Bears elect new president

Sydney’s Harbour City Bears (HCB) have appointed John Carayannis (pictured, at right) their new president following Jonny Bastin’s resignation to have more personal time.

Carayannis told the Star Observer he hoped to build on the good work Bastin had done in his three years as president.

“I hope we will continue putting on really good parties, and that we continue to keep the community relevant and informed,” he said.

“We’re not looking at changing anything, so it will be business as usual.

“I am community-focused like Jonny so I am definitely looking to focus on the health and wellbeing of the bear community and the campaigns we’ve recently done with ACON around safety and looking after your mates as well as domestic violence.

“We hope to keep rolling those types of campaigns out over the next year or so.”

Carayannis also hoped to continue to develop links between the bear community and other groups in the LGBTI community.

“Jonny did a great job in building links with other groups and we’ve seen some great results come from that so I am definitely keen on building relationships with other community groups as well,” Carayannis said.

The Star Observer understands members of the HCB committee met with representatives of the Sydney Opera House Trust on March 8 to try to resolve the dispute over the use of an image of the Opera House in the HCB logo.

Carayannis said the two parties were yet to come to a resolution on the issue, but he was hopeful of a positive outcome.

“We are definitely still working with the Sydney Opera House Trust on this but we are quietly confident a decision will be reached soon but nothing has come of it as yet,” he said.

Carayannis was secretary and membership officer on the 2011-2012 HCB committee and has also acted as a spokesman for the group.