Date: Nov. 14th, 2024

Time Start: 6:34 PM

Time End: 8:02 PM

Attendance: 32
 

Community Agreements/Opening:

We appreciate all of you for taking the time to speak with us and be in community together. Our goal from this meeting is to further transparency, hear feedback from the community, and answer any questions to the best of our ability. We imagine that everyone in this space has big and valid thoughts and feelings. We have created an agenda for tonight’s meeting to make sure we are able to hear all of you. In our chat, we will be including a link to a document that has our agenda. In addition, we want to make sure that this community meeting is productive and that folks don’t feel harmed at any point in time. To ensure this, we are holding ourselves and requesting these agreed upon community agreements for our meeting:

 

Agenda:

1. 6:40-7:10 : Introduction and PCCC Board Timeline

2. 7:20-8:30 : Q&A

 

• Be respectful of each other's identities, pronouns, etc.

• Respect difference of opinions; we are wanting to hear all opinions, but hear them in a respectful way

• For the sake of this space, while we are publishing the meeting notes from this town hall publicly, names will be redacted

• We will also be redacting names/personal information of parties involved to prevent further harm

 

We hope that this meeting helps show our commitment to the queer community and FM Pride. We have always prioritized inclusivity and collaboration; we hope that by explaining our perspective and timeline that we can show our commitment to our values. You are free to put questions in the chat. We ask that you remain muted in the Google Meet and raise your hand digitally so we can address folks one at a time. We will be alternating between Google Meet questions and the Google Meet chat questions. If there are any questions that we cannot answer, we are more than happy to follow up with you through email. If we run out of time for some reason, you can always email us your questions and we will answer them to the best of our ability. We want to let everyone know that we are always accessible and reachable for conversation. Thank you for your time and for supporting us as a queer space run by queer individuals. 

 

 

Timeline + Community Agreements

 

Timeline:

• March 16, 2025 - Board: Able to speak with FM Pride about finances

  • March 16, 2025 - FM Pride contacted about finances

• April 13, 2025 - Board: Financial Officer connected with FM Pride. PCCC President communicating the on following monday for taxes

  • May 14 - Meeting about finances, trying to access bank acct, no response

  • May 16 - Finances were clear through April 2025; FM Pride Chair acknowledged receipt of email + mentioned needing to clear up their finances. No contact after this from FM Pride Chair to President

• May 17, 2025 - Board Meeting:  waiting to hear from FM Pride once again

• July 20, 2025 - Board: meeting with Finance Officer about tax concerns, raised concerns about donations and contacting FM Pride Chair 

• August 17, 2025 - Board: plan to meet with FM Pride to debrief, struggle to contact about donations and finances

  • August 17 - email sent from PCCC, responded 

  • August 20 - response with acknowledgement from FM Pride about restructuring

  • August 22 - message from PCCC sent asking for availability

  • September 21 - double checks to create meeting

  • September 25 - Meeting requested again

• September 21, 2025 - Board Meeting: continuing concerns about contacting Thane/FM Pride for taxes, etc. 

• September 29  - President: Meeting with Finance Officer, where concerns about FM Pride impacting PCCC standing, financials, etc. were brought to attention

• October 30, 2025 - Board Meeting: Motion passed to send FM Pride an email

  • October 31, 2025 - Emailed Finance Officer for last communication; was unable to get in contact with FM Pride for info. 

​
 

Q&A:

• Is FM Pride also present for the meeting?

This townhall is and will remain open to the public. Everyone who remains in accordance with the community guidelines we set at the beginning, can continue to be here. To be clear, anyone who was looking or had concerns for more answers on FM Pride is/was more than welcome to attend this meeting. We are not being selective as to who can and cannot be here.
 

• To clarify, when you say “FM Pride,” are you referring to Thane, or who were you contacting - “as a board member, I’ve never heard from anyone at the PCCC all year up until now” 

We as a board decided to redact the personal information of the parties involved to prevent further harm and show good faith in our continued efforts of collaboration and fiscal sponsorship. We were in contact with the person who responds/checks regularly the chair@fmpride.com. We would suggest seeking further information from that individual(s). 
 

• It sounds like the interactions with FM Pride have not been successful. Does that mean that FM Pride, as it is now, can go on its own, or should it at this point?

Communication up until this point has not been very successful. That would be a correct assumption. As of this morning, we were notified prior to the public about FM Pride submitting to become a Non-profit/ 501(c)3 status for North Dakota on Nov. 7th, 2025. We have not received notification of their completion from the IRS. It can take from 2 months to 2 years to gain acceptance from the IRS for NON-Profit status. While that is in limbo, we are still fiscally, financially, and legally responsible for FM Pride. We do legally own the trademark “Fargo-Moorhead Pride” under the PCCC’s name. 
 

• What financial obligations is FM Pride not complying with?

We are fiscally responsible for FM Pride as we are for all the subgroups we have using our EIN number. We are responsible for filing taxes to the ND Secretary of State and the IRS each year to remain in compliance with the state and in good standing with the IRS. We have yet to receive the correct documentation to complete our tax filing for this year from FM Pride to give to our shared finance officer. This includes donation documentation, banking statements, check clears ect. We are also still awaiting to hear more about overdraft fees found in the FM Pride account (the one we are aware of) as of the end of October. It costs money to file for nonprofit status and the account we are aware of is in overdraft, we are unsure how filing is coming about. According to their 2025 sponsorship package located on their fmpride.org website, FM Pride is its own non-profit organization. Which is falsely representing themselves with that status and in solicitation of sponsorship/donation and once again puts us at risk for that false representation as the fiscal sponsor. 

​

• I had a question about who was all on the boards for FPCC and FM Pride. Is there any overlap between the two, or have any attempts been made using a mediator? I understand it's hard when they don’t reply to emails. Have you verified they have received the emails? That sounds really tiring. Thank you for your hard work on this.

To the first part of your question, we are unsure of all members of FM Pride’s 

board. There has been overlap of board members in past who volunteer for 

both. Those folks have helped us try to have better communication between both organizations. To no avail. We have also been able to verify the receipt of emails.

As far as mediation goes, we offered to give space to the performers affected negatively from FM Pride 2025 to meet and discuss what they need from us moving forward in regards to support. We have only given space for them , but we are aware that they have been able to make contact with the NDHRC for further mediation discussions. 
 

• So basically, FM Pride needs to do its due diligence and provide PCCC with its financial records of how FM Pride was receiving and spending money before it became a legally separate entity?

Precisely, especially for its donors and sponsors. We want to make sure that all donors and sponsors are able to receive the benefits of 501(c)(3) charitable acts, which is only possible through us. We are looking to ensure we continue to have good standing as a nonprofit as well. 
 

• From what I am hearing, PCCC has not received the necessary tax information from FM Pride for the year/part of the fiscal year for which PCCC would be responsible for filing taxes?

Yes. Unfortunately, if we cannot file our taxes, we risk our standing as a legitimate non-profit organization. In simple terms, if we don’t file our taxes, the Pride Collective, our subgroups and any one associated within us (TriState Transgender, Red River Rainbow Seniors, Rainbow Recovery, to name a few) face significant legal ramifications and the loss of a safe space within the community.
 

• Do you know why TDOR was cancelled this year?

The interim President of TriState Transgender responded to this question stating that there had been concerns brought to them about inclusivity, that was the reason for the cancellation of their TDOR event.  
 

• What is the goal of Pride Collective as the interim fiscal sponsor for FM Pride? How long does that take, and how can the Pride Collective support FM Pride

The goal of the Pride Collective as a fiscal sponsor is to make sure all of our subgroups and affiliated organizations thrive. For FM Pride, that means we would love to help with acquiring more funding for them, help with volunteers, and however else we can. As the fiscal sponsor (financial sponsor), we want to make sure we have partnerships that align with our mission and that we can file our taxes properly. As to how long it can take for FM Pride to get nonprofit status, that can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few years, without mentioning the Pride Collective owning the trademark “Fargo Moorhead Pride.” We can support FM Pride in all the ways listed above, and by continuing to try to engage in good faith conversations. We will happily announce once FM Pride has received its own 501C3 status and is no longer under ours. 
 

• Have sponsors reached out to Pride Collective, and how can sponsors file correctly for charitable status?

We have heard from a couple of sponsors, but without documentation from FM Pride of what these agreements look like, we are struggling to ensure charitable status for sponsors. We hope to ensure this through communication with FM Pride going forward and plan to continue transparency with the sponsors and community at large.
 

• If the main concern is tax info and communication with specific members of the FM Pride board, can you elaborate on the decision to post the update on social media less than 24 hours after sending the first email on October 30th, with cease and desist style language and no mention of concerns about taxes to the entire FM Pride Committee?

Absolutely. While we stand by our transparency, our messaging was urgent and reactionary. Similarly to the folks at FM Pride, we are a group of passionate individuals navigating a tricky situation and with lack of communication through other channels, we saw this as our only opportunity to express the urgency of the situation. We are a group of volunteers dealing with potential legal risk and community harm. Our goal was to make sure all volunteers involved with FM Pride knew the challenges we were facing with communications. We recognize that we caused fear and concern; we acknowledge and apologize for that. Our goal has not been and never will be to end, stop, or harm FM Pride; we want FM Pride to thrive, and it is able to do so through community feedback, connection, and for the last 20+ years, through our nonprofit. 
 

• Thank you for your efforts to foster connections among queer organizations. I don’t want to oversimplify things, but how did we get here? The breakdown between FM Pride and Pride Collective seems gradual. What do you think was the biggest contributing factor? Is there any hope of reconciling the relationship between the organizations, as FM Pride was a suborganization of Pride Collective?

That is absolutely correct. We believe we got here due to a multitude of factors. A  long history of poor communication, a lack of subgroup policy/procedures/expectations, & a high turnover rate of PCCC officers without transition periods to name a few. We want to work together to change all that. Since the beginning of 2025, we have tried to engage in healthy, collaborative conversations and identified mediation/building back trust in the community as goals for this year. Having trust and communication between the Pride Collective and FM Pride is important. We will continue to be open to both public and private conversations, however they are possible.
 

• My understanding is that TriState Transgender has had a recent change in leadership. Is that change related to the rift that has opened between Pride Collective and FM Pride?

No, the changes in Tristate were in no way related to anything that had to do with the PCCC and FM Pride. 
 

• Was the Pride Collective successful in ensuring the performers felt whole and okay after FM Pride? Did the Pride Collective have to do that, or did FM Pride do anything to reconcile this?

We have done our best on our end and have met with the impacted performers. We are unsure of any attempts made by FM Pride; to the best of our knowledge, and from communications in this town hall by an impacted party, our understanding is that FM Pride has not attempted reconciliation. We are hoping that there are pathways forward and would be happy to help facilitate reconciliation as we care deeply about the local trans, BIPOC, and disabled communities.
 

• If the FM Pride Board moves forward with separating into a new org, what does PCCC hope will happen in the transition? Are there any specifics, in addition to the financials, that are needed from the FM Pride Board?

We hope that in the meantime, we can collaborate, support FM Pride however we can, and continue our good legal standing by getting necessary documentation for the IRS. We need communication between ourselves and FM Pride in order to discuss specifics, like financials, and we are not getting that at this time.
 

• Does the Pride Collective want money, or take money from the Pride Collective? Is that the goal?

No, the PCCC does not want money from FM Pride. All we are interested in is the needed documentation to file taxes to be able to continue being in good standing with the IRS and stay open for our community. 
 

• Understanding that the PCCC owns the rights for “Fargo-Moorhead Pride,” does the Pride Collective expect to have to run FM Pride next year? Has that even been decided yet?

We don’t want to run FM Pride; our goal has been to support FM Pride and be in communications of how to do so. We haven’t made further decisions on what to do about our trademark.
 

• Is it an isolated issue with a select few people rather than the entire FM Pride organization?

As a whole, the FM Pride team does a lot of work in making a fun event each year and they are not our issue. Our issue is with the lack of communication from those who are higher up in the organization whose job it is to make sure they keep the PCCC updated on finances and paperwork so we can properly file things on our end as it is our job with them being under our 501C3 not one of their own as they advertise. 
 

• How can I support voices other than my own, like the performers'?

You can always support voices by sharing and uplifting and listening to experiences. Sharing/promoting content/art/shows is always helpful for visibility online and around the community. Support looks like standing with people, listening, and demanding we don’t silence or push away conflict/disagreement. 
 

• I’m hearing two related issues being brought up. 1. FM Pride needs to do their due diligence in communicating, supporting, and representing the community they are supposed to be representing. 2. FM Pride’s refusal to communicate and provide tax info to PCCC is risking not only the ability for FM Pride to get its own 501(c)(3), but the current 501(c)(3) of PCCC and the agencies they support. While point 1is important, point 2 can quickly become a federal issue. Have there been talks within the PCCC Board about at what point you may need to engage a lawyer to get what is needed to keep the 501(c)(3) active and protect yourselves from any legal issues if it should lapse?

There have been conversations about our next steps, but we are not at liberty to discuss what those are at this time. We want to ensure to our community, to sponsors, donors, suborganizations, and everyone in between that we are taking these matters seriously. This is a call IN rather than a call OUT, and we will be as transparent as possible. We continue to invite FM Pride to both private and public conversations and we want our local queer community to thrive. 

 

In queerness and solidarity y’all.