The S.F.Chronicle reported on the death, at age 57, of Norma Hotaling. My relationship to Norma is worth remembering.
I played a major role in creating COYOTE, Margo St. James' organization to decriminalize prostitution. I also played a role in many other sexual liberation vehicles. Margo got COYOTE started in 1974.
Norma Hotaling
got her start around the late 1980s opposing COYOTE and working hard to
make sure prostitution was viewed as horrible oppression of women.
Norma created several projects to get prostitutes off the street. Her
most notable, notorious to me, accomplishment was inventing the
practice of arresting Johns, fining them $1,000 the first time, and
forcing the arrested Johns to attend a Norma all day class to berate
them for 8 hours. Norma and her staff got great pay for this
belittling effort. See the article to see that Norma became a great
hero to the press, Oprah and local Puritans.
Norma asked for my help with her non-profits in the mid 1990s. I went to help her. My business consulting oath is much like the Hippocratic oath...I have a unique gift for helping businesses, so I help everyone regardless of my view of them.
The main thing to report about Norma is that she was a kind, warm, well intentioned woman. She had no managerial skills (like 49 out of 50 non-profit managers) and no ability to make or read a financial statement. I told her the truth: she needed to hire an operating manager whom she completely trusted and do the politics (which Norma was great at) herself. She needed to hire a bookkeeper who was intimate with her....I mean it.
She did both and flourished. The real reason Norma flourished was because she was riding the crest of a Puritan anti-sex wave which is still moving at Tsunami speeds.