On Sunday 26 March we celebrate our Annual General Meeting (AGM) (the minutes will be published soon).
This AGM will go down in the association’s history for being the one that brought together the most female attendees and because Prado García was unanimously voted in as president, the first woman in the history of Colors Sitges Link.
The team that will join the president to implement the strategic plan to achieve the 2023 goals was also elected. For another year, Martín Martín will remain on the committee as secretary and Tim Telcs will continue as a committee member. The rest of the new committee members are: Fernando Lavieja (vice-president), Montse Casaoliva (treasurer), Carlos Javier (aka Guajo), Adam Iungman, Laia Conesa and Óscar Aguilar (committee members).
For her part, Prado explained with passion and knowledge the goals that the new committee will be facing, and conveyed to the members who attended her willingness to continue with the legacy of transformation of the association.
There was an emotional moment when Martín Martín presented the outgoing president, Pedro Martín, with a thank you present for his five years on the CSL committee (three as secretary and two as president). It should be remembered that he has been the driving force behind such important projects as fast HIV testing, as well as the emotional health programme and the work he has done to facilitate the transition to a more inclusive and representative association for the LGTBIQ+ community.
PRADO GARCÍA’S SPEECH.
First of all, I would like to thank Pedro for his commitment and dedication to our cause and to Colors Sitges Link. But above all, thank him for his vision of the future, his ability and the changes he initiated, which are already beginning to bear fruit.
On January 14th of this year, at the massive rally we called in at the Town Hall square in response to the LGBTIQphobic attack of January 1st, I said:
Sometimes we are not aware of what an association is or what it’s for. What Colors Sitges Link is or what it is for here in Sitges, one of the most LGTBIQ+friendly cities in the world. The leitmotiv of an association like Colors is to help people. To help improve people’s lives, to help change sensitivities and empathy to make our society better. To be the voice of the LGTBIQ+ community in front of those who make the laws. This is our raison d’être: to be here and now raising our voice.
The leitmotiv of Colors is to help people.
To this message, today I add that an association is a group of people with the same interests who get together, work and create alliances to achieve common goals. This means that Colors Sitges Link is all the members, not just the committee.
The committee’s objective is to organise and facilitate multiple actions, to raise our voice when necessary, to make us visible and to always represent all the letters of the LGBTIQ+ community. To take care of our people through the areas we cover such as health, culture, sport and social events.
Posting on social networks helps.
It is important to keep in mind that behind each of these actions, no matter how small they may seem to you, there is one or more people racking their brains to do what is best for our community. Something as simple as, for example, posting on social media on Intersex Awareness Day helps. It helps people who feel ignored, invisible and underrepresented. With that act we are saying: “Hey, we are here for you”. Organising a sexual health workshop, an LGTBIQ+ film show or the Thursday social meetings is exactly the same.
But I have to say it: these actions are of little use if the rest of the community, of the CLS members, do not follow action.
We ask you to be our loudspeaker
This team is committed to work to achieve the goals we have already explained. But the association is all of us. We ask you to take part, we ask you to help us to make CSL the reference LGBTQI+ association in Garraf. We ask you to be our loudspeaker, to come to the events and actions that we organize, to share in your social networks and in your circles. From volunteering, yes, but also proposing and leading actions that benefit us as a community. We are ready and willing to listen to you.
This is the only way we will achieve our goals, with all of us rowing in the same direction.
