A Pennsylvania town’s LGBT organization last month announced six new board-member positions and plans for future programming.
New Hope Celebrates will now include an events coordinator, director of leadership development, restaurant/bars liaison, volunteer coordinator, director of business and community development and director of public and government outreach.
Additionally, it will include an advisory board that will consist of at least four members at first but could expand over time. Past board members will comprise the advisory board and will be appointed by current members, said New Hope Celebrates President Matt Hanson.
“What that board will do is advise the organization on some different ideas, thoughts in the community we may not be aware of and give us some guidelines,” Hanson said. “We really want to make sure we have the right input from all parties and that we’re all doing the best for the community.”
Hanson noted the new positions will allow the board to focus on programming other than Pride, the organization’s primary event held in May.
“We are a yearlong organization and we want to operate as one,” Hanson said. “We think it’s important we keep in touch with our sponsors, our volunteers [and] our community throughout the year because we want to be here all year for them and increase the diversity in the town for New Hope.”
Hanson said New Hope Celebrates will also seek to expand the Retroscope, an archive project showcasing the town’s LGBT history, and its “i am new hope” storytelling venture. Hanson noted the organization hopes to launch the latter project on a national level, beginning with a booth at the Original LGBT Expo in New York City next month.
Hanson looked toward the future with this expanded board, which he said will not change New Hope Celebrates’ overall mission.
“We will continue what we’ve done in the past and that is always to keep inclusivity and diversity of New Hope and promoting LGBT awareness and tolerance,” he said. “We will also do our Pride as we always have done. It’s our 15th anniversary this coming year so we are very excited about that.”
Visit www.newhopecelebrates.com for more information.
