By Dr. Krystal Drwencke
Vice President
This was our first ever Hybrid event with attendees gathering in person and online. I’m so proud of our community as we united in our strength and resiliency in the last year and are bouncing forward to a prosperous 2022!
The GGBA Annual Meeting was held at GGBA Member Brio Financial Group. Every year we have the opportunity to review the accomplishments of the previous year and see what’s in store for next year. Our celebrations included our first ever virtual Power Lunch event in May of 2021. We also put two cohorts of members through the Virtual CEO Roundtable Coaching Program. This program enabled members to pivot their businesses and grow at the start of the pandemic. We continued having our monthly mixers virtually, which highlighted a different member each month. We also developed the Virtual Power Pitch Platform. This enables members to receive coaching on how to represent their story and their business, along with the opportunity to have it recorded at a local production studio or via zoom. New programming also included anti-racism and bias trainings. Last but not least, we created a 5 year vision and introduced our new Executive Director who will make a more formal announcement soon.
2021 Visionary Award
We had the opportunity to honor Audry deLucia, past president of the GGBA and long standing member, with the Visionary Award. Audry has been a dedicated member and advocate for the community and served on the board of directors for two terms where she worked tirelessly to move the organization forward. It has been a privilege working with and knowing her. She is the owner of Ellaprint, along with her partner Fran Herman. Ellaprint is a women-owned and operated, WBE and LGBTBE Certified Business and proudly doing business in San Francisco since 2003.
2021 Leadership Award
Tony Archuleta-Perkins was honored with the Leadership Award this year. As a long time member, board director, treasurer, and member of the executive committee, Tony has transformed the GGBA’s annual budget and accounting process. He has also introduced Memberships Works to our membership for a more seamless membership and directory experience for our members. Tony is the owner of Ide8 Real Estate which is a boutique luxury real estate agency. Their focus is quite simple; we proudly serve California LGBTQ+ clients and allies in residential real estate. Ide8 is based in San Francisco but has local experts in San Francisco, Palm Springs, and West Hollywood. Ide8 Real Estate proudly maintains its independently owned brokerage with the local savviness required to navigate the California real estate market.
The results of the virtual voting ballot are in!
The changes to the by-laws have passed which allow our organization to meet and conduct business virtually. It is also my pleasure to announce that Michael Gunther will stay on the board for another term AND he is staying on as President for 2021-2022. Tony Archuleta-Perkins is also staying on the board for another term and as treasurer. Furthermore, we have two newly elected board members, Pamela Schmitz of Brio who is serving on the Membership and Events Committee and Nancey Greenen of Flexability LLC who is serving as Secretary and on the Fundraising Committee.
Join us!
Last but not least, We had Juan Torres with Torres Wine Tours on site pouring from a selection from Foley Sonoma. A great way to reunite face to face and celebrate. If you missed this month’s event, don’t fret. Our next in person event is on Tuesday, December 14th for our Annual Holiday Party – A Hybrid Celebration. Details to come!
