Fate of future New Westminster pride events threatened by staffing woes
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This year about 25,000 people celebrated pride at the annual New Westminster Street Festival, enjoying a galore of food trucks and even special performances from RuPaul’s Drag Race superstars.
However, pride events like these may come to an end in the city.
The New West Pride Society, which runs events like the street festival and plans fundraisers for the local LGBTQ2S+ community, is facing a very real risk of shutting down.
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The society posted a letter on its Instagram admitting, “While there is much pride for what the society has accomplished, the society experiences significant challenges around maintaining Executive and Board members due to burnout.”
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The society is entirely run by a volunteer board of eight to 14 people currently.
“It has become especially clear this year, that the current volunteer model is no longer sustainable,” the letter continues. “For the New West Pride Society to move forward, it will need to be re-imagined by securing reliable sources of funding to hire permanent staff and/or will need to considerably scale back Pride Week and the New West Street Festival to something that is more realistic for volunteers to execute.”
The society added it published with the intention of being transparent that there are currently no applicants for any of the four New West Pride Executive Positions: president, vice president, secretary and treasurer.
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While the society said volunteers help during community events and the Street Festival are the reason for so much success, without the executive positions filled the society cannot operate as per the BC Societies Act.
“We are needing people with the time and capacity who can take on the challenge of reimagining what the New West Pride Society could look like while creating processes and systems to move the society from a volunteer board to having paid staff with board support,” the letter reads.
Without these positions filled, the New West Pride Society may shut down after its annual general meeting coming up on Tuesday, September 20.
If you are interested or have additional questions regarding the available positions email [email protected].
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