The Gay Auckland Business Association's meeting in K' Road's Purple bar last night was a profitable one for several LGBT groups who left the event with GABA Trust Fund cheques to help continue their activities. GABA Trust Chair Geoffrey Marshall $2,000 of the over $15,000 fund was set aside for a new initiative which will help a young LGBT student with their education. "GABA has decided to create an annual scholarship of $2,000 to be awarded to an out, proud secondary student who is recognized by their teachers and fellow students as a good role-model, to assist that student with their first year of tertiary study," explains GABA Trust Chair Geoffrey Marshall. The first scholarship will be awarded later this year. The GABA Trust also granted $1,000 to assist with the repair, display and management of the NZ AIDS Memorial Quilt, and $300 to the Team Auckland Master Swimmers for an external hard-drive, which will be used to store all the group's records - including extensive recordings of past events. The Lesbian Elders Village Planning Group will get $250. "There is increasing awareness of the need for group accommodation for old lesbians and gays," says Marshall. "The Village Planning Group is actively engaged in this and the Trust has agreed to pay $250 to cover the conference fees for a member to attend a conference in the US later this year." The Outtakes Film Festival has insufficient money to run a festival this year, so the Trust has allocated $2,000 to assist with fundraising and promotion to enable a festival in 2009. "The Film Festival has been important for some years in helping to build our community, promote positive images of queer life, and as a venue for people questioning their sexuality to take part in queer events relatively anomalously," Marshall asserts. LGBT telephone support service Outline NZ needs a new photocopier to replace the existing which is "all but dead". The Trust is giving them $850 to buy a replacement. Pride NZ, a new LGBT broadcasting group, is developing a nationally syndicated series of half-hour radio programs on LGBT issues. "They are dependant on getting funding from NZ On Air, and if the funding is granted then the Trust has agreed to pay $1,200 for the air-time fees for broadcast on Auckland's Planet FM," the GABA Trust chair announced. $540 will go to Auckland's Charlotte Lesbian Museum, to bring together and reproduce a number of old posters. The recently-opened museum is also planning an exhibition of early lesbian theatre and performance. HIV+ support network Body Positive has expanded its premises and services and needs furniture and fitting for its enlarged space. The Trust is giving them $3,000 to assist with this. "There is a perceived need for a web hub which to co-ordinate services, social groups, and events for lesbian living or working in West Auckland," says Marshall. A GABA grant of $2,120 to the Lesbians Out West group will assist in the setting up of their website. Last but not least, Rainbow Youth have prepared three posters for distribution to secondary schools which are intended to promote awareness of, and pride in, alternative sexual identities among students. The GABA trust has granted $2,103 for the printing of 1,500 of these posters. GABA's Trust funds were largely raised at their annual GABA Charitable Trust Annual Christmas Auction, held last December. The event will return in December 2008.