
crew, housekeeping helpers, and so on. The Volunteer Coordinator will have a sign-up list at the
gathering for you. These jobs are critical, and we ask you to sign up and show up on time.
Refunds
“Refunds will be given within 30 days of a gathering provided a request is received within one
week of the close of the gathering.
The entire deposit, minus a $25 handling fee, will be refunded except for any expenses incurred
by the Billy Foundation for food and lodging to reserve the applicant’s space.
In the event there is a waiting list and a replacement can be found for the person canceling, a
full refund will be given.
Exceptions to this policy will be considered on a case by case basis by the President and the
Resource Coordinator.”
Richard Locke Scholarship Fund
Richard Locke was a Billy who starred in gay porn films, notably with director Joe Gage. These
films include such classics as Kansas City Trucking Company (1976), El Paso Wrecking Corp.
(1978) and L.A. Tool & Die (1979). Locke’s last film was The Diamond Stud (1995). He died of
AIDS in 1996. As his legacy to the Billys he founded the Richard Locke Scholarship Fund, (RLSF)
to help folks attend gatherings.
We use the RLSF to help pay for registration fees for Billys and Billykin. We don’t use it for
mailing your lost and found, your extra housing costs, boutique items, transportation, drag
outfits, etc. A simple request is made when you register, and if we have the funds available by
the deadline, we give what was requested. No big form needs to be filled out, no interrogation
about finances, no tax returns are needed.
The money comes from other Billys who have donated to the RLSF, and from such fund raising
events as the SF Pride Celebration. Generally, no “regular” Billy money is budgeted for this,
although the Billy Foundation Board of Directors has allocated general fund money in the past.
Here's the formally approved RLSF disbursement policy:
Richard Locke Scholarship Policy approved June 21, 2009
If insufficient funds are available in the Richard Locke Scholarship Fund, the Resource
Coordinator and the Treasurer or President will reduce scholarship request amounts to match the
RLSF funds available for that gathering in these ways:
1. Full scholarships for the entire length of the gathering are reduced by one night.
2. Partial scholarship requests are rounded down to whole night increments starting with the
larger requests first.
3. Phone calls to requestors will be made to work toward mutual solutions.
Reductions will be made incrementally until the scholarship amount available is sufficient to
meet all requests, with the participation of the requestor. Recognition may be made of recent
successful Billy volunteering as a gathering coordinator, sub- coordinator, Board of Director or
Portfolio holder, or for a first-time Billy attending a gathering.
Through this policy, we aim to implement Billy Values of: compassion, generosity, honesty, and
respect for ourselves and for others; responsibility to each other, and to our community,
including those in need.
What Else Do Billys Do?
The Billy Foundation is a formal non-profit, 501(c)(3) tax-exempt IRS approved recipient of taxdeductible donations (not your gathering fees, sorry). The Foundation is used to support the Billy
community, and we produce and/or publicize activities that may or may not not fall under the
responsibility of the Billy Foundation board of directors. We have potlucks, we have hiking and
other trips, and virtually we get along on BilleNet.
Our email list serve is called BilleNet, or BillyNet. Once you have attended a gathering, or two
potlucks, email Greg at [email protected] and ask him to place you on
BilleNet. If he doesn’t know you, he may ask you to get someone else like the Billy office to
verify your eligibility. Notices about casual Billy get-togethers like local hikes, camping trips,
film nights, obituaries, etc are usually found on BilleNet.
Billy potlucks are run by volunteers separately from the regular Billy gatherings. To receive
information about the SF, Sonoma and East Bay potlucks, send an email to [email protected] and respond to the confirmation emails. For SacraMenToMen area
potlucks, contact David Buechler at 916-373-9765, Mobile 916-206-3372, or email him at
[email protected].
Anything Else?
You signed up for either paper or email notification of our six yearly gatherings: Mid Winter,
May Day, July 4, Labor Day, Halloween and New Year. In addition, Bulletin and Calendar items
will be emailed to you, and the occasional gathering reminder or donation appeal. Registration
for gatherings can be via paper registration form and check, or online form and credit/debit card.
For accessing the Billy web site registration page, our communal username is billy and our
communal password is heartspace.
We do not give out, rent or otherwise disclose our contact information about you. We will print
and distribute to gathering attendees only, a paper roster of attendees so you can remember that
cute guy you connected with and maybe contact him again!
If you want paper gathering calls instead of email notifications, or vice versa, contact the office
and you’ll be switched. Since paper mailing involves extra expense, be prepared for us to ask
you for a donation! The paper list is good for one year. After that, we ask you to reconfirm that
you want paper mailings.
Contact the Billy office at 707-545-1044, [email protected]. The office is staffed part-time by
the Resource Coordinator, Marcus Borgman, Monday, Wednesday and Friday 9-5. Send paper
mail to PO Box 12205, Santa Rosa CA 95406-2205, and visit the office at 1100 Coddingtown
Center Suite 3, Santa Rosa 95401. Thanks for reading this far, we love you!
What is Billys Care?
Supporting Our Community!
Mutual support (in good times and bad) is one of the founding principles of the Billys. Billys
Care is a new tool to make it easier for Billys in need of assistance to connect with Billys willing
to lend a hand.
Billys Care is simply a list of volunteers available to all Billys. It includes 2-3 contact or point
persons for each region: 1) Mendocino, Lake and Humboldt Counties, 2) North Bay Counties, 3)
East Bay Counties, 4) San Francisco and Peninsula, 5) Sacramento Valley and 6) Outlying Billys
(These Billys can give and receive support and advice thru phone, email and mail, if not in
person.)
The ways volunteers might lend a hand could include anything from sending a get well card;
emotional support; doing errands; caring for home, garden, pets; finding social services,
emergency moving, minor medical assistance, providing rides and . "Help" could be health
related or anything else a Billy asks for and another Billy agrees to provide.
Billys in need of assistance could contact volunteers directly or ask a regional contact person to
make the contacts. Contact persons might serve many functions: 1) contacting volunteers to
help a Billy in need, 2) updating contact info in their region, 3) keeping the Billys informed on
the condition of a seriously ill Billy, 4) providing info on local assistance programs, 5) helping
organize 24 hour watch for the seriously ill, etc.
Billys requesting help need to be as clear as possible about their needs, understanding that
volunteers may or may not be able to meet all requests. Billys Care is not meant to replace
professional services, medical or otherwise. Billy volunteers need to be clear about the level of
assistance they are willing and able to give.
Privacy: Some may want to share news of their crisis with the whole Billy Community, others
may want to inform only those assisting them. We will respect those wishes, except in cases of
extreme emergency. The Billys Volunteer list is a sharing of contact info ONLY within the Billy
Community. Organization: Billys Care volunteers are acting independently of the Billy
Foundation and it's Board. Billys Care has no bylaws or officers and will not incur expenses or
make financial gain as a group.
Fellow Billys, in the tradition of church and synagogue ladies, chicken soup brigades, Boy
Scouts and the Billy community itself, please join the Billys Care volunteers. The more the
merrier and the more our team will be successful! Please contact Joe Balestreri [email protected]
707-331-0191. Include your name, phone no., email, ways you might help, city and county of
residence and indicate your willingness to be a point person or not.
*NOTE: Billys Care is open to members of the Billys only. We freely share this explanation of Billys Care with other
organizations and individuals. The above explanation is provided as an example to help others form their own
assistance programs. No permission is given to use the names Billys, Billy Club or Billys Care or imply any legal
connection to the Billys or Billy Foundation.