Annual Report 2013/14 EPOA · ANNUAL REPORT 2013/14 Welcome to EPOA! EPOA, the European Pride Organisers Association, had a difficult working year. It is not a secret that maintaining a cross-border non-profit organisation with limited financial means is a daunting task. Add to the mix some new faces and new ideas and fireworks are guaranteed. Unfortunately some of the board members have left us half way through the working year for all sorts of different reasons. But looking back at some of the challenges we came across, it has to be said that the board and its vision has come out even stronger. So with the remaining board members we obviously ensured the proper functioning of the organisation but foremost lined ourselves up towards a better organisa- tion for the future. EPOA, through its members, has an enormous potential for A lot of preparatory work was done towards improving EPOA the future, a reason why we are really actively looking to grow as a whole: search for new members, defining internal proce- this organisation. We are the voice of many LGBTIQ lobby dures, focus on our members’ needs and moving our Euro- groups and that voice should be heard! EuroPride is also a Pride event and its brand to the next level. powerful tool in order towards that same goal. But by bring- ing more members to the table, we will also be able to gener- Talking about EuroPride; we were thrilled with the fantastic ate more energy, more ideas, more support and why not an event our member Oslo Pride put on this year. After the diffi- actual office with support projects for both existing and new cult years of WorldPride London in 2012 and EuroPride 2013 prides. As you will see further down this report, Europe – Marseille, we were in desperate need for some positive in- counts 280+ Pride events. Imagine what we can achieve by put towards our EuroPride name. Oslo Pride promised us they uniting our powers. would do exactly that and they delivered big time. An achievement for which we are all very grateful and we hope it A lot of work lays ahead of us, but we pride ourselves in mov- may be an inspiration for the future EuroPride events to ing EPOA towards the future, one step at the time. Together come. Some more information about this year’s event can we stand strong! be found further in this report. Last but not least, I would like to thank all the board mem- As for the future, we should dare to dream. Paulo Coelho, bers for their commitment, enthusiasm and work performed author of “The Alchemist”, once said: “There is only one thing during the past working year. that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” And if there is one thing we have learned, as we progress society with all our Pride events, than it is not to be afraid of Hans De Meyer being different. We should dare to think outside the box. President 2 EPOA · ANNUAL REPORT 2013/14 EPOA Board European Pride Organisers Association President (epoa) aisbl Hans De Meyer Secretary Rue du Marché au Charbon 42 Irene Hemelaar 1000 Brussels Belgium Treasurer Tomasz Baczkowski [email protected] Outreach and Member Services Coordinator Ruben De Keyser www.europride.info EuroPride Coordinator EPOA is a international non profit organisation Stein Runar Østigaard registered under Belgian law. Human Rights & Diversity Coordinator Elodie Brun Media and Internet Coordinator vacant Conference Coordinator vacant Irene Hemelaar Ruben De Keyser Elodie Brun Tomasz Baczkowski Hans De Meyer Stein Runar Østigaard 3 EPOA · ANNUAL REPORT 2013/14 Members 2013/14 Amsterdam Gay Pride CSD Rhein-Neckar Oslo Pride / Skeive dager Amsterdam, Netherlands Germany Oslo, Norway Arcigay Milano Fundacja Rownosci Portugal gay Porto Milan, Italy (Equality Foundation, Poland) Porto, Portugal Warsaw, Poland Associazione Lista Lesbica Prague Pride, o.s. Italiana Gender Doc-M Prague, Czech Republic Milan, Italy Chisinau, Moldova Reykjavik Pride Athens Pride Hamburg pride e.V. Reykjavik, Island Athens, Greece Hamburg, Germany Roma Pride / Circulo di cultura Barcelona Pride / Hosi Wien / Vienna Pride – omosessuale Mario Mieli ACEGAL Barcelona Regenbogenparade Rome, Italy Barcelona, Spain Vienna, Austria Roze Zaterdagen Nederland Berliner CSD e.V. / Berlin Pride Lesbian and Gay Pride de Netherlands Berlin, Germany Marseille Marseille, France Stockholm Pride Braunschweig Pride / Verein für Stockholm, Sweden sexuelle Emanzipation e.V. Lesbian and Gay Pride Braunschweig, Germany Montpellier The Belgian Pride Montpellier, France Brussels, Belgium Budapest Pride Budapest, Hungary LGL, Baltic Pride Thessaloniki Pride Vilnius, Lithuania Thessaloniki, Greece Casa Rosa/ Ghent Pride Ghent, Belgium Madrid Pride / Aegal Madrid West Pride Madrid, Spain Göteborg, Sweden Cologne Pride Cologne, Germany Manchester Pride Zurich Pride Festival Manchester, United Kingdom Zurich, Switzerland CSD in Konstanz e.V. / Konstanz Pride Mozaika - LGBT and their Konstanz, Germany friends Alliance Riga, Latvia 4 EPOA · ANNUAL REPORT 2013/14 Annual Report 2013 Secretary Our re-branding efforts are still ongoing this will add to the As secretary of the board, every few weeks the president and continuing growth of our name and brand recognition in the I had a skype meeting to ensure that all ongoing business future. went well. The board had 11 meetings over the last year for To continue building on this I have developed a strategic which I wrote the minutes. For the yearly deposition I trans- outreach plan that I want to roll out starting in Q4 2014. lated the by laws into dutch. Ruben De Keyser, Beside the secretarial work, I initiated a renewal of our con- Outreach and Member Services Coordinator tact with ILGA. Irene Hemelaar, Secretary Human Rights Coordinator This year was for me marked by the end of my mandate at Outreach and Member Services Coordinator the LGP Montpellier where, until December, I had been work- In my past term as Outreach & Member Services Coordinator, ing for the rights of LGBTs, reminding that, in spite of the law I have compiled a list of all prides in Europe to further improve in favour of marriage and adoption for same-sex couples, the efforts of EPOA to become a truly important stakeholder there is still a lot to do: among others, granting the right to within the European LGBT community. marry to all binational couples (nationals from 11 countries Thanks to the success of the most recent EuroPride in Oslo, are still unable to enter into marriage with a French citizen), we have managed to gain further name recognition through- granting access to medically-assisted procreation and the out Europe and more importantly in the north and east. This right to change one’s civil status for transsexual people. further thanks to the ongoing promotion leading into Euro- From the beginning of the year, I have been residing in the Pride 2015 in Riga. East of France where I have been able to promote EPOA’s The board members and I have been engaging on different actions and tried to convince Couleurs Gaies (pride organiser levels with prides throughout Europe in an ongoing effort to in Metz) to join and participate in our projects. I hope that this grow our membership. organisation will become a member! We can pride ourselves on representing different sizes of Together with Ruben De Keyser, I participated in the debate prides and different countries east and west, north and south. on the rights of LGBTs in the world, on/representing Europe, All our members bring their own experience and colour to during the Montpellier pride, with the presence of Alan Reiff this organisation. and Stuart Milk. This was an opportunity to speak about the 5 EPOA · ANNUAL REPORT 2013/14 progresses but mostly of the deep worries that we have con- Coordinator and Secretary. Recently the Board has appoint- cerning some countries. ed Stein Runar østigaard as the new EuroPride Coordinator. Lastly, I would like to end this mandate by thanking the per- He will continue the existing term and will pick up his tasks as sons that trusted me. I wish that, in the future, the position of of our AGM weekend. Human Rights Coordinator will be further developed and that The Conference Coordinator dealt with organising both ex- a specific budget will be dedicated to its actions, including ternal board meetings: one in December 2013 in Prague and trips to marchs organized in challenging contexts, in order to one in March 2014 in Brussels. As of end of April, his tasks show EPOA’s solidarity to the organisers of those prides. were taken up by all board members. This position is still I wish the best for all future EuroPride events and will defi- vacant and a new candidate will be soon appointed by the nitely attend the next one in Riga, which I am sure will be a board. huge success! As for the Media Coordinator, most work done evolved Elodie Brun, around our troublesome website. A new designed was pre- Human Rights & Diversity Coordinator sented to the Board in December 2013. All board members approved and we proceeded in obtaining control of our own website and domain name. It was also decided to no longer The remainder of the board positions, have been vacated work with a professional hosting company, as many online during the working year. The Media Coordinator resigned alternatives as well as options through our members are from his position end of March 2014. Both the EuroPride and available. After the resignation this process was continued by Conference Coordinator have left their positions end of April the Outreach Coordinator. The President and Secretary 2014. All have done so in good standing and for all sorts of launched the logo contest, as proposed during the last AGM, different reasons.