Pride WA staged a Special General Meeting of members on 15 December, 2007, at which the organising committee reported a $51,000 loss for the year and net debts of $36,000.

Members at the SGM unanimously resolved to stage a second SGM in two months time and voted unanimously to form sub-committees to negotiate Pride's debt with creditors and develop new fund raising and sponsorship opportunities.

The meeting also resolved to place a motion on the agenda for the second SGM to wind the organisation up.  It was agreed at the SGM that this would be the least desired option, but acknowledged that Western Australian law required members to be given at least 28 days of such a motion and that it might be necessary to wind Pride up and start a new community group to ensure Fairday and the Parade are staged this year.

The second SGM will be staged on Sunday 17 February 2008 at Lotteries House, starting at 2pm.  Only current financial Pride members may attend. 

METHODOLOGY

GAYinWA conducted an online survey of 437 of its readers over five days between 18-22 January, 2008.

To ensure the validity of the survey's results, controls were put in place to minimise opportunities for respondents to answer the survey more than once.

OBJECTIVES

The objectives of the survey were to:

• Identify the likelihood of current and former financial members of Pride WA rejoining Pride or renewing their membership;
• Identify why former members had let their memberships lapse;
• Identify the importance of Pride events to members of the community;
• Identify who members and non-members believed should assist Pride to pay off its debts; and
• Give members of the community their say on what they think the most important changes Pride could make to ensure its long term viability and relevance.

It is hoped that the results of this survey will assist debate in the lead up to and during the Pride SGM.  It is also hoped that the current Pride Committee and any future Committees will make use of the data to inform their decision making.  GAYinWA will be happy to provide the raw results to Pride for their analysis, minus any data that could identify respondents individually.

SUMMARY OF RESULTS

Almost half of respondents (48.72%) reported never being a financial member of Pride, with just over a quarter (25.41%) reporting to be former financial members.  90 responses (20.98%) were received from current financial members of Pride.

Interestingly, 76.92% of respondents aged 18-24 reported to never having been a financial member of Pride WA.  This represents a challenge for Pride, as well as an opportunity.

Almost half of respondents (47.46%) thought that business who benefit from Pride should contribute most to paying off Pride's debts, followed by all members of the community (29.44%).  Only 4.31% of respondents thought that the responsibility should fall to Pride's members exclusively.

This is a positive result for Pride WA and indicates that there is a general feeling of responsibility for Pride WA, even among people who have never been Pride WA members.  It is also a recognition that there are a number of businesses who profit from Pride and whose businesses would be impacted if Pride's events were not to continue. 

The biggest reason former financial members gave for not rejoining Pride WA was that their Pride membership didn't deliver good value.  This gives tangible guidance to Pride WA on what to tackle in trying to boost membership numbers.

Not surprisingly, Fairday (91.14%) and the Parade (82.07%) were rated the most important events by respondents, with the Pride Festival (79.48%) the only other event rated as important by more than half of all respondents.

Pride's XES Party was found to be the least important event to respondents, with only 27.7% of respondents indicating it was important to them.

Among women, Fairday, the Parade and the Festival retained their importance, but the Pride Women's Sundowner (70.91%) and the Quiz Night (50.31%) were also rated as important by more than half of female respondents.

An overwhelming majority of respondents agreed that our community should explore all options to ensure Fairday (95.93%) and the Parade (85.64%) are staged this year. 

When asked what the most important change they thought Pride WA could make to ensure its long term relevance and viability, respondents indicated the following changes as the most important:

• Better financial management (14.2%)
• Changes to existing events (14.2%)
• Better committee skills and attitudes (11.9%)
• Listen / consult / work with community / members (9.5%)
• Organisational reform (9.1%) 

Comments from respondents are included below. 

RESULTS 

Membership Status

What is your current membership status with Pride WA?

Respondents answered:

Almost half of respondents (48.72%) reported never being a financial member of Pride, with just over a quarter (25.41%) reporting to be former financial members.  90 responses (20.98%) were received from current financial members of Pride.

Why No Longer A Member

Which of the following best describe why you are no longer a member of Pride WA?

This question was asked of respondents who indicated they were a former financial member in the first question. Respondents were able to select multiple answers.

Respondents answered: 

The most frequent reason respondents gave for not having renewed their membership was that Pride's membership doesn't deliver good value (33.78%).  A significant proportion (21.62%) of respondents gave an "Other" response.  Other responses included:

• Didn't get around to it.
• I now live interstate.
• I don't live in Perth.
• Couldn't pay online. 

Likelihood of Rejoining / Renewing

Are you likely to re-join Pride or renew your membership this year?

This question was asked of respondents who indicated they were either a current or former financial member in the first question.  

Respondents answered:

Encouragingly for Pride WA, only 23.74% of current and former financial members ruled out rejoining Pride WA this year.  However, in the formulation of its recovery strategy, Pride WA should note that only 28.79% of current and former financial members indicated they would definitely rejoin, with almost half (47.47%) indicating they were unsure or waiting to see if Pride sorted its financial problems out first.

Current financial members were more favourably disposed to rejoining Pride WA this year, with 50% of respondents indicating they definitely would.  Pride WA should note, however, that almost half of its current financial members remained unsure about rejoining or were waiting to see if the organisation's current financial problems were sorted out before acting. 

Importance of Events

How important are the following events to you?

Respondents answered: 

Fairday (91.14%) and the Parade (82.07%) were rated the most important events by respondents, with the Pride Festival (79.48%) the only other event rated as important by more than half of respondents.

Pride's XES Party was found to be the least important event to respondents, with only 27.7% of respondents indicating it was important to them. 

Among women, Fairday, the Parade and the Festival retained their importance, but the Pride Women's Sundowner (70.91%) and the Quiz Night (50.31%) were also rated as important by more than half of respondents.

Need to Explore All Options

How much do you agree with the following statements?

Respondents answered:

Who Should Pay Debts

Who do you think should contribute most to helping Pride pay off its debts?

Respondents answered:  

Almost half of respondents (47.46%) thought that business who benefit from Pride should contribute most to paying off Pride's debts, followed by all members of the community (29.44%).  Only 4.31% of respondents thought that the responsibility should fall to Pride's members exclusively.

A significant proportion of respondents gave an "Other" response.  Other responses included:

• All of the above - everybody should pay;
• The Pride Committee - those who created the debt.
• Nobody should pay - Pride should fold. 

Current Pride WA members also indicated that businesses who benefit from Pride should contribute most to paying off their existing debts (39.08%).

Most Important Change

If Pride gets through its current financial problems, what is the most important change you think it could make to ensuring its long term relevance and viability?

Responses were categorised as follows:

The most frequent responses focused on better financial management, changes to existing events and attracting more highly skilled people to the Pride Committee.

Comments from respondents included:

Better Financial Management

• Only spending on the absolute essentials.
• Responsible financial management by experienced people.
• Not to over commit funds. It the funds aren't there, don't spend them.
• Events must be cost-neutral or pay for themselves. Any business or organisation must be run that way.
• Employ an independent financial advisor.
• Have budgets and stick to them. Run events that will be fundraisers, that are well thought out and planned. Don't take risks based on a view point of 3 people.
• Treat Pride's money as if it was your own.
• Retaining an accountant to manage its finances.
• Pre costed and pre paid prior so that a whole year is waisted going over old ground. Find out what works (and pays) and do more of that.
• More finance, such as fund raising.
• Better money management.
• Ensure that tight financial controls are kept on events that have the potential to be financial "black holes" like dance parties. Costs, benefits and financial risks are taken into account before committing to events.
• Avoid big events that could use lot from Pride's account.
• Get on a solid financial footing.
• Stop wasting money on events that no-one will buy a ticket to.
• Working within its means. Not using free membership to the pride party as incentive to help - it's all money that isn't being contributed in ticket sales. Unpopular non profit organisations manage to work within their membership\'s financial means - Pride should be able to manage it too.
• Do not allow it to get into debt. I don't understand how it was able to happen in the first place.
• To be run with proper financial accountability. And action taken for any mismanagement of members funds. Pride needs to remember that these funds are not raised for the committee to simply spend money on what "they" think the community wants.
• Realistic financial management. There has been overly optimistic forecasting in the past.
• Reduce outgoings. Smarter advertising. Use the bars and web site to bring in money. Reduce staffing as most places end up with so called experts sponging off the system. Rethink management.
• Its events will have to be more commercially focused, and aim to make more money than what they needs so that they will be able to help the community achieve its objectives better.
• Realistic costings on events - better to make an event smaller, less expensive to set up, rather than having events for 1,000, with 500 showing up and creating a loss.
• Better budgeting of costs for events, and being willing to call off events lacking support before costs become too excessive.
• Suitable financial advisors and people capable of knowing where the moneys going, and just as importantly, where it comes from. Debt doesn't come overnight, it comes from mismanagement of funds.

Changes to Existing Events

• Make events more interesting and at a reasonable price.
• Fairday should be expanded like it used to be. It is the day when all get together, meet new people and renew friendships. More encouragement, adverts, rewards for best stall, entertainment under shade, better sound system, a program that keeps to time, silly games, fashion parades, more tables & seating. I could go on and on. Parades are too costly now.
• Ensuring events are relevant to majority of community and not just a few who influence the committee.
• Make the events like the Christmas Parade.
• To seriously think where to hold Pride Party, after all the attendance at Belmont was hardly overwhelming, and totally unsuitable for transport, etc. Closer to the city, where it is accessible, and lower prices to better compete with The Court and Connections might be a start! Combine The Court, Connections and Pride Party into one big event with profits shared!
• Hold the Parade during warmer months, and earlier in the day / evening.
• Stop putting on huge dance parties for gay boys and start looking at what people really want. For example, there was a women's event put on this year commercially that was sold out at the Bakery as lesbian women have got fed up with the Pride after party being only for men. Pride should have held such an event.
• Return Fairday to how is was. The 2007 one was a complete fuck up by fencing of the bar and having no toilets within the bar.
• Fairday...make it bigger and better.
• Don't go all-out spending on dance parties!
• Compulsory $5 entry charge to Fair Day for non-members. Run Fair Day at nil-loss. Combine Pride festival with Northbridge festival. Look at running Tolerance and Diversity Parade/March as part of Northbridge Festival opening to all Look at running party outside of festival/pride framework managed by new non-profit/low profit self-sufficient group. Party should be scaled down and gradually built back up again in size as people regain faith in format. Party venue should be unique to differentiate itself from a night out a club or a Ministry of Sound Event - look at different sought of venues with variety of setting available at one venue (e.g. not all just crammed into one room) where people of different wants from a party are catered for (e.g. not just hard core party crew - make it attractive to wider gay community as another opportunity to socialise and meet others - like Fair Day but 4-5 months later). If no longer connected to a parade then such a party could be at end of summer at sunset - start in early evening so that people who arent wanting to stay out all night can come for first half.
• Charging a little more for events like fair day - say $5 for singles, $10 for families. Dance parties and the like appeal only to a small proportion of the community and are extremely expensive to put on, running a risk of a loss. Smaller community events run less risk but are important to the community and may increase paid membership.
• Holding the Parade and Fairday on the same day, as one big event. Let the dance parties be organised and run by the commercial venues if they think they will be viable.
• Forget the after party. Let individuals run that, eg Lick Events / The Court / Connections... thats their jobs!!
• I think cementing the Pride Parade in to the minds of not only G&L community but all members of society. It's always been a good night out to watch but the marching boys etc is really missed.
• I think that Pride Parades should stop. Not relevant in today's society.
• Get back to basics...fun at a reasonable cost... don't need so called super djs from interstate... maybe local ones that play what we want to hear, not what u think we want. If we wanted Sydney, we would go there.
• Are you guys stupid, you get 1,000, maybe 2,000 for Pride Fairday and you don't want our money? I don't see why you ask for donation for AIDS when you should be charging $15 or something per person to get in. People will pay it, it is to date the best day out in Perth. I would not miss it nor would almost everyone I know. Even if you got $10 from every person to walk into the park you guys would cover a lot of your over heads, work out how to bring to budget down and hey presto - day paid for?
• To bring back more fun floats everything is to political now
• Make the festival in it's full form biyearly and on alternative years have a smaller celebration eg Fairday with an after party.
• Being in touch with reality. Stop running boring parties over and over, people stop coming and you waste everyone's time.
• The Fairday should be as part of the parade day. The parade should be during the day and right after the parade, have kiosks and entertainment.
• Combine the Parade and Fairday on one day.
• I want more diverse, artistic, better quality entertainment, that gives real local talent a fair go! Make it more like the Adelaide Feast Festival. No more half-baked, talentless trannies monopolising everything. Give more lesbian entertainers a fair go - no more straight girls.
• Events that are relevant to gay people young and old not just dance parties.
• Sort out the licensing debacles of last Fairday. Leave the running of the party to a professional company. Forget the Parade.
• Cut the most costly or unfunded events - ensure that the Pride Party is not competed against with alternate special events...by negotiating with commercial venues.
• Making sure that events such as Fairday and the Parade vary from year to year.
• That the after party include women only space and works only side and with Lick. Cheaper tickets perhaps out door event. The esplanade for both Fairday and the Pride afterparty.

Better Committee Skills and Attitudes

• Elect a committee that is vibrant and reflective of the community. A committee that listens to the community and delivers what it wants.
• Don't appear elitist and get their egos checked before becoming committee members.
• More experience on the committee in regards to managing events. Maybe contract the work out to a local entertainment business.
• Get people with the skills necessary to manage the organisation.
• Try to attract some experienced committee members with financial expertise.
• Stop being jumped up idiots and give the community what it wants and not what a few wannabes think we should have.
• A committee run by people with demonstrated business aptitude.
• Don't allow volunteers to manage Pride's finances - the treasurer should be someone with a history of successful accounting.
• Ensure that it has a responsive committee and that all monies raised are accounted for and audited on a regular basis. The current committee should step down and a more open election should take place.
• At least two proven business people on the committee with skills in marketing / PR and finance management. Also a realisation that when places like the The Court hold a great Pride Parade Party 500 yads from the Parade - why would someone think we would all travel to the Race Course. It's this sort of decision making which needs to be professionalised.
• Choose committee members that are their for the right reasons.
• Qualified people on the committee, or access to specialists, to ensure appropriate budgeting & planning.
• Change the committee and make sure that there is a checks and balances in place so that this stuff up doesn't happen again. The committee members should at least know what their doing and if not doing it be replaced.
• Have professional people with appropriate experience in the key roles, eg treasurer = accountant, president = CEO, etc.
• Attract a committee with appropriate skills and expertise.
• Having a leadership and Board that runs its affairs strictly in accordance with all rules - government, financial and its own constitution.
• Leave this to the experts - certainly a more professional approach by the committee members is required.
• Better Management and choice in decision making regarding events.
• A professional committee that isn\t swayed by personality or personal preference (not saying that's what has happened). Preferably run by professionals who have business experience.
• Complete overhaul of its committee, sourcing appropriate expertise and end to irrelevant social politics
• It is inconceivable given the previous failure of Mardi Gras that Pride commit the same mistakes. Accountability rests with the Board.
• Get a strong experienced committee.
• Make sure that there is a strong leadership team with office holders competent for the positions held. Work with queer friendly business and government agencies to get sponsorship and funding that will allow for employment of a few paid staff - make sure this paid staff are competent.
• Ensure the committee is made up of suitably qualified and experienced people.
• Selecting experienced committee members.
• The institution of a professional committee rather than a popular committee as has occurred in the past.
• More experienced community members overseeing the running of the organisation, especially the budget.
• A Board of directors that have experience in the industry as well as including members of the community.
• Set up a structure that attracts good people to the committee.

Listen / Consult / Work With Community / Members

• Ensure that all members of the Community have an input both financial and other.
• Listen to all parts of the community.
• Relationship building with community stakeholders
• Greater involvement of other community groups in the GLBTI community, including gay groups from the country.
• The committee needs to be more business focussed and get with the times, they need to understand what is happening in the wider community and how other organisations hold and promote events.
• Listen to the community.
• Listening to ALL of the members, and not just the select few.
• Involve the gay and lesbian community more. By that I mean, let us know more about what you do, how to become a member, more surveys like this that let us have a say etc. I'm 27 I have lived in Perth for 5 years now and I know nothing about what Pride does, apart from Fairday, the Parade and the Pride party. I don't know how you become a member of Pride. I have heard that you have to be invited by a current member and if that is true then it is utterly ridiculous. Another thing to do would be to organise events that cater to a lot more of the community.
• Make Pride activities more varied. Encourage younger members to become board members/committee. Lose the cliques. Throw a decent Pride party @ a decent venue instead of more boring nightclub style events. Talk to community members everywhere. Look at grass roots support and actually asking the community what they think rather than a select few who sometimes have their own agendas. Lets become relevant and vibrant again!
• Working in conjunction with other GLBTIQ community organisations, such as, GLCS.
• A more united GLBTI community, with more emphasis on togetherness and inclusion rather than segregation of the various GLBTI segments of the community and competing events - eg. Pride Party vs lesbians only dance-party, and Climaxx vs WoofClub vs Xes vs Pride Party vs Court vs Connections - more community inclusion and a united Pride Committee in Pride WA.
• Needs to consult with the community to see what they want.
• Committee members who listen!!
• I feel the Pride committee should be more visible and approachable within the community. At the moment to me they are just names and pictures in the magazines. More surveys need to be carried out to get the feelings of the community.
• There seems to be division between Gays and Lesbians. We are one community yet the divisions during recent year has led to a lack of support across all functions. One function for all. All attend!
• Consult the community about how to proceed in the future. This survey is a start. Plan ahead: Pride's the same time every year and yet year in year out it runs around trying to arrange things last minute, ad hoc, buggered up.
• A committee that is in touch with the whole gay community, not just the scene queens.
• Get the whole community more involved - more family events, country events perhaps to include other groups besides the partying crowd.
• Listen to the communities wants. Look for inspiration, ideas and lessons learned by Pride in other cities.
• Increased community involvement. For people to help put back into what they benefit from.
• Maybe have people walking around the clubs or events and asking people what they like and where they like to hang out and why.
• Using people who are in the gay community, and the business they work with.

Organisation Reform

• Needs to maybe think of changing the constitution to allow longer periods or tenure for the pride committee positions. Maybe the staggered election of various positions.
• Getting a business to patronise it and underwrite getting an events company to run events focussing on the purpose of Pride, that is ensuring a consolidated GLBTIQ community that has rights protected and voice heard dispensing with the current committee structure and encouraging a community council made up of participating community group representatives.
• Pride should be run by a gay business group who know what they are doing. Events should be contracted out to people who know how to do them. Pride should not run events when there is a great risk of loss due to lack of knowledge and experience.
• Pride needs to change its Governance Model.
• Having someone permanently appointed (perhaps paid, pt time) who understands how to run a business, and develops a strong business model to guide the committee.
• I believe that it is poor practice to have only one committee managing and running Pride. I think there should be a Board that determine overall planning and strategic directions, and who approve the actions and spending of the Committee. The committee could then concentrate on doing the events etc and would not be allowed to get themselves into the financial position they have as the board would not allow it.
• Don't get into be financial problems eg. use a shell company for risky stuff.
• Merging with like minded organisations so that we can go into the future with greater community strength.
• Pride has to change its structure. We can not live in the past.
• Maintain community focus as primary objective but create business niche to sustain financial security. An actual office meeting area of its own is paramount to generate interest and community involvement rather than it being a 'floating' organisation and no-one being able to keep up with what's going on unless they seek out info.
• Two paid part time officers running all the key planning and accounting functions together with an interviewed voluntary committee whose work is overseen by the officers and an advisory committee of ex co-presidents.
• An informed, professional (paid) business adviser to be involved in planning.
• A paid administrator who knows what they are doing.
• Use one of the successful east coast models to mimic their success.
• I think that the co presidents should have alternating terms to allow the valuable committee knowledge to be passed on.
• Employ a general manager to manage the day-to-day operations of the organisation.
• Total restructure.
• Get a Management Consultant to look at the organisation - Fiscal Prudence is essential - strong community and sponsor relations - commercialisation of pink dollar to the mass market (unfortunate but a must)- a strong leadership and the removal of consensus decision making.
• The gender makeup of the board should reflect gender makeup of membership and pride event participants.
• A change of committee structure and need to change membership campaign to somehow get most of the community to become members.
• Work to ensure continuity of experience in board members and raise professionalism of organisation as a whole.
• Change the Board election process so that nominees face a "yes/no" ballot rather than automatically elect someone (as currently happens) in the event that there are fewer nominees than positions. Encourage nominees to provide a CV and list areas of expertise they bring to the Board. Good intentions are not good enough! Pride needs experienced and competent Board members to prosper.

More Sponsorship

• Getting support from a range of businesses.
• The government has to recognize that more people attend the Pride Parade than the Christmas parade, and should assist with funding accordingly.
• Understand politics: why is that parades in other cities such as in developing countries (namely Indonesia, Brazil, Argentina, amongst others) get not only governmental approval, but also 'sponsorship' from the local council?
• Gain some long term funding through from such things as major project funding - ie event sponsorship, If the Northbridge businesses won't contribute when they are the ones who benefit from the Parade, move the Parade to Mount Lawley. Get into the student movement in the uni's and go hard for a portion of union fees for gay events and then use those to raise money for the Fairday or the Parade. Have a dollar jar at connections that people put change into - get creative about ways to make money!
• Keeping the sponsors happy. Make sure that nothing happens that might make them want to back out and let Pride go so downhill again.
• More sponsors.
• Maybe seek help from the community (business & social groups) to actively participate in fund raising.
• Government, community and stakeholder support - perhaps in the form of funding contracts?
• I think we should perhaps get more sponsors, like magazines, politicians, etc.
• Attracting adequate sponsorship
• Get corporate sponsorship for Fairday.
• Working with community and business to get better sponsorship for each event they stage is most important just for them to exist. Use sponsorship to help cover costs of events.
• They should encourage businesses to donate services to lower the cost spent by the Pride Committee - possibly ask for a part of the profit from special Pride events hosted by The Court and Connections.
• Gain Government support and funding to establish understanding in the community and continued financial support.

Define / Promote Pride's Role

• I would like to see the "Gay & Lesbian" put back into the pride title.
• Actually promoting its relevance and viability amongst the LGBTI community with to aim of increasing membership and community support (both financial & in-kind).
• Focus on unifying lesbians and gays under one banner. The community is not large enough to support events for every splinter group.
• Flexibility while maintaining a strong sense of identity. I think it would be beneficial to incorporate a strong arts influence as well, eg, exhibitions on sexuality, identity, queer, etc. Arts can influence and inform all areas of Perth communities as well as help generate debate across a wider spectrum.
• The one thing that scares me out of becoming involved with Pride is the seemingly forced agenda that underlies some events. From my (clearly limited) point of view, there needs to be a distinction between "beating the drum" and gay culture in general. I know the fight for equality and tolerance is a passionate cause for many people in the gay community, but all I really want is to be on neutral ground where I don't need to make any overt declarations about my sexuality. I'd like to see either all members of the community (gay and straight) embracing "camp culture" (see: Boombox) or for the gay community to tone it down a little. Enough of the sleaze. I don't want to see anymore ugly men dancing around shirtless. I really don't know what this has to do with Pride, but I started writing a response to that question and this is where I ended up.
• Becoming a stronger icon. People only know what they can see, touch, smell etc. The Court and Connies are icons for gay people, but allot of people don't know what Pride is or what they exactly do.
• Revisiting why Pride began in the first place without focusing on the money making ventures.
• What is Pride's purpose - is it a lobby group or social group?
• It should find out what its purpose is, is it still relevant to the Perth gay & lesbian community. Once that has been done then it can provide that service. Currently it seems to provide a service that we all used in our 20s but is completely useless now we are in our 30s & 40s.
• Greater exposure within the whole Perth community.
• Needs to get back to its basics, its roots as a movement for justice and recognition for GLBTQI people and not just a party organiser.
• Redesign its vision and mission statement.
• Pride needs to stop looking backward but instead look forward. Be proud of us for being us. We don't need a Parade to rub into other people's faces us. A Fairday is all we need because it's about us. Its about getting together and having a great day.
• Pride seems to focus heavily on the provision of entertainment to the community. While this is important, I think that such a well known organisation could promote a deeper awareness of gay and lesbian issues in the community. Pride ought to take a leading role in the assessment of the community's needs and work towards ensuring that these needs are met, either through Pride directly, or by highlighting and publicising the work of other organisations.
• Stop trying to copy Sydney. What does Fairday and the Parade achieve? Just do stuff for our community. Leave gaining rights and making a statement to GALE, etc. A you a social organisation or a political one?
• Money earned is better spent on worthwhile causes that the greater community will benefit from to encourage them to contribute.
  

More Events

• More party/club events to raise dollars for Pride.
• I would like to see a bigger festival, incorporating film, art exhibitions, theatre, music, really bringing together a month of Pride focus.
• Increased range of interest - provide for older lesbians and think outside of the city!!!!
• Make Perth more exciting!
• More events throughout the year, so therefore more chances to raise money for Pride and also more opportunities to let everyone know about it.
• Conduct events which are unique and not in competition with other similar events. Ensure costs of events are reasonable and the fee represents good value. Encourage broad membership and other sources of finance to support ongoing fixed costs without having to rely solely on a fickle dance market to support an organisation.
• More music events rather than a non-interactive parade.
• More community based projects throughout the year.
• Maybe add some more fundraisers during the year - have more special events at The Court.
• Get back to basics and the community. Simple gatherings of wide variety - Fairday, movie screenings of gay movies. Sport and recreation - be pro active in getting our community fitter and balance eg yoga or wellbeing.
• Supporting more events.

Increase Membership

• Make membership mandatory.
• Give people a reason to become a member in the first place. We need more reasons than $3 off a movie ticket. There needs to be more social involvement.
• Increase membership and actively seek greater support from the business supported by the GLBT community.
• Broader appeal to increase membership.
• I believe all gays and lesbians should be given free membership to Pride.... or maybe the price of one of those rubber wrist bands. This would put pride "out there" and give more promotion to all pride events.
• Promote membership more.
• Encouraging membership.
• I wasn't aware of the financial problems. Revenue might be increased by attracting more members and/or a marginal increase of membership fees together with offering more benefits or benefits more relevant to members, including couples. With a mortgage and a long term partner, I don\'t have a lot of disposable income to spend on drinks at pubs/nightclubs and dance parties and these events aren\'t always couple friendly. Pride exists to keep the community together and needs stronger ties with other solid clubs and organisations, including the gay tennis and outdoor clubs, queer fm and the aids council. Gay men are often more educated than straights and pride also needs to reach out and make affiliations with organisations for the arts and sciences. Offer members discounts for ballet, orchestra, drama and museums. Promote these on Queer FM and the pride website. Include arts and science events in the pride festival, establish a mentoring program for members 17-25, have a science and art competition, and include these in the pride festival. The pride website has improved a lot over the last few years. To reduce costs, the website plus email and queer fm could be the focus of news dissemination rather than mail outs, particularly the pride festival guide which looks expensive to produce. Do it as pdf and mail out only to those who request it. As the community at large becomes more accepting of us we need to integrate more. We need to keep together and also become part of the wider community with high profile events that give us good media coverage. Fair day and the Pride Festival do this and with a bit of imagination we could have more events that mean more to more members. For example, do we have a Mr Gay Perth competition? And could this competition focus on an individual's contribution to the community rather than just their looks?
• Look at why membership is low. Make membership and events relevant to the community. Maybe the organisation is out of touch with what the community requires.
• Open up the membership - get rid of the nomination requirement - and clearly identify what is relevant to the majority of the community.
• Increased relevance to the community so that even those who are just a little that way inclined feel the need to join.
• Make it easier to become a member. Not needing to know another pride member would have allowed me to join.
• Develop your membership and tackle important issues that concern our community. Do some more promoting about what you are about and what you offer as we are not clear about this.

Integrate with Mainstream Community

• Work more closely with the local media to ensure that Fairday is 'normalised' as opposed to representing the extreme fringe.
• Integrate with the wider community. Join with Artrage or another relevant festival. Pride should realise that the age of homosexuals feeling the need to segregate and differentiate is over. We are now, well and truly an integral part of mainstream society. Whilst we should celebrate and honour the past, the future is already here.
• Pride Parade and Fairday still seem to attract large crowds. Society is changing and most gay organizations have suffered a drop in attendances. Perhaps we need to research what works best in the hetro community and copy it?
• Get the straight community involved and make events "straight-friendly" so that more people will participate.
• Ensuring that everyone is welcome to join in and support the community.
• Try to show the wider community we are no different from them. That there are many of us "hidden" which they have no idea about. Example co-workers or neighbours with are not openly out to everyone. More about these people because the wider community sometimes have had no experience (or think they haven't) with gay people and therefore have stereotypical perceptions of who we really are...and this does not reflect our community. I\'m not saying anything "stereotypical" about us should change but try to bring the other side out as well. I don't know how this will help fund raising... but it may change the perception of us from the wider community, which may in turn mean wider recognition and more support.
• Its time that we realised that our community has changed. We are now welcome and safe in large number of events and venues. We should integrate the Pride Festival, Parade and Parties with Artrage as an alternative Festival of Perth. The Pride Parade could be come the love parade, truly celebrating all sexualities.

Fewer Events

• To organise the events that no one else will ie: Fairday and Parade. There will always be bars and clubs to have a drink in after, and these seem to be the areas where pride looses money.
• Cut back on extravagant dance parties. Massive venues which we just don't fill anymore are an incredible waste of money and don't service a wide demographic like Fairday for example.
• Maybe focus on less events through the year and do it properly, maybe working with The Court and Connections so that there is nothing else on the night Pride holds events.
• Be less ambitious - a month festival is too long in Perth. Be more strategic - Fairday is very popular so make this the centrepiece. Have the Pride Party at the Court and request a cut from the ticket sales. The Parade should be less political and more about celebrating diversity.
• Refocus so that it manages a small number of events well instead of many badly.
• I would reduce the overall size of the event and focus on 2-3 good quality high profile mixed events and try to work better and involve the straight community

• A strong business plan.
• Create a long term strategic plan so we don't hear the same thing each year, (we lost more money) we need to set a budget like any organisation and stick to it, even if it means downscaling some things.
• A Business Plan (which includes a realistic balance between community input and sponsorship), a more professional committee and a change in committee structure and focus. And dare I say... A budget!
• Do not pursue without appropriate business and project planning. Identify what initiatives are to be a\"community service obligation" or must have and ensure that other initiatives can cover the cost. It is a financial enterprise and someone has to pay for it if these things are going to go ahead, strive and survive
• Have a defined business plan that member are aware of and stick to it.

• Appeal to the younger ones, and find their support, we may be young and sometimes broke but we still have money for alcohol so surely there should be money to support this cause. It's about priorities and selfishness.
• Nurturing the younger members, both who are financial or community attached. Encouraged them and give them the opportunity to shape Pride & its direction.
• More under 18 events.

• Using professional event coordinators who can be held directly accountable for financial losses!
• Marketing for the events, make it easier to buy tickets. Reduce queues for entry.
• Better event management.

Age

Which of the following age groups do you fall into?

Respondents answered:

Gender 

What is your gender?

Respondents answered:

Comments (6)

Well done!
written by Anita cocktail, January 24, 2008 - 2:28:10 pm CST

What a great community service. Thanks GIWA!
This is a really clearly understood analysis of the survey.

I'd be interested to see if gender identity made any difference across the board as to where people enjoyed their cocktails.

Informed decision making,you might just start a trend here...

bottoms up!

There is hope :-)
written by Israel Henriques, January 24, 2008 - 3:02:17 pm CST

All the best with raising the funds that are desperately needed to help save Pride.

Iz

Surprising gender breakdown
written by David, January 24, 2008 - 9:08:40 pm CST

As I was carefully reading through the numeric analysis and then all the categorised written responses I was feeling 'geeze, must have been nearly all female respondents', until right at the end it is shown it was nearly 58% male!!! Shows how out of touch I must be .. lol

Anyway, great effort gayinwa crew.

Wow...
written by Tim D, January 25, 2008 - 12:26:08 am CST

"The parade is too political!"...

HAHAHAH. What a fool. Is that not the point of the parade, it's about rights, equality and getting the word out there... not leaping about in spandex pants.

...
written by Ash, January 25, 2008 - 2:21:10 pm CST

Get the court connies to pay for the debt, everyone knows they make 100x your debt over the weekend.

show me the money
written by Skip R, January 30, 2008 - 4:24:21 am CST

50% of the survey demographic were ages 35-55. I suspect they are not the regular pubs and clubs people and THEY are an untapped gold mine - all pride needs is to offer "value for money" and I and many others will join. The under 35's - well they more likely to go for discounted drinks, fab dance parties and party drugs but the latter is outside of Pride's scope.

(These are, of course, generalizations and do not apply to everyone, we all enjoy different things at different stages of life :-)

You must be logged in to post a comment. Please register if you do not have an account yet.