Public Meeting Minutes 10/5/25
Ashland Kentucky Pride Meeting Minutes
Sunday, October 5, 2025
Call to Order
A public meeting of Ashland Kentucky Pride was held on October 5th, 2025 at the Midland Branch of the Boyd Co Public Library. It began at 1:30pm and was presided over by Holly Blevins with Jenee Kesling as secretary (virtual) and Hollyn-Reid assisting.
Attendees
Board Members in Attendance: Holly (she/her), Jenee (she/her)[Virtual], Taylor (she/her), Sean (he/him), Desire’ (she/her), Lu (she/her), Taz (she/her), Brontë (she/her)
Board Members Absent: Heather (she/her), Elliot (he/they)
Quorum: Yes General Members:
Approval of minutes
Holly made a motion to accept the meeting minutes for the month of September. Sean seconded. Motion approved.
Treasurer's Report
Holly made a motion to receive the treasurer’s report for the month of September. Sean seconded. Motion approved.
Paypal: $1609.15 People’s: $5,893.11
Outgoing:
$40 for the October events sign
$30 for the temp vendor license for Poage Landing
$10 for the temp vendor license for October first Friday
$114.54 for tonight’s Autumn Gnome craft night (approved budget was $115)
$1150.68 total for the merch we got for Poage Landing
(Total of $1345.22 was reimbursed to Taylor via PayPal after the meeting for these expenses)
Incoming:
$1232 gross from Poage Landing
$66 gross from October first Friday
($665 cash from those events combined was given to Holly by Taylor to deposit)
Special Items
None
Committee Reports
Y’all Means All
Scheduled meetings every two weeks, 5-8pm every other tuesday, midland branch, study room 115.
Des updated lists. Removed closed businesses, updated names, ect
Looking for new ways to link the list to the website for live updates
Currently using airtable. Hollyn will look into other ways.
The business list has been updated within the Google Drive, but not Airtable (the program used to embed the YMA list onto AshlandPride.com)
Bronte suggested embedding links to direct site visitors to YMA business sites. The suggestion was found favorable. Hollyn-Reid and Desire agreed to collaborate on updating the website business list.
Safe Zone Training
Next training Oct 19, zoom
Last two trainings have had zero participants
Need to reach out to yma businesses and start signing them up for the training
Promote more on social media
A form for preregistration has been set up. Hollyn-Reid requested access to the form to make it accessible on the website.
Events:
Event Planning Committee
October events finalized
7th - Craft Night: Autumn Gnomes, 5:30 - 8, Ashland Branch
9th - Game Night, 6-8, Goblin Traders
12th - Trail Gayzers: Hiking at Armco Park, 3pm
17th - Group trip to Louisa Haunted House
Sean has a google form for the haunted house. Everyone needs to buy tickets for the same time so everyone can enter together. AKP Fallsburg Fearplex Google Form
18th - Pumpkin Carving at Central Park shelter B, 3pm
20th - Game Night at the Midland Branch, 5:30-8pm
25th - Tabling at Huntington Pride, 3-11pm
Fees for tabling are higher this year
Taylor made a motion to go forward with tabling the event, Holly seconded. Motion approved,
Holly will register us to table
Jen, Jenee, Chris, Holly, and Andrew will be running the table
27th - Social Sips at Farmer’s Daughter, 5:30-7pm
31st - The Gays Invade: Halloween Party at The Mill
Nov and Dec will have less events due to the holidays. November:
2nd - AKP Monthly Meeting at the Midland Branch, 1:30pm
4th - Game Night at the Ashland Branch, 5:30-8pm
6th - Craft Night: Paramount tree at the Ashland Branch, 5:30-8pm
9th - Tea Party at the Midland Branch, 1:30-4pm
11th - Craft Night: Paramount tree at the Ashland Branch, 5:30-8pm
15th - Friendsgiving at the Midland Branch, 1-4:30pm
25th - Christmas Parade
Parade float construction will be held at Taylor’s house. More details to come
The tea party in Feb now has to be a minimum of 4 hrs
Taylor made a motion to increase the tea party budget to $200. Holly seconded. Motion approved.
Christmas Parade - 7' x 20' flatbed trailer that we're going to be pulling. The parade theme is Music Notes and Christmas Floats, so our float is going to be Don We Now Our Gay Apparel.
Festival of Trees and trains - For the 6ft tree, Taylor estimates a 140-150 budget
Taylor made a motion for a $200 budget for The Festival of Trees and Trains. Holly seconded. Motion approved.
Holigay
Friday Dec 12th, evening
Same as last year. Hot chocolate, cookies, story reading
Masquerade Ball
Holly got a date set. Boyd co convention center, April 3, maybe around 6 or 7
Holly’s husband can DJ, Taz can line up performers
Holly has to ask about alcohol sales
Pride Picnic
Trying to lock in May 23rd
Everything will be the same as last year
Media:
Social Media
Poage Landing posts got a ton of views
Newsletter
Oct issue will be finalized soon
Elliot wrote a piece about his mom
Hollyn is looking for photographs to add
Hollyn encourages anyone to contact him with pictures, ideas, or writings they would like in future newsletters
Taz requested to write an ad seeking writers for a lifestyle column in the Newsletter. It was agreed upon by Hollyn-Reid
Hollyn-Reid met a man who used to work in magazine publishing and writing at Poage Landing Days who showed interest in volunteering with the newsletter. He has gotten in touch and is waiting for a response
Website
Hollyn-Reid took over webmaster responsibilities and updated the website design and content. New pages were added, specifically a backlog for the newsletter, and outdated content was either updated or removed.
He reported that since Poage Landing Days, the site traffic had increased a marginal amount. As well, since the website update, the “bounce rate” (the percentage of visitors who leave a website after viewing only one page) had gone down. The majority of visitors found the page on their mobile devices, off of Google.
Major updates, fixed links, adding newsletter backlogs, contact us forms refurbished, updated color scheme, moved some things around
Can yma list become links to their business?
Should be able to with it embedded from airtable
Hollyn fixed the mobile aspects so its easier to view on mobile
Bronte reported that the first link on Google led to a dead site–Hollyn-Reid reviewed the information and determined that the first Google result sends visitors to a page on the site that no longer exists. It was recommended that the page be set to redirect to the live homepage while Hollyn-Reid reviews Squarespace’s SEO (Search Engine Optimization) procedures.
All communication forums were tested–Ashland Pride can be contacted via the webpage. All emails associated with administrative privileges on the website should receive all communications sent from the online forums.
Hollyn-Reid requested that the event calendar graphics made for the social media team also be sent to him, for use on the website
Hollyn-Reid requested that documentation (photographs, memories, written statements, newspaper clippings and articles, etc.) regarding the history of the Pride Picnic, as well as the Ashland Pride organization, be sent to him for use on the website.
Misc
Youth Pride
none
Community Survey
none
Fundraising/Sponsorship
Always be on the look out for grants
Unfinished Business
None
New Business
Merch Store and T-Shirts
Our designs have been uploaded to the threadless shop
Options for items such as shirts, mousepads, skateboards…
Print my threads is setting up an online store with our updated logo
Black with Ashland Pride logo with rainbow gradient
The more we sell, the less we spend
We need to push on social media to sell them
After event, we will do a bulk order for everyone to get a shirt (All board members and active members that frequent events)
Taxes
Holly is in contact with H&R Block to consult about the 990 Tax Form; issues raised with the group’s tax exempt non-profit status
Misc
Andrew inquired about TCCC (Tactical Combat Casualty Care) training in preparation for the Pride Picnic. Holly reported that Ashland Pride has already paid for the spot to have such a training, and just needs to get it scheduled.
Feb we are doing a pride beer with eridanus. We may go serve beer for tips as a fundraiser
Board meeting at Bellafonte this evening at 5.
Announcements
October 7th, 5:30 - 8:00 pm – Art in the Park: Autumn Gnomes
October 9th, 6:00 - 8:00 pm – Game Night at Goblin Traders in Ironton
Ocotber 11th, 5:00 pm - Huntington Pride Pageant
October 12th, 3:00 pm - Trail Gayzers: Hiking at Armco Park
October 15th, 7:00 - 8:00 pm - LGBTQIA+ Council of the Ky Democratic Party Monthly Meeting
October 17th - Group trip to Louisa Haunted House
October 18th, 3:00 pm - Pumpkin Carving at Central Park shelter B
October 19th, 1:00 pm - Safe Zone Training (Virtual)
October 20th, 5:30 - 8:00 pm - Game Night at the Midland Branch
October 25th, 3:00 - 11:00 pm - Huntington Pride
October 27th, 5:30 - 7:00 pm - Social Sips at Farmer’s Daughter
October 31st - The Gays Invade: Halloween Party at The Mill
November 2nd, 1:30 pm - AKP Monthly Meeting at the Midland Branch
November 4th, 5:30 - 8:00 pm - Game Night at the Ashland Branch
November 6th, 5:30 - 8:00 pm - Craft Night: Paramount tree at the Ashland Branch
November 9th, 1:30 - 4:00 pm - Tea Party at the Midland Branch
November 11th, 5:30 - 8:00 pm - Craft Night: Paramount tree at the Ashland Branch
November 15th, 1:00 - 4:30 pm - Friendsgiving at the Midland Branch
November 16th, 1:30 - 4:30 pm - Safe Zone Training
November 19th, 7:00 - 8:00 pm - LGBTQIA+ Council of the Ky Dem Party Monthly Meeting
November 25th - Christmas Parade
Adjournment
Holly made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 2:45 pm. Sean seconded. Motion approved.
