Dear Community,
It wouldn’t be the start of a new year if there weren’t rumours circulating about the health and future of Pride. I’d like to take this opportunity to openly discuss Pride’s current position and some of the challenges the committee has been faced with in the past few months, as Pride’s side is often left unheard in these matters.
Most importantly, it should be stated that Pride is not broke. We have enough money in the bank to pay our creditors and whilst we officially made a loss in 2009, our strong financial position at the start of the year means that we have absorbed that loss and kept our heads above water. Bills have been and will continue to be paid.
Unfortunately when it comes to event promotion you must take the good with the bad. It’s impossible to run an organisation like Pride, which relies on customers, suppliers, weather, the economy and countless other things including the dates of competing events, without risk.
It’s interesting that last year, during Pride’s 20th year, attendance was down on every income generating event that Pride held, except ones that were introduced for the first time in 2009. Pride’s 20th year was about celebrating the achievements of a very successful 2008 by creating a bigger and better festival and introducing new events to the Perth scene like The Glammys. Unfortunately, for reasons still unknown to us, Fairday, The Party and The Film Festival were simply under attended when compared to the previous year, which had big financial implications for the organisation.
The one event that did improve was The Parade, Pride’s flagship event. Participation was up and from where we were standing it looked like spectators were too. The feedback we have had from Northbridge businesses and people watching the parade indicated that it was a huge improvement on the previous couple of years, and of that we are very proud.
Unfortunately some life members of Pride would have you believe that Parade participants and spectators were both down compared to 2008. I have lost count of the number of times I’ve informed these people that participation was actually up in 2009, but they continue to spread the word that participation and attendance is dwindling away, painting a bleak picture of the future of Perth’s Pride Parade and questioning its ongoing relevance in the community.
It saddens me when these same life members of Pride start creating and promoting events that mimic Pride’s own. Apparently this is so that Perth has more choice. If Perth needs more choice then I suggest offering Perth something different, not replicating Pride’s long standing events for personal gain. Surely the priority of these life members, people who have earned their title by dedicating their time and energy to Pride, should be to protect the organisation and ensure its longevity? Reproducing Pride’s events is not offering choice, and it’s certainly not protecting the organisation, it’s just making things harder.
In response to arguments put forward by Pride’s critics, we have taken several steps to get feedback from the community about what is and isn’t wanted on the Pride calendar. A community forum was held in November and another one will be held in February, giving everyone the opportunity to come down and share their opinion. Two different surveys have also been conducted, in addition to an independent survey, and these results will also be discussed on the night. The forum will be held on February 8th at Loton Park Tennis Club from 7pm. We encourage anyone and everyone to attend.
Pride has always been rife with politics and has traditionally been a challenging organisation to run and I’d like to personally thank our supporters and my fellow committee members for sticking with Pride to ensure there is a future for Perth’s premiere gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and questioning community.
Andrew Baietta
Pride Treasurer
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