Arcigay is, essentially, a large national association. We now have over 100,000 members. We have 90 chapters throughout the country, from north to south. Everyone in Italy knows our name, who we are, and what we do. This is neither banal nor predictable. This is not the case for the majority of organizations in our country, be they associations or businesses. Many of them, even those vastly richer than Arcigay, cannot boast our association's network of relationships and, outside their limited field of activity, are completely unknown. Every time they make a new contact, they have to make an effort to introduce themselves and gain credibility with their interlocutor. We don't need this: if we introduce ourselves as Arcigay to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, to a small copy shop in Rimini, or to any Italian municipality, we are immediately recognized. This is a great strength of Arcigay.
Most Italians, however, believe that Arcigay is a large association, not only in substance but also in organization. Consequently, they believe that Arcigay has an efficient and well-structured office, with trained staff, perhaps located in the capital, who manage the association's activities full-time, just like a large national non-governmental organization. Often, many of our members believe this too. And this is no longer a strength, but rather a weakness. Because, as of now, this is far from the truth.
For years, Arcigay has been using a small office in Bologna, measuring just a few square meters, with only a single telephone line, which doesn't even allow for two standard workstations. Furthermore, Arcigay doesn't have its own office, but is hosted free of charge by the Cassero, the Arcigay club in Bologna. In short, it doesn't pay rent. This is a singular situation for a "large" national association. Until now, Arcigay, beyond its many clubs, has been nothing more than a president and a political secretariat, staffed by people scattered throughout the country who volunteered in their few spare moments, and a couple of staff, not even full-time, based in Bologna. Just the bare minimum needed to maintain the association. A giant, therefore, with just enough strength to survive, but completely helpless, lacking the resources, energy, and legs to act, save for temporary bursts of commitment from a few commendable volunteers, necessarily with temporary contracts.
Herein lies the contradiction between what is effectively a large association and the reality of its weak structure. But also between the perception of Arcigay and its actual capacity for action. Arcigay represents an atypical case from this perspective. Almost a miracle. We are a strange kind of oil field, rich in chemical energy (100,000 members) potentially capable of generating enormous quantities of electrical energy to act and change reality, but still lacking the tools to do so.
My belief is that we cannot remain inactive. If we don't overcome this contradiction, we risk missing a great opportunity and jeopardizing the very survival of the association. And in any case, we cannot simply continue to exist, without aspiring to a real capacity to impact reality, to take action, to be an active and influential player in Italian society. At the local level, we already are, agreed. Many of our local chapters have been promoting concrete initiatives and impacting the local community for years. But the local level is not enough. Laws, intervention in the major media, and relationships with national and international stakeholders are created and maintained at the national level.
To do this, we must aspire to the model of all major national non-governmental organizations or the Italian chapters of international organizations (Lega Ambiente, Doctors Without Borders, Amnesty International, etc.). We must equip ourselves with a professionalized and efficient organizational structure, with a diversity of skills and functions, that responds to, supports, and sustains the work of the president and the national secretariat. Wouldn't we currently have enough financial resources to sustain such a structure? Well... this means that the first area we must invest in is resource procurement. We need to select fundraising professionals and planners specialized in European Union funding, who can develop other funding channels beyond the traditional ones of membership and club affiliations. Membership itself and the potential business interest in our recreational network should be rethought and developed, alongside—obviously—the reaccreditation of the association among its clubs and members, based on rigor and the ability to present results.
All this cannot happen without a professional foundation. In recent years, volunteer work alone has already demonstrated its inability to guarantee the commitment, continuity, and, at times, the professionalism required for this type of intervention. Volunteering, still widespread within Arcigay, is certainly a value and a great asset for the association. It is essential to establish a professional, centralized structure that can support and maximize it to its full potential.
In this way, we would be able to develop a quantitative and qualitative energy capable of impacting the country's social and political reality, to manage credible relationships with external stakeholders, both institutional and otherwise, and to ensure a point of reference and concrete support for our clubs. And we must do so now while our association's image, unity, and potential remain strong. It wasn't a given that we would be able to build a unified associative network of this kind in Italy: a unique case in Europe and the world. And it's not a given that we will continue to enjoy such a unique situation in the future. Therefore, we must act now while the association is united, its membership is constantly growing, and its image is projected strongly, before the entire system risks collapse, or simply a missed opportunity that will never be offered again.
