Happy New Year and welcome to 2010! We are excited to start this new year by taking a moment to reflect on the happenings in 2009 and what lies ahead next for Trikone Northwest. Last year was a great year for TNW on many fronts including the following:

LEADERSHIP:

We saw the transition of the board to Prashant, Vega, Soumik and Sunil initially. With a few shuffles that happened over the summer including Nitika and Bish joining the board and Vega and Soumik deciding to step down, we now have an almost completely full board. Nitika's decision to join was huge as we wanted to move towards gender equity in the leadership and representation. We look forward to more active participation from other members of the community with the board in 2010. Those that see leadership as a valuable tool in community building, social justice and change should look to Trikone Northwest. There is exciting and challenging work for us in 2010!

EVENTS:

2009 saw the restoration of our monthly potlucks! Attendance was somewhat spotty in the beginning but we've seen good attendance in the last few potlucks with new members joining! We are encouraged by this and hope these trends continue. 2009 also saw our first Pre-pride Bollywood party! BollyQ was not only a huge undertaking but one that was unprecedented. A South Asian Queer party in R-Place on Capitol Hill with DJ Anjali and Rhythms of India! It couldn't get better than that. And it did live up to our expectations. Attendance was great even though it was a Sunday night party and we raised over $800, which was even higher than our target goal. The following weekend, we had a grand float at Seattle LGBTQ Pride Parade, one that stirred crowds in the Bollywood festive spirit with our "Monsoon Pride" themed float! The crowds were hugely receptive despite our small contingent. We would love to see higher participation in the float and parade by Trikone members this year!

We've had a chance to build a stronger foundation for Trikone NW community in 2009. In 2010, we will continue with the programming that we had last year but we will also try to have a wider variety of events beyond potlucks. Give us your input! Join us in organizing!

INFRASTRUCTURE:

In 2009, we launched our new facebook page and brand new website! We've had success with the facebook page in advertising our big events but we'll be looking to using it more for advertising other smaller events. The website was a slightly bigger project and with the help of an awesome web developer and Creative Collaborations, we were able to launch the site before the close of the year. The website is absolutely beautiful (check it out if you haven't already!) We will keep it updated with our latest events, announcements, and community member profiles. Bookmark the page!

We also got our finances in order in 2009. We started the year cash positive and ended it with a higher balance. Our projected annual budget for 2010 is over $5,000, thanks to funding made available by the previous board from the Pride Foundation Racial Equity Initiative (REI).  We are grateful for the hard work of previous board(s) on this.

2010 PRIORITIES:

At a board retreat in November 2009, we used information from previous years, tracked our progress, and set our priorities for this year! We welcome your feedback, questions, and participation to work on these areas:

• Organizational Development
• Visibility/Outreach
• Fundraising
• Social
• Support

There is no shortage of things you can do help out so we look to you to make this a better organization! If you cannot be directly involved on the board, there are other areas where you can help. Let your friends know about Trikone Northwest, encourage your friends to come to our events, advertise our parties, potlucks and other events or donate!

See you in 2010!

Trikone Northwest board
(Prashant, Nitika, Sunil, Bish)