News and Announcements

State of the Alliance - October 8, 2026

(10/08/2026)

This is your weekly informal update from the PLA President. Happy Thursday.

This week, we had our PLA Board meeting for the month on Tuesday. As such, a lot of the week's work has been centered around that meeting and the business we covered. We took nominations for the annual General Board Election, where every position is up for a vote. PLA members will receive their ballots no later than October 20th containing all the nominated candidates, and any other candidates can be voted for as write-ins for any position.

Also at the Board meeting, we presented the findings of our conflict of interest investigation for Board members and the Community Education Committee (CEC) Chair being paid for CEC classes in the last two years. The Board is still discussing how we'd like to make that information available outside the meeting, but it will be covered in the minutes, and some formal report will be made available at least to PLA members. One of the findings, however, was that the July policy update to the Board Member Code of Conduct has already addressed this issue, and that going forward the CEC Chair should never be paid for classes, nor other Board members except in very rare edge cases (e.g. class was already booked before the member was elected to the Board, etc).

We also ratified a budget for Fiscal Year 2027, which began in July of this year and runs through June 2027. While we were hoping to see a balanced budget this year, the startup costs of the PLA Space have made that infeasible. Instead, we provided a budget that reduces last year's $78,000 deficit by 75%, putting us on track to be profitable in Fiscal Year 2028 with the PLA Space startup complete and the venue operational for the full year.

Speaking of the PLA Space, we are gearing up for our first rentals in October, and are open to be booked for events of all kinds! For more information, see the writings on the @PLAspace account, or shoot an inquiry email to plaspace@portlandleather.org.

Other committee work this week has been continuing to book classes through the rest of the year for the Community Education Committee, and preparing for our upcoming blood safety class this Sunday at Sanctuary. The Digital Operations Committee has been working on updating many of our processes out of people's personal email accounts and into a secure, self-hosted platform for better data retention, security, and continuity when folks leave their roles with the PLA.

And the Policies and Procedures Committee is looking for your feedback on how our policies might better serve the membership and community. Check out their survey here: https://www.portlandleather.org/survey.php?menu=showsurvey&surveyid=5

Last but certainly not least, Kinkfest is gearing up. See the team's official post here for both an acknowledgement of harm to BIPOC community members and information about applications and ticket sales for this year's event.

As always, my inbox is open at president@portlandleather.org, and the Board as a whole can be reached at board@portlandleather.org. Feel free to reach out to either with any questions or concerns for the Board. You can also submit written feedback, including anonymously, at our form at:

https://www.portlandleather.org/survey.php?menu=showsurvey&surveyid=4

Yours in Leather,
Andy, PLA President