By Chris Armstrong
Ottawa’s Pride Committee is trying to put internal disorganization behind it to prepare for a better parade next June.
The Pride Committee elected a new executive at its annual general meeting last week.
The committee, a gay and lesbian group, organizes the Pride parade in Ottawa. It does everything from fundraising to advertising for the event.
This year, many local businesses and volunteers complained about the lack of organization within the committee, which they say caused a lacklustre parade.
“There were too many people doing too many things,” says storeowner Robert Giacobbdi.
His store, Wilde’s, sold tickets to the Rainbow Party, a post-parade bash at Landsdowne Park. There was one person dropping off the tickets and another coming in to pick up the cash, says Giacobbdi. This caused some confusion.
This year, the committee failed to get a permit to allow the party to run until 2 a.m. and had to close down the party an hour early.
The planning error angered people, 40 of whom went to Giacobbdi’s store to demand their money back.
Sue Dunton, a volunteer, says the executives didn’t follow the advice of local businesses. She says Pride not only lost money, but also lost goodwill and faith.
At the committee’s annual meeting on Oct. 4 there was some goodwill missing.
Tempers were lukewarm for most of the three-hour meeting, but every so often two or three members would speak at once while the executives tried to keep things under control.
Inner quarrels in the past have raised the issue of bringing in a “harassment advisor.” This person, hired from outside the committee, would solve peer problems to ensure things run smoothly.
However, the decision of whether to hire an advisor was delayed because some members did not want someone from outside the committee analysing their internal problems.
A budget discussion was also delayed because the auditor had not yet submitted his report.
Also, during the elections, there was a lot of discussion about whether or not the candidates should be questioned before the vote.
Yet amid the temporary temper flares, there were spontaneous bouts of laughter. The meeting was tence at times, relaxed at others.
As for the disorganization problems, both the past chair and the current chair say they don’t exist.
Cecil Turcotte, former chair of the committee, says compared to other community, non-profit organizations, the Pride Committee is not disorganized.
He says there needs to be coordination between all volunteers so things will run smoothly.
Peter Bishop, the new chair, says it was more of a communication breakdown between the executive and the volunteers.
He says these problems will be discussed in private before they are addressed at the community consultations meeting, to be held Oct. 17.
After the meeting came to a close, Bishop said the Pride Committee must move on and focus on the next Pride parade, rather than dwell on last year’s errors.