Date: Thu, 12 Mar 1998 09:18:14 -0800 From: Eros Publishing Subject: Press Release PNWP Press Release, 11 March 1998 Contact info: Pacific Northwest Pride, 1122 East Pike Street, Suite 678, Seattle, Washington 98122 Phone: 206-346-0339 E-mail: pnwp@hotmail.com ***************************************************************** In response to vocal and consistent community dissatisfaction with Seattle's current Pride March and Rally, Pacific Northwest Pride has secured the permits and city approvals for an expanded two-day Pride Parade and Freedom Fair on the 27th and 28th of June. Exciting new changes are well underway, but the grassroots feel, accessibility, and diversity of the event have also been carefully protected: Seattle becomes the regional vanguard this year by expanding our event to a full two days long. Volunteer Park vendors and stage performers and speakers are scheduled through the evening on Both Saturday and Sunday. Sunday begins with the traditional Pride Parade on Broadway. Headline entertainment will close out the event both evenings. PNWP is committed to minimizing the financial burden of production. As GLBT people, we understand all too well the variety of worthy support groups who need our finanical support. PNWP is wholeheartedly committed to funding as much of the event as possible through corporate sponsorships and direct sales. Small business and community involvement have been missing over the years from this event. PNWP is actively working to establish good relationships with local businesses and service groups, to increase their visibility in the community and to expand the content of the event. An event of this importance to the community should be managed well and operated legally. This incorporation has filed for 501c3 status and is in the final review stages of that process. PNWP is in full compliance with licensing requirements, etc. PNWP's bylaws specifically require it to keep any profits in the GLBT community. Last year's Pride event money was donated to leftist labor causes rather than to needy local GLBT groups. PNWP has an oversight committee to ensure that this never happens again. PNWP is focused on the production of the community's vision of the event, not on the exhaustive ideological examination of the community's input. PNWP is organized under the principle that the GLBT community has a varied but easily coordinated set of ideal visions about this event, about what it means to us as individuals, and what place it holds in our histories and futures. We hold ourselves responsible for coordinating varied input, not editing that input to fit our own version of an appropriate event. PNWP values its volunteers and their diversity, as we value our own communities and their diversity. PNWP has already been delighted to work with several exceptional volunteers. PNWP was founded in part as a direct response to the oft-repeated complaints of burned-out production volunteers. PNWP is actively recruiting community input. Rather than accepting a published meeting schedule and post office box as being an adequate outreach program, PNWP is taking the lead in soliciting community comments and participation. People interested in volunteering are encouraged to attend subcommittee meetings, and people interested in sending comments or ideas (but who may not be all that interested in the actual hands-on labor) are encouraged to fill out postage-free community survey cards. Input card locations will be advertised heavily, and the campaign is scheduled to begin on or before 3 April. PNWP is a contributing member of Seattle's GLBT community. We are excited to work in coalition with the other Pride events in Seattle. We hope to work in synergism with PrideFest, the Dyke March, the Trans Rally, and other local events to avoid conflicts and increase the attendance and public impact for all of us. This year's theme is "Unity, Diversity, Equality: Pride in Progress '98". Our growth this year is a part of that that progress, which we are proud to undertake in theatomsphere of those three ideals. Although our work is not done, we are hardly at a standstill and we must not allow our communities' advances to be eroded by infighting and chaos. Monthly flyers, info cards, and short press releases are scheduled monthly. Look for community input card displays in April! Volunteers are welcome to drop by our coordination meetings, Sundays at 6 pm at Four Angels Coffeehouse, 14th and Spring. http://www.wolfenet.com/~aubrey/cage/aubrey.htm