Pride WA has elected its new co-presidents for 2011 but is already facing challenges with committee member numbers and Pride March dates. Sarah Smith and Mark Hamer are the new Pride co-presidents for 2011; other new faces to the committee include Sarah Holt-Foreman, Joel Murphy and Tayler Reid.
While the AGM was held in March, the committee still has three positions open with the recent departure of Jason Chrisp. The former marketing member, who recently resigned, has since reapplied for his forgone position. Chrisp told OUTinPerth he had resigned ‘solely for work reasons’ but was now reapplying for a committee position since finding more time for the role. Pride has put a call-out to general members for the position who will be in running with Chrisp and the other two roles.
Dates for Pride’s major event, the Pride Parade are still under consideration by the City of Perth due to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Perth at the same time. Delays have impacted event organisers such as Connections Nightclub and The Court Hotel which run large-scale after parties following the parade.
Connections Nightclub owner Tim Brown said Pride After Party preparations would ‘almost certainly’ come down to the wire.
‘Yes this will have an impact,’ Brown said on the date delays.
‘…Everyone has been non-committal about locking things down, and that’s largely because of CHOGM.’
But the nightclub owner said he wasn’t worried about the consequences just yet.
‘…We don’t have any say in it, [there is] nothing we can do about it. So no, we’re not stressing yet.’
City of Perth media spokesperson Peter Jackson said the dates had not been approved and were ‘still under consideration’.
He confirmed that the application had been received but could not reveal a time line; he did, however say the decision would be coming ‘pretty soon’ and was not anticipating any problems with the November 12 date for the parade.
Pride WA spokesperson Tayler Reid confirmed there had been delays in confirming dates for Pride’s events but said the organisation was still confident.
‘Pride WA is more than confident that this year will be our best to date as we begin working closely with the members and the community to bring new energy and a new sense of Pride to the events,’ he said.
Inquiries about nominations for Pride’s three final positions can be sent to pride@pridewa.asn.au
CORRECTION: The Pride Parade is planned for November 12, not October 12 as reported in this month’s newspaper.
Benn Dorrington
