The trouble began when a "For Rent" sign appeared in the window of an aging storefront in Edgewater.

It would've been easy to walk past without noticing the sign or realizing that behind the glass sat the Midwest's largest gay and lesbian library and a sprawling archive of tremendous historical value.

For more than a decade, the Gerber/Hart Library and Archives has occupied this space on Granville Avenue near the rattling Red Line. But when word got out that the space was for rent and the library's board had quietly made plans to relocate to Rogers Park, a group of patrons and former board members protested. The group alleged that the library's long-standing president had effectively taken sole control of the collection, alienating many in the city's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and endangering the institution.

"This used to be one of the most attractive walk-in community spaces you could find," said John D'Emilio, a former board member and a professor of gender and women's studies and history at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "But in the last year or so it looks like the most disorderly resale shop you've ever walked into. It's an atrocity. Those of us who have gotten behind the locked doors of the archives room know it's being completely neglected and in total disarray."

The controversy provides a window into the often tumultuous politics of nonprofit organizations, where people united in their devotion to an institution can still be torn apart by conflicts of personality and vision.

Nonprofit infighting can be contentious

"This happens a lot," said William Rattner, executive director of Lawyers for the Creative Arts and an expert on nonprofits. "In a business, somebody owns the stock, somebody ultimately owns the place and can make a final decision. ... Nobody owns a not-for-profit. Consequently, you just don't have that ultimate authority, so these kinds of disputes usually will go on until somebody says, 'Oh, the hell with it,' and walks away."

At Gerber/Hart, there are no signs of anyone backing down. Months after the dispute began and as the library moves this week, the situation has grown only more contentious.

The three-member board of directors — which includes library President Karen Sendziak — released updated bylaws in March that strip Gerber/Hart members of their voting rights. The new bylaws also reduce the required number of board members to three, down from 18 under the 1996 bylaws, which are the only ones on file with the Illinois attorney general's office.

Board members previously could serve only four consecutive one-year terms before taking a year off, which would mean that Sendziak — now in her ninth year as president — has exceeded her allowable term. But the new bylaws say directors can serve five consecutive two-year terms before taking a year off, giving the current president one more year.

D'Emilio and others who have served on the library's board say such dramatic changes to the bylaws would have required a membership meeting, and they say none took place.

When the new bylaws were posted on the library's website, there were swift accusations that the rules had been changed to conform with the current makeup of the board and leave members powerless to vote on future issues.

"I've never questioned Karen's dedication," said Owen Keehnen, a historian and former board member. "But ... there comes a certain point where dedication, especially with something like a library or an archives, can become a protectiveness that keeps people out rather then inviting people in. And I think that's very dangerous in a community organization."

Sendziak and her board members strongly disagree with the way a group that calls itself "Friends of Gerber/Hart Library and Archives" has characterized her leadership.

"It is befuddling," Sendziak said during an interview with the Tribune. "It's like living in an alternate universe. The way other people have been interacting with us, there's nothing there. Once people found out we were going to move, we got some very positive responses by phone and email."

Transparency and the past

The Gerber/Hart archive room contains a treasure trove of historical documents and items that chronicle the lives of LGBT people and organizations in Chicago and across the Midwest, from rare books and periodicals to buttons and posters from the early days of the gay and lesbian civil rights movement. More than 50 items were recently on loan to the Chicago History Museum for its "Out in Chicago" exhibit, and students and historians routinely call on the library for help with research.

But in a letter sent to Sendziak in February, D'Emilio, Keehnen and 10 other community members wrote: "The archives are impenetrable, and there is virtually no access to them except through you. You have made it impossible for others to take on leadership to help fulfill the mission of the organization."

According to the nonprofit's tax filings, Sendziak has served as president of Gerber/Hart since 2003. During that time, the library's net assets have grown from about $30,000 to more than $200,000. But in the same period of time, the library's board has shrunk from eight members to three — Sendziak and two others, one of whom now lives in Yuma, Ariz.

That board member, Don Landers, a past president of Gerber/Hart, said that while it's true Sendziak has led the library for a longer-than-normal stretch, he believes she has been a faithful steward of the institution.

"She puts her entire life into making sure that money is spent in a frugal fashion and the library is in very good financial standing," Landers said. "As far as her ability to attract donors and people who will leave money to the library, she's been more successful than any president I remember.

"I think in any volunteer organization, you're going to find people who are displeased with the way some things are handled and feel things should be more transparent. There's not much you can do about that."

News that the library's space on Granville Avenue was up for rent first appeared in the LGBT newspaper Windy City Times in January. This caused considerable concern in the LGBT community, as few people — including many former volunteers and board members — had any clue where the library was going or how the delicate archival material would be moved.

"She had the library out there hanging," said Patrick Gourley, a longtime volunteer. "People were really wondering if the library would have a place to be come May 1."