Michael Doughman

Michael Doughman announces retirement from DTG, two-year plan to find his replacement

Tammye Nash | Managing Editor
nash@dallasvoice.com

Michael Doughman this week announced that he will be retiring from his job as executive director of the Dallas Tavern Guild after the 2019 Pride season wraps up and moving to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and that the hunt is on to find the best possible replacement for him at the Tavern Guild.

Doughman said that right now, he has worked for DTG for 18 years, the last 15 of those years as a full-time employee. By the time his retirement becomes official, he will be at the 20-year mark.

Doughman said he made the announcement now — and DTG is starting the search for a new executive director now — because it is important to find just the right person for the job.

“I know there are a lot of people out there who are interested in this job,” Doughman said. “That’s why I am giving it so much time. I know the interest is high, but that doesn’t mean that everyone who is interested will meet the requirements. Most people aren’t even aware of all the things I do in this job that are not on the public side,” like organizing the annual Pride parade and festival each September.

He said that those others jobs include organizing and running monthly Tavern Guild meetings, conducting the day-to-day business of the nonprofit organization and more. “And on top of everything else, organizing Pride is a 10- or 10-and-a-half-month-long job.”

Key elements of the job include reasonably good administrative and management skills and “very strong people skills,” Doughman said. “You have to deal with so many different personalities [from Tavern Guild members to Pride sponsors and more]. There’s a lot of diplomacy that is required.

“Knowing when to speak to the media and what to say when you do is also very important,” he continued. “And you have to have a really good understanding of the way a nonprofit works. Our Pride event is large, but Dallas Tavern Guild is truly a classically small-scale nonprofit. You have to know how to operate on a tight, limited budget.

“There are a lot of elements to the job, but people skills are really primary. You can be taught some of the other things, but people skills are something you either have or you don’t have,” he said.

Doughman said he and the Tavern Guild members will spend the rest of this year interviewing applicants and narrowing down the field. They hope to have decided on someone by the end of the year and then have that person hired on as assistant director by next February, so that he or she can shadow Doughman through the process of organizing the 2019 Pride events.

“We have to make sure that I am comfortable and the membership is comfortable with whomever we choose,” Doughman said.

Making the move
Doughman has been just as meticulous in planning his retirement and his move South of the Border as he is being in finding his replacement at the Tavern Guild. He has, he said, already put in about a year-and-a-half’s worth of work in making the decision.

“Most of the legwork I’ve done on my trips to Mexico — things like living and functioning in PV, banking, phone service, healthcare — everything you need to know to live in PV full time.”

Plus, Doughman said, he has been vacationing in Puerto Vallarta regularly for about eight years. “So I know I like the people there. There are a lot of former Dallasites living there, a lot of folks I know. There are a lot of members of our [LGBT] community who own property there, either for vacationing or living there full time. And I have already met a lot of locals.

“I won’t be starting over.”

Doughman said he started thinking about moving about three years ago “when I realized I was not going to be able to retire and stay in Dallas.

The rising costs of living here, health care costs now and the future of my health care were all of great concern. And my goal has certainly never been to have to work until I dropped dead at my desk one day.”

As he started asking around, he said, he started hearing a lot of good reasons for retiring to PV. “They have socialized medicine there. I have already taken a list of the medications I take and the health conditions I have to a doctor in PV, and he says all my medications would be covered there under their socialized medicine program,” Doughman said. “That was a big step. And then, the cost of living there is so much lower. An apartment the size of my condo here — a comfortably-sized two-bedroom, two bath condo — is about $800 to $1,200 a month in the more affordable parts of town. I can live in the same space in Puerto Vallarta for under $200 a month.

“With my Social Security income and a two-or-three-day-a-week part-time job,” he added, “I can live there quite comfortably.”

Doughman said he has already chosen the area he wants to live in there. It is within walking distance of the Romatica District, where most of the gay nightlife and restaurants are located, as well as within walking distance of an open-air market and a supermarket.

“And I could go to work with a friend there who has a business in the tourism industry, helping him with marketing, and I could walk to his offices, too,” he said. “And if I want to go further than I can walk, taxi and uber services are very affordable.”

Doughman continued, “It’s all sort of come together very easily, really. I have found very few things I would consider deterrents to moving to PV.”

And while he knows he will miss his friends and colleagues in Dallas — “The Pride steering committee has become like a big family to me” — he also knows it will be the best decision for him.

“I have been so involved in so many different areas of the community — Oak Lawn Band, Turtle Creek Chorale, Cathedral of Hope and of course the Tavern Guild and the Pride steering committee — and those things won’t be there any more. It will be hard. But I know, realistically, if I want to have any kind of quality retirement left, it’s the best move.

“I have already started three different books,” he continued, “And I will definitely finish at least one of them when I retire. There is a small [LGBT] community theater group in PV, kind of like our Uptown Players here. I have met a lot of those folks, and I am looking forward to getting involved in theater again, acting some and maybe even directing. I am really looking forward to a post-work life full of things that are important to me.”

Doughman also acknowledged that taking his time in planning and ultimately making the move will help take some of the sting out of what he might be losing. “It’s almost two years away. I’m doing my Elton John final tour,” he laughed. “That length of time takes a lot of the emotion out of it. I will have plenty of time to say goodbye, and that should make it much easier to ease out of this life and into my new life.”

Anyone interested in applying for the job of executive director of Dallas Tavern Guild should contact Doughman via email through the “Contact Us” link on the DallasPride.org website.