Board Meeting Minutes 7/12/26

Aug 3

Ashland Kentucky Pride Meeting Minutes

Sunday, July 12, 2026

Call to Order

A private Annual Board Meeting of Ashland Kentucky Pride was held on July 12, 2026 at the Ashland branch of the Boyd County Public Library. It began at 1:45 pm and was presided over by Holly Blevins with Jenee Kesling as secretary.

Attendees

Board Members in Attendance

Jenee, Holly, Taz, Heather, Andrew, Chris

Board Members Absent

none

Quorum: Yes

Special Items

Changes to Policies & Procedures presented by Andrew
- Added language to allow immediate removal of member via board vote
  - We should make a template for ‘letter of dismissal’ for members
    - We need to track down the one Sean made for previously removed member
- Added “or to disparage AKP” (Section 1A)
- Adjustments to verbiage of drug and alcohol policy
- Added alcohol to drug use/addiction policy
- Holly made a motion to accept Andrew’s suggested changes to the Policies and Procedures. Heather seconded. Motion passed.
Bylaws
- Andrew has some grammar edits
- Need to roll back or reword sections relating to events and membership qualifications due to changes in events committee and organizational focus
- Make changes and present at member meeting to get general membership vote
Re-evaluation of the organization’s focus
- We need to find our way; we've lost focus on what's really important to us
- Less events and more advocacy work
- Our original purpose was the Fairness Ordinance
- Everyone agreed on less events. We don’t have the manpower to keep up, and people are not attending
  - Events did not help with base building. Maybe advocacy work will
  - Possibly still do 1 event per month such as Found Family, hikes, Gayme Night… just to stay in touch with the community
- More focus on Y’all Means All and less on Safe Zone
- Everyone agreed our new focus is on advocacy, community and helping others
- Add advocacy and harm reduction to events
- Pull articles about advocacy and change from Queer Ky and repost to socials
- Public announcement or just start doing the work?
  - Do we need to announce our intentions?
  - Some feel its unnecessary, others feel we should say something
  - Possibly make the announcement in tandem with new meeting event
  - We will draft something together as a group in chat over the next week
- Resources to work on: housing and HRT doctors, therapist, affirming doctors
Local Pride Coalition
- Holly would like to start a coalition with local pride groups to share resources and band together
- We could have a mixer with local pride orgs. Meet and greet with other boards
- What support can we give each other? Every group may have strengths that other groups could benefit from.