19th July, 2005
Pride Western Australia Incorporated will let its members decide on whether Pride should stage a lifestyle exhibition for the Pride Community in 2006.The issue has been a point of contention on the Pride Committee this year, with past and present Committee members not reaching agreement on whether such an event would be in the interests of the Pride Community.
Pride Co-President Daniel Smith said the Pride Committee was now firmly focused on organising this year’s Pride Festival, but had outlined a process by which its members would decide whether Pride should stage a lifestyle exhibition for the Pride Community.
“As reported in Out in Perth in January, outlined in Pride’s 2004 Annual Report and discussed at our Annual General Meeting in February, Pride entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with local expo promoter Exibit to have discussions about staging both a lifestyle exhibition for the Pride Community and the Pride Party at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre this October,” he said.
“In May, the Pride Committee was asked to consider a proposal that would see Pride work with Exibit to continue to develop the exhibition and stage the Pride Party at the PCEC. The proposal would have allowed the Pride Party to be staged at the PCEC this year, even if the exhibition was cancelled for being unviable.
“The Pride Committee did not reach agreement on the proposal and the Memorandum of Understanding with Exibit expired at the end of May. As a result, neither the exhibition nor the Pride Party will be staged at the PCEC this year. However, Exibit has advised Pride it would still like to work towards staging the events in 2006.
“Pride has since been approached by Eastern States promoter GayAZ, who are also interested in working with Pride to stage a lifestyle exhibition at the PCEC next year.
“Given the diversity of opinion that the original Exibit proposal generated on the Pride Committee early this year, the current Committee has decided that it will not progress discussions with either Exibit or GayAZ until after this year’s Festival and has outlined a process that will see Pride’s members decide whether Pride works with either Exibit or GayAZ to stage such an exhibition.”
Mr Smith said Pride would form a working group of Pride members at Pride’s Information Forum on Sunday November 20 to have discussions with both Exibit and GayAZ and consult with stakeholders within the Pride Community. The working group would be invited to make recommendations to the Annual General Meeting, which would decide whether Pride should progress the event.
Mr Smith said it would be desirable for the working group to consist of people who were going to nominate for election to the 2006 Pride Committee, as they would have carriage of the event if it was endorsed by Pride members at the Annual General Meeting.