Small Step, Giant Leap

Last Sunday was a fairly significant day for the Pinkies because we had our Annual General Meeting. We're not so large a group, and we all know each other fairly well, so the atmosphere was informal and the discussion, as always, lively.

Mark gave the chair's report which was a quick retrospective of the Pinkie year Winter 2008/ Summer 2009. It is actually quite amazing to see how time has flown. Hard to imagine that we have sung and played so hard this season, although in hindsight I am actually feeling rather tired. Still, just three more events to go till the end of the season! Simon, after crunching figures into the wee hours the night before, gave the treasurer's report, and we appear to be fiscally comfortable, although ever more vigilance is called for. Our new performance venue is significantly more expensive, and hopefully will demonstrate to us that it is worth it!

Then of course, there were the elections. For the first time ever, all positions were filled. This has partly to do with the recent revision of the job descriptions, and partly to do with the fact that we now have many enthusiastic members who really want to contribute. For the first time ever too, both the role of the multimedia co-ordinator and the tenor section leader were contested. Good on Michael Da, Kelly, Thomas and James M for standing. Regardless of the outcome, we are all behind you!

To me the most significant item on the agenda was the issue of photography and videos. As you may imagine, for a long time we had no policy so there were loads of photos taken. At the same time, the Pink Singers at our inception was made up of members who were not only out, but extremely proud as well, so there was no issue of conflict of interests. This is all the more impressive given that the Pinkies were formed at the time of Section 28 when the overall mood in society was far less accepting than it is now.

All of this predates the widespread use of the internet and the advent of YouTube and Facebook, and a couple of years ago, the uploading of a rather harmless video of us having fun onto a popular video sharing site provoked quite the furore. It seems there were two issues at stake: the first was that our public image needs to be better maintained, with high quality versions of our performances so that people get an accurate impression of who we are. The second was that it appeared that there were members of the choir, who despite our "London's lesbian and gay community choir" tag-line did not want to be outed by their faces being present in images produced by the choir.

The former is quite easily addressed by acknowledging that media produced by the choir is going to find its way onto the net, officially or unofficially, and that the only way we can adequately counter it is by producing high quality versions of our own so that the official versions appear above all others when we are googled. Our new resolution enables this, and has been a long time coming. The second is a thornier issue. Not everyone is out to the same degree. While it may be argued that by joining a choir which overtly declares itself to be gay and lesbian, which was created for and has sung at every Pride march since 1983, and performs in public nearly a dozen times a year, a member is signing up to this ethos, it has never been explicitly stated. Indeed, there may even have been the expectation of anonymity.

People join the Pink Singers for many reasons, but one of the most important ones is for the social element, an area in which I think we excel. Our mission is about providing a "friendly, enjoyable and inclusive" environment and I really think we do. This is reflected in the growing size of the choir, our ever higher retention rate and the increasing numbers of people who want to join us. Significantly, the first part of our mission, however, is that we are a "London-based lesbian and gay choir whose mission is to produce exciting and diverse performances for the general public and in support of community organizations". This does mean that we are identified with the lesbian and gay community (duh!). We do loads of charity performances, and are very proud of the funds we raise for good causes. Unfortunately, these two halves can be in conflict for some people, particularly those who wish to be involved in the social side of the choir, but not be too heavily involved in, or identified with, the LGBT side.

Our new resolution is aimed to try to negotiate this line. The Pink Singers is in an LGBT group performing in the public space, and images and video taken in public performance are ceded to the public realm. To me this has always seemed self evident, but it enables the Pink Singers as an organization to use images in our promotional material and alleviates some of the current beaurocracy. It also recognizes that the use of images in private channels is not the responsibility of the choir to monitor. In The Pink(ies) is one such channel, and here I use a voluntary code where any photographs used are with the consent of all of the people in the photos. I can tell you that this has caused a huge headache in the past, especially at large public events when photos can be taken of dozens of Pink Singers. This makes the situation simpler as photos taken in public at public performances can now be used, and basically brings such images in line with U.K. regulations.

On a more general note, though, I do hope this leads to more photographs being taken and more photographs being shared. Photos and videos are not just there as advertising, they capture both significant and insignificant moments and are essential as a historical record. After all, if we do not write things down and if we do not have images, then we are, sadly, going to forget them. As individuals perhaps this does not matter so much, but for organizations such as the Pinkies, and especially because we are an LGBT group, this historical record is vital as our voice, for now and for the future.