The
last Oregon-ACE meeting held at Dante's on
Tuesday, September 9 at 4pm was one of the
most productive and highly attended meetings
in Oregon-ACE history. With over 20 people
in attendance including club owners from Nicolai
St. Clubhouse, Magic Gardens, Stars Cabaret,
Cleopatra's Viewpoint, G-Spot and the Boom
Boom Room, and attorneys representing Miss
Sally's Gentlemen's Club in Nyssa and ACE
in the "lewd conduct rules" injunction against
the OLCC.
Also,
a large variety of non-industry professionals
attended, ready to join ACE and offer exclusive
discounts for ACE members including a 10%
discount from a video security system company,
a large discount from a well-known insurance
company and a local point-of-sale system company,
a 20% parts discount and flat $20 labor fee
from a very reputable refrigeration company,
and discounts from janitorial services, web
design and printing services.
On
the legal front:
ACE,
Cleopatra's Viewpoint and The Big Bang have
filed an injunction against the OLCC for the
new "lewd conduct rules."
The
ACLU and several other nightclub owners, musicians
and dancers have filed for a judicial review
of the OLCC's new "minor rules" that went
into effect this year.
The
City of Portland has begun drafting a noise
ordinance that would effectively regulate
the hours of operation for any business after
receiving only three letters of complaints
from the neighborhood. City Commissioner Randy
Leonard let ACE know about this ordinance
and has offered his help to get ACE's suggestions
and revisions.
The
OLCC has also begun drafting "nuisance rules"
for bars and taverns. They have been coming
up with the rules in closed-door meetings
and have yet to comment on what they are planning.
The
OLCC's continued selective enforcement of
its rules was also brought up. For instance,
the recent ticketing of Stars Cabaret, Cleopatra's
Viewpoint and The Big Bang for violations
of the "lewd conduct rules" for dancers touching
themselves, versus the seven mere warnings
given to the Aladdin Theater for seven nights
of the popular "Puppetry of The Penis" shows
which involve manipulation of male genitals.
The marginalization of the adult industry
is apparent in this case as well as scores
of others.
The
Oregon Supreme Court hearings of Nyssa v.
Miss Sally's and State v. Ciancanelli will
be taking place Monday, November 3 at Linfield
College in McMinnville. All interested parties,
which should be every adult business owner
in the state, should attend the next ACE
meeting in October and plan on attending
the hearing in McMinnville. This is a big
one and WILL affect your business and your
future.
ACE
Memberships:
ACE
Members must continue to help each other
out, and should make a habit of publicly
giving preferential treatment to fellow-members
over non-members. That's one of the ways
your ACE membership gives you value - it
brings discounts that save you money. It's
also part of the dues that you owe: when
you offer a discount to your fellow ACE
members, you are making an in-kind contribution
that strengthens us all.
Please
consider offering your fellow ACE members
10% off your best price. Member clubs, you
should offer ACE-member entertainers 10%
off your house fees, or preferential access
(i.e. one day earlier) to shift selection,
or both.
Offering
discounts can cost you cash, so you shouldn't
feel bad about raising your rates to non-members.
Non-members are trying to free-load - they
want all the benefits of collective defense
with none of the costs. Let them pay more,
so that - balanced against your discounts
to your fellow ACE members - you end up
no worse off than before, while ACE grows
stronger.
And
please, put the ACE logo in your ads, and
mention your ACE-member discounts.
From
Oregon-ACE President Claude DaCorsi:
With
the new distance laws that could be coming
into effect (Oregon Supreme Court case)
we need to emphasize the devastating effect
this could have on some, if not all of our
adult business friends. They need to know
that a lot of smaller clubs couldn't operate
at all because of the impossibility of them
to provide a 10 foot distance between customers
and patrons. These are the clubs who need
to become part of the ACE membership immediately.
And they need to know the urgency that we
have to fight these potential laws, and
that we can't do it alone.
