One of the longest surviving gay social and service groups in the city, the Conductors are a group of men involed in Nashville's gay community for twenty—four years.

We were established by a group of friends who shared common interests in the spring of 1982. Nasvhille's gay community, although thriving, was still very small. Knowing that introducing leather boots, vests, and chaps into the nightlife of Nashville's bar scene was somewhat of a risk at the time, those men had the foresight to understand it was vital for their acceptance and future to give something back to the community.

At the time, AIDS was not on the forefront of anyone's mind in Nashville, as it was just beginning to be seen in some of the larger gay metropolises. For their first couple of years, the Conductors supported various local charities such as the Second Harvest Food Bank and the Angel Tree programs. They sponsored food drives at their first home bar, The Crazy Cowboy, and eventually at their current home bar, The Chute Complex, where they have remained for 21 years.

Around 1984, Nashville began to see its first AIDS cases. It was at this time the first steps were being taken to organize Nashville Cares. Coincidentally, or by luck, one of the members of the Conductors at the the time, the late Thom C, was also involved with Nashville Cares. A representative from Cares soon made a presentation to the Conductors at one of their regular business meetings asking for any type of financial assistance to help Nashville Cares get established.

The Conductors, in an innovatie move on their part, came up with a form of support that is still being used between their club and Nashville Cares today. It was their desire, due to the very limited source of their income (which all comes from donations from members of the community, and local businesses at their fund raisers), to establish a direct-assistance program for Nashville Cares' clients who have an emergency need. The requirements for Cares to follow are:

1) the need should be an emergency in nature,

2) all other sources (grants, federal and state programs, etc.) should be exhausted before making a request to the Conductors and,

3) the client's name, gender, or race should never be disclosed to the Conductors.

Through this fund, the group has paid for prescriptions, eyeglasses, utility bills, home repair, rent, and among many other things, has also made primary donations to support several Thanksgiving meals sponsored by Nashville Cares to its clients.

The group, which currently has 13 full members, was founded in 1982. Since then we have celebrated our anniversary every year, generally, on the third weekend of March. The first anniversary weekend was in 1983 and was dubbed "TRACK I".