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Um it's just a fantastic, fantastic morning, and, um, we're so happy to see you all here. My name is Andy Lo. I'm the chief executive here at I've been here for a few years. Um and, um, today is a really, really important day for [00:00:30] us. Um, it's very, very exciting and heartwarming and a whole lot of other things. Um, and, uh, we just wanted to really welcome, um, lesbian Gay Rights Association here, uh, into into the building and into our our, um, our philosophies going forward. Um, it's as you will know it's international, um, day of, um, law reform in New Zealand. And it's the anniversary. That's hugely important for us to do this on. [00:01:00] So, um, there's a lot of a lot of background to that, and a lot of thinking that we've put into this and with Mel over the years has been working with us anyway over the last few years on a number of things, and it's so it's not a new thing. Um, Rachel and Andy have recently helped on the, um, National Museums conference that was held in Palmerston North. Um, and the theme was inclusivity. But Andy and Rachel were kind of key to that in terms of what museums could be doing in this country, but also in other countries. So people came from [00:01:30] all around New Zealand to to part, you know, to participate in the conference, and, uh, and was really, really integral to that. So thank you so much for all your work you've been doing over the last few years. And for this community, As you all know, it's a fairly, um, conservative community. So we have a lot to do, uh, in terms of, um, you know, working, working in that space, The people who have done that over the years anyway, So there's, you know, it's it's not, um, it's not a new thing, but, um, we just wanted to keep keep working on it, and we've got a lot to do. And we really thank those who have come from Wellington as well [00:02:00] today because it's a huge mission. And, uh, we know that some of you have come. Um, Jack, we really acknowledge your recent, um, partners, you know, departure from here. And, uh, know about all those sadnesses that people bring with them. So it's important that we recognise those today, and I just really wanted to welcome you. It's fantastic to see you all here, and we've got so much to do. Hey. And we're not gonna stop. We've just done a few little things, but we're not gonna stop. So, um, I'm gonna hand it over to Rachel, who's the president of now. [00:02:30] Thanks, Andy. So, um, as Andy said, I'm Rachel Hoskin, and I'm the president of Mel. Um and so we've got a bit of work to do. So, um, we have moved to, um, to from square, where we were just surviving. So Mel has been in the state of just surviving for a couple of years since we closed club Q. Um, closing of club Q was actually a good thing. So, uh, the the reason why club Q existed was to provide a safe space [00:03:00] for LGBT Q I, um if that's not needed, that's a good thing. So, um, so we were OK to let that go. Um, we went into, uh, square, and we just started to just survive. Um, obviously paying rent. And, um, and trying to just see what what needed to be done in the community. had been quite difficult for us. So moving in here with Andy's offer of being able to come to to Manu, uh, was a huge blessing for us, because now we we're able to to concentrate on what needs to happen [00:03:30] in our community. Um, and the current committee has, uh, looked at a few things. Um, one is we want to be more visible. Um, we want to provide, uh, a hardship fund for our community and set that up. Um, and we want to provide more events for our community as well. So, um, that kind of goes hand in hand with the visibility, actually, um, but, uh, those are the things that we want to be concentrating on now. So, uh, we're working really, really hard. Um, on those things, Uh, but we also have our 40th anniversary this year. So turns [00:04:00] 40 as the longest running gay organisation in the country. Um, and we're really, really proud of that. And it has been solely run over that 40 years on volunteers, never a paid person in in any position. So that's in itself is saying how strong? Um, our community is, um so we're really proud of that fact, um, club Q ran for, um, many, many years solely on volunteers. Um and, um, and all of our committee members are all volunteers, and our community is now banding together to, [00:04:30] uh, plan for our 40th anniversary events. That will happen in Labour weekend this year, which, uh, the majority of those if not all of them will happen at. So, um, so we're really looking forward to that. Um, So, um so, Yeah. So we're We're, um We're just working towards our our three goals at the moment of the visibility, uh, events and the hardship fund. Um, and trying to make sure that we reassess the needs of our community as we go along, because that's the most important thing. So that's what we're working on. That's what we're doing. We have a huge history behind us, [00:05:00] and we're gonna do some exhibitions over this year, uh, both at square and to show that history. Um and hopefully that will help with our visibility as well. So, uh, thanks, Andy. Thanks for allowing us to come into to Manu and help to move the organisation forward. Um, because I think that's really important.
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