LGBTQ Advisory Board Minutes - 10-13-20
LGBTQ Advisory Committee
Committee Chair, Robin Schwartz
Meeting Minutes
Tuesday, October 13, 2020
Members in attendance – Cindy Brown, Craig Garmendia,
Edward Kring, Gayle Durham, Jamie Guirola, Mark Wylie,
Michael Bath, Paul Thomas, Riki Wilchins, Robin Schwartz,
Sunny Weber
Others in attendance- Dan Rios, GMCVB
Called to order at 1:01 p.m.
Ongoing Business:
A. Approval of the September 8, 2020 meeting minutes- Vote of acclamation to approve
the minutes. Eddie Kring introduced himself to everyone.
B. MBPD Updates – None
C. GMCVB / Marketing updates – Dan Rios provided some updates. They are getting
ready for 2 conferences in Latin America, Colombia and Brazil and they want to make
sure since they are open that they have Miami on their minds to travel to. They are
rolling out the Miami Land and Miami Shine campaigns. They are very active on social
media lately and asked if anyone has anything to share to send to him.
New Business:
A. Discuss virtual/in person Committee meetings due to COVID-19- the Committee
expressed their concerns about meeting in person because of COVID-19. Morgan
explained the governor may not extend the executive order about having meetings
virtually, but the City was discussing their own policy of allowing resident and advisory
committees to continue to meet virtually. Things could change, so Morgan will update
the Committee when there is more concrete information. The Committee will meet
virtually in November regardless.
B. Discuss LTC regarding adding more diversity to the Committee-the Committee
members will reach out to their Commissioners to encourage them to pick this up for
discussion and action.
C. Discussion on what to focus on in 2021-Robin put this on here because we are living in
unprecedented times and it looks like this will continue in some form into 2021. She
wants the Committee to think about this as it relates to these times. Discussion was
held. The Committee believes it is just advisory and the voice of the LGBTQ
community and can recommend whatever they feel they want to recommend. They will
discuss the subcommittees as part of this topic next month.
Subcommittees Reports and Next Actions
1) HRC Rating (Cindy, Herb, Sunny)- Cindy mentioned the email received that we were
too late to submit. Michele Burger and Rob Rosenwald will work to get Miami Beach
Committee Members
Cindy Brown
Craig Garmendia
Daniel Diaz
Edward Kring
Gayle Durham
Herb Sosa
Jamie Guirola
Mark Wylie
Michael Bath
Paul Thomas
Riki Wilchins
Sunny Weber
scored. There have been a lot of self-submittals this year and the HRC is going to get
to us and rate the City. HRC rates based on City population which is why we self-
submit.
2) LGBTQ Visibility/Marketing/ Tourism (Gayle, Mark, Paul, Sunny, Danny)-Gayle
mentioned they have not had a meeting. They will work on scheduling a meeting
through Morgan. The Committee feels this subcommittee needs to stay around
considering what is going on with the industry right now because of the pandemic.
They will meet and then be able to provide suggestions during the discussion next
meeting.
3) Health and Wellness (Ricki, Jamie, Craig, Paul)- Craig mentioned he has been keeping
up with studies and it is a weird time because of the pandemic right now. Paul said
they are starting to talk about the HIV care and outreach that has not happened
because of COVID-19.
Meeting adjourned at 1:40 p.m.