News and Announcements

State of the Alliance - September 8, 2026

(09/19/2026)

We've heard a lot of feedback looking for transparency and open communication from the PLA Board, and in the last three weeks we've done our best to increase the amount of emails and other official communications going out. However, the tone of these official statements and the motions of Board meetings are often pretty formal, so I had the idea of a more informal weekly update from the President about the work we're doing as a Board. This post represents my own personal views, and shouldn't be taken as representing the entire Board's perspective or guarantees for the future.

To start, at last week's September Board meeting, we elected three additional Board members and accepted Forrest's resignation. MxDaisyChains was elected to the Vice President seat, Ace to the Treasurer seat (Bec did not contest and took a Member-at-Large seat instead), and Lisa to a Member-at-Large seat. We didn't elect a Secretary in that meeting, but Bec has been elected to that seat since the meeting. So, for the first time since July, all our officer seats are filled through the November elections.

With this change, a lot of the last week has been dedicated to onboarding new Board members and finishing the offboarding of the prior Board. This has included position-specific onboarding for those in officer seats, as well as appointing committee Chairs for the various standing committees of the PLA. The following is the list of committee Chairs as of today:

Membership: vacant
Board Development: Carslyle
Policies & Procedures: @vvbudh
PR & Outreach: Lisa
PLA Space: Bec
Digital Operations: Bec
Special Events: Lisa
Community Education: Andy
Kinkfest (Core Team): Carslyle

Note that the Policies & Procedures Committee is being chaired by a non-Board member, @vvbudh, who was already on the committee and volunteered to take on the Chair role. In the name of opening up more leadership positions beyond the Board, tapping enfranchised non-Board committee members to be Chairs is something we're looking at for other committees as well. The vacant Membership Committee Chair position will be filled by a Board member before the October Board meeting, as that seat comes with certain responsibilities around our upcoming membership election in November.

We've been working through these committees to resume some of the PLA's normal operations, largely on hold amidst all the turnover in the Board. Bec has been working with the Digital Operations Committee to review how we store information and manage certain digital processes, and where these can be made more secure, robust, or streamlined. I've been working with the Community Education Committee and MxDaisyChains to identify some classes on race and racial justice in kink and sex-positive spaces for the PLA to host in the coming months, which Board members will attend alongside the community. Tonight, the Policies & Procedures committee met to discuss additional work on our accountability policies and ways to create a third-party review process for the Board.

The largest endeavors, in scope and budget, are Kinkfest and the PLA Space. Carslyle has been building the KF27 Core Team, and I've been reviewing our budgets for KF expenditures. On the PLA Space side, we had a small work party this weekend focused on minor tasks to repair some seating, move mats from Dungeon Equipment storage, and install more-accessible handles on our restroom doors. We also met with a general contractor about our city permits for the renovations to the space, and I made a request to the city for a reserved ADA parking spot on the street. This would be in addition to the ones we have in our private parking lot, and would best serve the PLA space's second entrance to the street. I'm working on a post about the current accessibility of the space for mobility devices, and our plans to improve it, which I hope to publish on the @PLAspace account this week. We have plans for similar reviews of the space for Deaf/HoH and Blind/low-vision accessibility.

Relatedly, we are looking for licensed tradespeople for some small jobs and pulling related permits for the PLA Space. Our most immediate need is for a licensed electrician, as some of our ADA upgrades can't be done without electrical work in the building. However, we'd also like to have a licensed plumber in our rolodex as we continue to improve the space for everyone. If either of those is you, please send an email to plaspace@portlandleather.org and we'll be in touch.

And that's all I have for this week! If you have any comments or concerns for me, I'm always available over email at president@portlandleather.org, or you can email the Board as a whole at board@portlandleather.org. We also have a feedback survey tied to next week's listening session, open at https://www.portlandleather.org/survey.php?menu=showsurvey&surveyid=4

Yours in Leather,
Andy, PLA President