Introduction

The Gay Line Wellington Trust was formed on Wednesday 24^th May 2000.  This Annual Report covers the Trust’s eleventh financial year — that is, 1^st April 2010 up to and including 31^st March 2011.

The Group operates a web site for people to visit and explore information on:

• Sexual orientation.
• Gay life in Wellington and further a field with a main focus on the wider Wellington region.
• Listings of gay and gay friendly services — doctors, dentists, counsellors, religious organisations, etc.

As the first meeting of the Trust was held on May 24, 2000 Gay Line will have completed 11 years of operation on 24 May, 2011.

Aims and Goals

• To enable every Gay male to reach his full potential.
• To provide a Web site that lists gay businesses, organisations and information in the wider Wellington region.
• To develop a series of articles which promote a healthy gay life style.
• To provide a link between clients and counsellors.
• To provide an interactive web-based information and support service.
• To cater for a wide range of people while protecting those under 16 years of age.
• To provide for other organisations a facility to publish promotional material, provided that material complies with the values of this Group.

Funding

The Gay Line Wellington Trust is funded by the Rule Foundation.

On behalf of the group I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Trustees who administer the Rule Foundation for their support during this period.  Without this support it may not have been possible for The Gay Line Wellington Trust to continue to administer its operations and to make donations to others.

Members

The group has a membership of seven gay men with an intention to increase the number of members. It is desired especially to increase the number of younger members in order to better promote Gay Line to younger members of the gay community and to harness younger energy and innovation. It is a concern that we have not been able to increase membership further to enable a wider range of activity to take place and to cater better for succession.

During the year Gordon left the group.

Statistics

The number of visits to the Web site has increased over the reporting period from 122 each day to 154 each day. Visitor numbers have been fairly static during the year but with a small upward trend. The high figure for March was probably affected by the Out Games. While factors that influence visits are unclear, additional promotion and development work is required to increase the numbers and that requires additional membership and more work in the community support area.

Emails handled. The following, providing insights as to where effort has been concentrated, is a categorised count of emails sent and received in the last five financial years.

Financial Statements

Financial statements are presented separately.

Achievements

During this reporting period the following are some of the achievements made by the Trust:

• Site listings maintenance work continues to be a major time consuming activity and this is reflected in the Listings email statistics. Tom has eased the load by processing many of the listing related to events. Consideration is being given to a new data base system to automate listing management.
• A $6,000 grant was made toward purchasing sports equipment for Out Games 2010. Russell was the main liaison relating to administration of the grant.
• A $1,380 grant was made to enable LGBT history podcasts to be made.
• John and Derek attended the Ageing section at the Symposium on Rainbow Health & Wellbeing Symposium in November in Auckland. There are ongoing developments mainly led by OutLine, Auckland. Our funder, The Rule foundation, is funding a major research project on aged care as a consequence.
• Preparation of contract documents for a major redesign of the web site has been completed and available for quotes. Funding for this work has been secured.
• Russell and John attended the Human Rights Conference at the Out Games.

Acknowledgments

The Group can only operate because of the skills, enthusiasm and commitment of its members. I would like to thank all members for the time, energy and commitment given to providing this important service to Wellington and beyond. Any listing of individuals is difficult as all contribute well. One of the strengths of the Group is the support and effort its entire membership provides.

Conclusion

This reporting period, as was the last, has been full and busy. Considerable effort has been required to continually develop the Web site and the Group.

There is still considerable work remaining to increase the content of the Web site and improve liaison and support of other community groups. This will be an ongoing task and I believe the new database updating process will be crucial if these objectives are to be realised. This is envisaged for the next stage of development of the web site.

I am not available for re-election this year but will provide ongoing support for our new Chair.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the membership as a whole for the effort and time they have given to the Group over many years, and the support which has been given to me in my role as Chair.

John Mayes