Yooper Gay Community Alliance's Page

Part 5: We are seeking sponsorships and donations of any kind... just ask us for more info about it... and if you want to help... you can check with anyone you think that might be interested in being involved or sponsoring or dontating to the organization or the pride event itself.
And lastly, we talked about needing more board members. This position is a very serious postition, as it is a corporation and all board members are responsible for any liability. We are seeking people from other larger towns in the U.P. such as Houghton, Escanaba and the Soo to name a few, but we also need "representatives" who are not board members, but people who are 'go-to' people in every town! Please let us know if you want to be involved!

Our second meeting was held on Sunday, March 20, 2011, at the Peter White Library on Front St. in Marquette. There were 20 people present at this meeting. We talked about how important it is as a newly forming group to get a strong united foundation or base from which to build on. By the end of the day we accomplished much: We were able to get volunteers to form the Y.G.C.A. Board of Directors. Steven Vidlund will chair the board, Michael Miller will be the treasurer, and Ray Smith is acting as Secretary. In the future we plan to add about 3 more people to this Board of Directors, but for now, this meets the legal requirements to form the corporation needed to get the EIN tax number so we can be a real business with a real business bank account. Mike Miller is an accountant and has managed local businesses so he is highly qualified to be the Treasurer. So the next step is to apply for the 501(c)3 non-profit status. This will take six months to recieve. In the meantime, our legal advisor suggested that we start to collect donations, and use the money to secure the band shell on Presque Isle and other immediate expenses. This will show that we do raise money and we spend it on non-profit things. The money paper-trail is a necessary part of the application and that is why it takes about six months because you need a history.
We also formed a Pride Planning Committee with eight members so far. This committee will vote for who they want as their Chairperson and will report to the Y.G.C.A. organization meetings. They have not yet said when their next meeting will be, but it is expected to be held at the Landmark Inn. Keep posted and watch for an event calendar to R.S.V.P. to this meeting.

Our organization was formed on Facebook on December 28, 2010 and as of March 23, 2011, we now have 310 Facebook 'fans'. We held our first organizational meeting at the Huron Mountain Bakery, 1301 S. Front St. on March 12, 2011. 15 people were in attendance. They came from all over the U.P. such as Sault St. Marie, Escanaba, Houghton, Negaunee, Marquette, Ishpeming, Gwinn and other towns. We talked about forming a 501(3)c organization and looking into grants. We decided to make a gay pride event the centerpiece project to knit the community together through a common activity. The date we chose for the pride picnic and rally is Sept. 18, 2011 and the location is to be at Presque Isle Park. We got on the front page of the Marquette Mining Journal newspaper the following day.

Find us on Facebook at:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Yooper-Gay-Community-Alliance-YGCA/133735946688376