A local professional networking group for LGBTQ+ individuals and allies is in a rebuilding phase, following the departure of its executive director and several board members.

Andee Huxhold was hired as the Tucson LGBT Chamber of Commerce’s executive director in March, relocating from Indiana for the job.

She was front and center for the group’s annual Pride breakfast in June, leading a game of Queer Family Feud and emceeing a “Summer of ‘69” fashion show fundraiser.

But by September, Huxhold was back in Indiana working for a nonprofit that supports justice reform. Her LinkedIn page indicates she left her job at the chamber (or as members call it, the Gaymber), in August.

"In August, I made the very difficult decision to step away from my role as Executive Director of the Tucson LGBT Chamber of Commerce," Huxhold wrote in a statement to Tucson Spotlight. "I stepped into the role with a deep commitment to the chamber’s mission, but it became clear that the organization needed space to address preexisting challenges within its board and leadership, as well as to determine its core values and how it wanted to move forward."

Huxhold said that while her time with the chamber was brief, it was one of the most meaningful experiences of her life and she's "profoundly grateful for the opportunity to serve this vibrant community" and for the connections she made during her tenure.

“I am excited to see ‘The Gaymber’ as it enters a new chapter and will be cheering them on from afar," she said.

But the departures didn’t start or stop with Huxhold.

Before she even announced her exit, the board’s longtime administrator, Melanie Cooley, had already stepped away from the organization.

Cooley was the chamber’s administrator for nine of its 29 years and told Tucson Spotlight she’s proud of her time with the organization.

"In 2024, serious mismanagement by the board caused the departure of a significant number of board members and all members of the Gaymber’s staff: The Executive Director and myself,” she wrote in an email. “Most of the board leadership responsible for that mismanagement is no longer associated with the Gaymber.”

A search of internet archive site The Wayback Machine found that there were 12 members on the chamber’s board of directors on May 21, the first record for 2024.

A June 13 capture of the page showed 10 members, with the number dropping to eight in August and six in September.

As of Monday, just four remained.

Cooley said that her hope is that “2025 will bring renewed integrity and competence to the Gaymber” and that the organization will be able to reclaim “its place as a resource and advocate for the LGBTQ+ community in Southern Arizona."

Gaymber Board Member and Unscrewed Theater Executive Director Chris Seidman told Tucson Spotlight that Huxhold left because of a difference in management styles and leadership vision.

“It was not necessarily the best fit with the executive director, and anytime something like that happens, there are going to be rumors, discussions and people not happy with how things are going. But there were definitely things being said that were not accurate or were just incomplete,” he said. “It was kind of like one thing leading to another thing to another thing. It definitely had a domino effect on the leadership of the chamber.”

The result is an empty staff page on the Gaymber’s website and the four-person board, with Seidman saying they’re looking to onboard some more members to help build the chamber’s infrastructure.

“Once that’s in place, we’ll talk about the situation with the executive director,” he said.

Seidman, who has been involved with nonprofits for years, said staffing shake ups like these aren’t uncommon.

“When we talked to people who work in the nonprofit space about this situation and transition, they were not phased, because that’s how it goes,” he said.

For the most part, the general membership was not impacted by Huxhold’s departure, Seidman said.

“If you’re paying dues to an organization and you show up a couple times a month for social events, you’re not really aware of what’s going on with leadership,” he said. “But there were people a little closer to the organization who were affected or took it to heart.”

In October, the chamber held its first breakfast meeting after what Seidman called an “uncertain couple of months.” Organizers used part of the time to facilitate a discussion about the chamber, asking attendees pointed questions to solicit feedback.

“That’s something we want to continue with,” Seidman said. “ We want to listen to the community and do what we can to assist and support.”

From there, the remaining board members “had some choices to make.”

“It took some restructuring and challenging discussions and internal looks at the way the organization was being run,” he said. “For the most part, the choice has been to scale down our offerings as far as events.”

The Gaymber will continue to hold its monthly breakfast meetings, which Seidman said have been consistently linked to the group and are within the current leadership group’s bandwidth.

But beyond that, event offerings are uncertain. The group’s annual gala fundraiser is on hold, although not completely ruled out. Seidman said the group believes it’s more important to get their feet under them as an organization and rebuild their ranks before they begin hosting large events.

But the group’s place in the community as a support network for professionals will remain unchanged.

“Our commitment to members and our community outreach and being a safe place for the LGBT community continues undaunted,” Seidman said.

The chamber is looking to grow its board, asking that applicants have some history of membership with the Gaymber, and ideally have held some level of service.

Prior to the shakeup, there was a guideline that future board members would be asked to serve on a committee for six months before joining, but Seidman said that’s no longer set in stone.

“But we would like them to be members and be familiar with the chamber,’ he said.

Seidman said he’s grateful for the community’s support during this time of transition and beyond, saying he’s aware of how important the chamber is to Southern Arizona and the LGBTQ+ community.

“We as a board want to do everything we can to honor that,” he said. “We’re going to continue the momentum and continue being available for the community.”

Caitlin Schmidt is Editor and Publisher of Tucson Spotlight. She previously worked for the Arizona Daily Star and has been reporting on Southern Arizona for a decade. Contact her at caitlin@tucsonspotlight.org.

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