Springfield, IL (May 10, 2022) At CORAL's annual meeting on May 8th, board elections were held for the positions of Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, and all three members at large. The candidates for each of these positions have been long-time patriots of the LGBTQ+ community and we are proud to have them on board with us.
In the position of vice-president, Brian Sylvester had served as CORAL's treasurer for the past ten years. In that time, he assisted in making the organization a 501c(3), chairs the committees for membership and finance while serving as the social media committee, and took the lead on several events in the past few years.
In that Lori Carlsen may be relatively new to the Springfield community she knows it very well as the niece of Buff Carmichael. Walking in his shoes, she has been a strong volunteer for CORAL for the past few years, helping with several events and joining the Ritz committee in 2021.
April Poole, long-term partner to CORAL's past vice-president, Paula Harris, has been involved with CORAL for many years and co-chaired the Ritz the past two years. She has spoken at city council meetings in support of LGBTQ+ issues and, until recently, was the treasurer for First Church of the Brethren.
Bert Morton needs no introductions as, to most people, he is the face of CORAL. As Events Coordinator for CORAL, he's the go-to guy for all of the organization's primary events. He has chaired the Ritz event since it's advent and has assisted in bringing on more activities for our members to participate.
Lisa Cotton may seem new to the organization but she's been around for some time. Lisa comes to us from Decatur, where she was an active member of the now dissolved GLAD group. She also was a member of SALO back in the day. Lisa has taken on the job of chair of our activities committee.
Carolyn Austin is our newest member of the board but comes with a wealth of experience in working with the LGBTQ+ community. She is the executive direction of AgeLinc, which has recently created a LGBTQ+ subsidiary called PrideLinc. PrideLinc serves the older LGBTQ community through outreach, activities, and social opportunities.
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