MEETING MINUTES

MAY 11, 2023

6:00 PM

ZOOM MEETING

            The meeting convened at 6:05 pm via Zoom. The following members were in attendance: Councilman James Kole, Chair, Ms. Dana Cunningham, Ms. Nicole Gore, Ms. Michelle Keating, Ms. Amy Knox, and Ms. Sara A. Green, CMC, City Clerk was also present. There was one (1) member of the public in attendance.

            Chairman Kole welcomed Jennifer Bronson, Oaklands Presbyterian Church who was volunteering with the Pride Committee planning.

            Ms. Green provided an update regarding the Pride Committee webpage stating that she had spoken with the City’s Department of Information Technology (IT) who requested that wording, pictures, forms, etc. that the Committee would like to see on their webpage be sent to Ms. Green who would collect and send to IT for creating a draft webpage that the Committee could review and make edits to before it went live.  

            Ms. Knox asked Ms. Green to get a webpage framework from IT so the Committee had something to work from to draft the webpage.

            Ms. Cunningham reported that she had been able to link what she shared on Facebook to Instagram but could not manipulate or add anything directly to Instagram. Ms. Cunningham would be working on a flyer- the Committee wanted to have pictures from last year’s event and create a new graphic design.

            Ms. Knox stated that she would be working on getting a new t-shirt when graphics were finalized.

            Chairman Kole reported that the City’s Department of Budget and Personnel Services (BAPS) had been working with PNC Bank regarding digital payments and their mobile banking system called Clover. Would have something that could be used at the event.

            Ms. Keating provided an update on fundraising and had a letter ready to go out and that she needed help from someone to go out to some of the businesses that she had already asked for sponsorship for the Laurel Historical Society Gala because she couldn’t ask the businesses to support both events. Ms. Knox and Ms. Bronson volunteered to help.

Chairman Kole would speak with the owner of Olive on Main and he was waiting to hear back from Oliver’s to get a date set when Oliver’s would donate a portion of the days sales to the Pride Day Planning Committee.

            A brief discussion ensued regarding possible fundraising events. Ms. Gore noted that Looney’s Pub had recently hosted a Drag Brunch that had been very successful.

            Lastly, Ms. Keating provided an update from Ms. Dunham that a law firm had signed up to be a vendor for Pride Day and offered to do a session before Pride Day and hold a Freestate Justice Legal Clinic that offers free legal services to members of the LGBTQ community. Chairman Kole was interested in seeing if the group could do a virtual session and an in-person session at the Pride Day event.

            The Committee decided that the next meeting would be June 14, 2023 at 6:00 pm via Zoom.

            The meeting was adjourned at approximately 6:45 pm.

Approved: Sara A. Green, CMC, City Clerk                                                    Date: 07/19/2023