Marketing: Our PCA Rebrand Project is nearly complete! You’ve seen and celebrated the new logo, you’re already sporting new logo gear from our link PCA ProShop, and we’ve been gathering your input on the language we use to describe PCA’s unique purpose. The final visual depiction of our brand, PCA’s “Brand House,” is in review by our Equity and Inclusion Committee this month. Feedback will be sent to the Board of Directors and the final Brand House should be published before you can say… SIN CITY CLASSIC!
Events: Let’s talk Sin City Classic: January 13-15, 2023, at the Flamingo Hotel & Casino Las Vegas, PCA will participate in the 16th Sin City Classic (the largest annual LGBTQ sporting event in the world). Similarly to past years, PCA will hit the ground running at the Friday evening Welcome Party. PCA Cheerleaders will make appearances at the finals of Cornhole and Darts and will cruise the Sunset Ballroom with thousands of other LGBTQ athletes. On Saturday, we wake up bright and early to prepare an all-PCA routine, then we take our show on the road, chartering transportation to various sports where we will deliver vibrant performances and focused fundraising for our local beneficiary: Golden Rainbow. Sunday is the Charitable Cheerleading competition, where small groups showcase technical routines for a panel of judges to win medals and win your hearts with their philanthropic mission. At PCA’s unique competition, charitable donations collected by competing cheer groups factor into the scoresheet! Stay tuned for a special surprise announcement about other PCA opportunities on Sunday! But for now, ACT FAST and reserve hotels before the opportunities vanish! Book here. Host hotels are The Flamingo, Linq, and Bally’s.
Education: The PCA *Virtual* Educational Summit is back, and the theme for 2022 is: We>Me (read “We” is greater than “me”). This emphasizes the power of community and the value of the connections we make within, across, and outside our teams to our community. Summit 2022 all virtual, but it is half synchronous (topic-specific breakout meetings for key PCA groups) and half asynchronous (pre-recorded webinars for everyone) to create a variety of opportunities for PCA minds to unite online to support and develop Charitable Cheerleading. The synchronous meetings took place over the weekend of October 15-16. Highlights included: two inter-team workshops (one on maximizing remote volunteers and one coaches’ roundtable) two Events meetings (teaming up with community partners from Pride Bands Alliance and Golden Rainbow), the final PCA Rebrand Project meeting, and a customized peer counseling training by the St. Louis Queer Support Helpline (SQSH) for our PCA Equity and Inclusion Committee and Board. Coming soon, the second half, our library of asynchronous webinars. These TED Talk-style videos are for PCA, by PCA. Access instructions will be made available through your PCA Delegate. The library will be rolled out soon and will remain accessible as long as they remain relevant and useful. Topics include: inclusive language, web accessibility, cheerleading with disabilities, financial statements, systems and paperwork strategies, social media content calendars, and Cheer ASL (American Sign Language).
Governance: The annual PCA Board Director election process is well underway. After an open call for nominations from Sept 10 to 18, and a two-round application process through September and early October, an election was held at a closed meeting of the PCA Board on October 16. Review and ratification by the PCA Delegation will follow, and new Director Terms will begin January 1, 2023. We plan to announce our Directors Elect in next month’s Rally!