New team takes on New West Pride

A massive loss in the New West community has been averted, with New West Pride (NWP) Society announcing a new board and directors on Tuesday, Oct. 4.

In mid-September, the society said it was in danger of closing after no one put their name forward for positions needed to ensure the group’s survival.

Realizing the urgency, Katie Stobbart wanted to help.

“It just made me feel like there was this need in the community that I could help fill, and it made me sad to see that this organization was so near closing,” Stobbart tells New West Anchor.

Stobbart also felt it was a sign the time was now, having mulled over the idea of getting more involved in pride.

“I had been thinking for a little while about putting my name forward for the board, because I have a little bit of board experience and I’m really passionate about pride. But I’d only been living here for probably about 17 months now,” she says. Stobbart previously lived in the Fraser Valley.

Stobbart says she and the board are up for the challenge, with Kevin Lee, Madeleine Gwynne, and Ross Ferguson stepping into the roles of vice-president, secretary, and treasurer, respectively. The previous group in charge of pride had noted that while the group’s growth was fantastic, it was a challenge to keep board and executive members on due to burnout.

“That’s a little bit of what drew me to the opportunity, I like a challenge and [to be able] to bring it to a position of being less stressed,” says Stobbart, who is also looking forward to bringing some new perspective to the project. “I have a lot of optimism that the fresh set of eyes aspect will see us through.”

Stobbart and the rest of the group have already hit the ground running, with Stobbart pointing out that this is very much a community group that will need the help of people in New West to continue to operate at the highest of levels.

“A couple of the things I really want to stress in terms of our goals for this year are just organizational sustainability and inclusion. I think we need to examine the structure of the organization and build a foundation that can support not just the [pride street] festival, but maybe more activities through the year,” says Stobbart, who also notes the importance of hearing from people from all walks of life. “I want to acknowledge that all but one of our board members are white, and we need to do a better job of including BIPOC members of our community, trans people; we need to pull more people from our community.”

Ultimately, Stobbart wants everyone to know they are welcome.

“Yes, there is a spot for you, and one of the challenges I think working towards inclusion is that it has to be done, nothing for us without us. We need people from diverse parts of the community, diverse parts of the queer community to come in and tell us the direction… because I can’t tell you as a white person what the correct way is to go forward.”

For now, the priority is to get the group to sustainability so people can continue to take part in pride while experiencing less stress or burnout.

“I think [putting on a street festival, other big events] is something we’re still looking at, which is not the most satisfying of answers. We are going to sit down and have a bit of strategic session and go over [things like], are there ways we can streamline these processes to make them more sustainable,” she says. “I suspect we will have a pride festival, and we will have events going on during that week in the summer, but I don’t want to promise anything because we haven’t had a chance to sit down and do planning as a board.”

Stobbart says if you’ve ever thought about getting involved in pride, anytime is a good time to do so.

“Even if they have a little bit of time to put towards the organization, or something they feel they can offer, every little bit helps. It’s a non-profit organization, and such a grassroots organization. It’s really about reaching out to the community and saying, ‘Help us shape the direction.’”

If you’re interested in signing up to help pride, there are a variety of ways to help through sponsoring, volunteering, and holding a membership. You can also stay up to date on the latest from the team through Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.