A Message from the President

As the Houston GLBT Political Caucus nears the end of its 36th year of existence, we face a number of new challenges, not only for the GLBT community, but also for the Caucus itself.  My goal as your president is first and foremost to do my best to set the Caucus on the right path for the future and to demonstrate a renewed commitment to transparency and openness within the organization.

Among my goals for 2011 are laying the groundwork for a 501(c)3 non-profit component that will serve to educate the community and make larger, more diverse sources of funding available, the migration of our financial reporting to a third-party firm in order to protect the Caucus from fines and malicious ethics complaints, and developing more effective and efficient ways of managing our daily operations.

In addition to those structural changes, I believe it is imperative to engage our members and give them more opportunities to participate than they may have had in the past.  We must do more between elections and make a stronger effort for membership development.  We must hold our elected officials accountable when they don’t live up the commitments they make to us, and we have to have a more significant presence between elections.  The City of Houston will also add two new City Council districts in a redistricting effort that will surely make our normal election activities interesting and exciting.

We have a lot of work to do together to ensure the Caucus can evolve to a more professional organization that adapts to changing issues and sets the standard for GLBT organizations across the nation.  I look forward to 2011 and to working hard further our mission. 

Thank you for your confidence and trust.

Noel A. Freeman, MPA
President, Houston GLBT Political Caucus