Public Meeting Minutes 4/6/25

Written By Pride Team

Ashland Kentucky Pride Meeting Minutes

Sunday, April 6, 2025


Call to Order

A public meeting of Ashland Kentucky Pride was held on April 6, 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.


Attendees

Board Members in Attendance: Holly (she/her), Desire’ (she/her), Jenee (she/her), Taz (she/her), Taylor (she/her)[Virtual], Heather (she/her)

Board Members Absent:  Sean (he/him), Brontë (she/her), Elliot (he/they),  Lu (she/her)

Quorum: Yes General Members: 8


Approval of minutes

Holly made a motion to accept the meeting minutes for the month of March.  Des seconded. Motion approved.


Treasurer's Report

Holly made a motion to receive the treasurer’s report for the month of March. Des seconded. Motion approved. 

Paypal: $4,595.67 

People’s: $1,706.47 (+309.53 in old account)

(Holly also has a $100 check from Safe Harbor and some cash to be deposited)

Special Items

None

Committee Reports

Fundraising/Sponsorship requests (general)

  • None

Y’all Means All 

  • Meeting: Tuesday April 8, 6pm at Des’s House

Safe Zone Training 

  • Zoom training in March

    • Went well

    • Not a great turn out

    • Need to promote better

      • Make FB events earlier

      • Hollyn can advertise at the libraries if we send him flyers 

Community Survey

  • Holly will share it again this week

Found Family

  • 4/26 - Pride Park Walk

    • This event is getting a lot of traction. We should try doing more events like this (walking/hiking) outside of FF. Maybe once a month (or more if there is a want)

  • 6/7 - Pride on the Farm 

Pride Picnic

  • Leadership updates

    • Event Organizers (Holly and Heather) 

      • Holly and Heather will meet Monday with James 

    • Media Coordinator (Sean) 

      • working on publicizing and contacting news outlets

    • Volunteer Coordinator (Lu) 

      • Holly reposted ‘volunteers wanted’

      • Holly will get the google form info to Lu

    • Vendor Coordinator (Jenee)

      • Need 5 food trucks total

      • First Congressional Church needs 2 spaces

      • Kentucky Embraces You is a grassroots, volunteer funded group that has requested a donated space to help them raise money for Camp Beacon

        • Yes, donate space and some of our ticket sales 

      • UK said “We would love to be able to provide point of care HIV and Hep C treatment if possible” 

        • Should be fine as long as they are licensed 

    • Talent Coordinator (Taz)

      • All performers booked, bios/photos turned in

      • MC will be Zoee Mochenelle. They need to submit a bio/photo

      • Speakers: Maybe Willy Carver (also needs a vendor spot), Zo, maybe Chris Hartman if Holly can get him

      • Get speakers locked in and then decide how much time performers get or if we need an extra performer. Zoee can also perform if needed. 

      • Taz needs to know when and how to submit music ahead of time. Holly will ask and get with Taz 

      • Holly will secure renting the stage

      • Talent should be at the picnic by noon for sounds check

      • Code of conduct should be signed and submitted before the picnic 

    • Security Liaison (Holly) 

      • Getting the $3400 package

      • Holly and Heather will meet with James Monday to talk about the plan in more detail

      • James hasn’t seen any talk about protesting online

    • Sponsorship Coordinator (Taylor)

      • Taylor sent out over 200 packets in the mail

      • Sponsorships so far

        • $100 from Safe Harbor

        • $50 from Ramey Estep/Regroup

        • $250 People’s Bank

        • $50 from Hope’s Place

    • Sensory tent (Sophie)

      • Sophie will get materials ready but may need volunteers to run the tent day of

    • Health and Safety officer (Unassigned)

      • Need volunteers to man the tent

      • We will have an ambulance on site

  • Permits and city planning

    • Holly called last week about the first part of our application. Said they did not receive it. Had to be resubmitted. 

  • Sound engineer

    • Booked the engineer from Louisville ($500). He we the only one that seemed prepared and qualified for the job

  • QR code yard signs (Bronte) 

    • In the research phase. Looking for reputable and reliable  sources for the QR codes. Creating a thread on discord for suggestions on important points in our history. 

    • Hollyn had a list of databases/websites to pass off to Bronte  

  • Holly booked a bagpipe guy to drown out the protesters 

  • JustFund KY is sending a photographer to the event

  • Next Steps

    • Meetings (City, James, each other)

    • Publicizing (social media, news outlets, flyers)

Unfinished Business

Girl Scout Event 

  • June 14th at the library 12-4 pm

  • Holly and Jenee will organize with the assistance of youth pride

Pride month opinion piece in the newspaper

  • Sean, Hollyn, Des, Bianca

  • 300 words or less, needs to be written and emailed to Holly asap to be ready for June. Submissions due in May. Have them ready by May 4th meeting.

Microlibrary project by Hollyn-Reid

  • Added a Death Resource Kit (How to not be dead named on your death certificate, making a will)

  • He has a workspace now so he will be collecting more physical copies of documents

  • He wants any paperwork that proves we are here. (Flyers, pictures, receipts, minutes, ANYTHING that proves we were here) 

  • Email documents or questions to ourcommunityfilingcabinet@protonmail.com

New Business

  • Heather suggested doing art in the park. She is going to contact the park about reserving a space

  • Holly wants to work on building community. More social events to bring people together.

    • To try to get more people to join us, she wants to create something, maybe a sticker, to hand out to people with our info on it. We could give them to queer people we meet in day to day life to engage more and make people feel more welcomed. 

    • Try different types of events to appeal to different people. Tabletop gaming, art in the park, hiking 

    • Be thinking of ways to encourage more engagement from the community in our fb group or possibly a separate discord server. Maybe use paid advertising to push our events. 

  • Jen would like to be part of the social media team. Holly will assist with this

  • Hollyn would like to help update the website. Holly will create a login for him.  

  • Jen suggested that pride make a Bluesky account

  • Start a media subcommittee encompassing all media outreach (social media, news outlets, zines, etc)


Announcements

Found Family Pride Park Walk - April 26, 10 am (Brunch at the Mill after)

AKP public meeting - Sunday, May 4th, 1:30 pm (Midland branch)

AKP Pride Picnic - May 17, 1 pm

Found Family Pride on the Farm - June 7, 11 am

Girl Scout Event - June 14th


Adjournment

Holly made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 3:00 pm. Des seconded. Motion approved.

Pride Team
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Public Meeting Minutes 5/4/25
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Public Meeting Minutes 3/2/25