October 23, 2006

Coming Out Day

• just to let everyone know, it was a super success!
• We got over $800 for the shirts which included donations meaning that GSA really only paid $1200 for them instead of $2000
• Now the balance for the group is just under $1600 so we’re all set for the rest of the year

More ‘gay? fine by me’

• Mallery suggested that we pick a day this semester and advertise a few weeks ahead of time for people to wear their ‘gay? fine by me’ shirts to show that you don’t have to wear the shirt just on coming out day
• Denise had the idea of doing this on December 1st which is World AIDS day to dispel the myths about AIDS and homosexuality and further education people
• Or we can just pick a random day and make it ‘gay? fine by me’ day or if there are any other important days in the semester that are focused on LGBT history, let Mallery know!

Student Activities Fair

• it is this Saturday from 8 to 10 and Jon, Lisa and Whitney R. are going to be there for GSA

Diversity Council

• Denise sent out an email a few weeks ago asking for responses and questions in regards to getting Diversity Council organizations out of their comfort zones so thanks to those people who replied to her!
• Those questions are going to relate to a Diversity Council forum of the same nature tomorrow at 7:30pm in Ben Apple Lecture hall in Bogar.
• Each group under Diversity Council needs at least 5 members there so try to be there if you can, it won’t take up that much of your time.
• ALSO, HOLA (Hispanic Organization for Latino Awareness) is having a gala this Friday for their Latino Symposium. You should go if you can!

Discussion Time!

• we had a cool discussion on LGBT history post-Stonewall and Denise showed part of an awesome documentary! Thanks to her!
• Next week we’ll have another mini-discussion on LGBT history from the beginning of time up until Stonewall

Rocky Horror is going to be shown at the Health Center on Halloween.

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October 9, 2006

Coming Out Day/Shirts

• shirts are going to be delivered to the faculty and staff to those who ordered shirts tomorrow; if you are delivering a shirt and the post-it has a dollar sign on it then money has not been collected for that person
• there are still a few spots to fill in for people to run the table Tuesday and Wednesday
• today, we made $243 from the shirts and we still have about half the shirts left
• Mallery is going to email the RAs to ask them to remind their residents to wear their shirts from both this year and last year
• Denise made a wonderful poster to remind people to wear their shirts so please print it out and hang it in your residence hall or classroom building on Tuesday night. Thanks!

Student Activities Fair/Fall Open House

• the fair for activities and clubs is going to be Saturday, October 28th from 8:30am to 10am
• Whitney, Lisa and Jon are going to be at the table that morning, if anyone else is interested then please email Mallery (koonsm@susqu.edu)

Health Center

• Mallery informed us today that the health center does have female condoms and dental dams available for free for students but they are not out in the open so do not hesitate to ask if you would like one

Diversity Council/Group donations

• HOLA (Hispanic Organization of Latino Awareness) wrote to us and asked if GSA would like to donate money toward their Gala dance that they are holding this semester as they have done in the past; we decided to donate $75 to them to show our support as we usually ask fellow Diversity council groups for donations for the colloquium.
• Variance also asked for monetary donations but we decided that people in GSA should try to submit some kind of written, literary or piece of artwork to the magazine to show our support. You can email submissions to variance@susqu.edu as Mallery is co-editor and would like that very much!
• Denise gave an update on Diversity Council:
• ASC (Asian Student Coalition) is holding it’s annual Diwali Festival on November 4th, which celebrates an Indian holiday; it costs $12 for SU students, flex can be used and they have awesome food and entertainment
• The Brotherhood is having a house party next month
• BSU (Black Student Union) held a pajama party at Charlie’s yesterday that was fun and for anyone who attended, thanks!

Rocky Horror Ball/Screening

• potentially GSA is thinking about doing a screening of Rocky Horror and the Rocky Horror ball is being thought of but on the back burner as of right now

Group Discussion!

• last week’s discussion went well and everyone liked it so we’re having another one!
• At the next meeting, October 23rd, there is going to be a discussion on the modern LGBT history (1900s to present) so please research just a little bit and bring questions with you
• Denise is going to be the discussion moderator

REMINDER

• the movie "Get Real" will be playing in Shearer Dining rooms 2 and 3 on Wednesday at 8pm
• the GROUP PICTURE of everyone in their ‘gay? fine by me’ shirt will be taken at 4:30pm on Wednesday by the water fountain and again at 8pm in SDR 2-3 for those who can make at either or both times
• if you have not yet paid your $2 for your shirt but have received your shirt just send the money to Mallery in campus mail. Thanks!
• AND please wear your awesome shirt this Wednesday to celebrate Coming Out Day!

October 2, 2006

Coming Out Day

• the shirts will be in sometime this week, hooray!
• the people who signed up to get together and fold the shirts and sort them will be emailed a reminder of when and where this week
• the people doing the table next Monday, Wednesday and Friday will be emailed a reminder
• Mallery and Jimmy are putting together an email list to email the faculty about the shirts
• Lianne is the contact person for the faculty to get in touch with if they would like a shirt
• a group picture will be held at 4:30pm at the Fountain on Wednesday October 11th and also at 8:00pm in Shearer Dining Rooms before the movie; thank you Catena for taking the pictures
• Claire made wonderful colorful posters advertising the movie and is going to be making one for the shirts as well
• Whitney was awesome and found out the rules to show the movie and as long as we show a movie that is in the library and use it for educational purposes, holding a discussion afterwards, it will be in accordance with the rules
• the movie, "Get Real" will be held in Shearer Dining rooms 2 and 3 and Jimmy is going to be facilitating the discussion afterwards

We had an interesting and involved discussion on transgender issues and will hopefully continue to discussions in the future

ANYONE WHO MADE A POSTER TO ADVERTISE THE MOVIE AND/OR SHIRTS please email the posters to me (Shafferl@susqu.edu) and I will send them out to everyone as attachments to print so we can put them up and advertise

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Semptember 25, 2006

Coming Out Day

• the ‘gay? fine by me’ shirts were ordered and were shipped so they’ll be coming soon
• we ordered 288 shirts for a little over $2200
• the shirts are going to be for $2 to students in the bottom of Deg from Monday October 9th to Wednesday October 11th from 11 to 1
• we’re going to send out an email to the faculty and asking any of them who want shirts to donate a little more than what we are asking the students to pay
• Mallery is writing the letter to accompany the email to the faculty explaining the shirts
• Lianne is going to be the contact person to get names and shirt color/size from the faculty who wants a shirt
• a group of people is going to need to sort through the shirts as they don’t come separated into sizes and colors
• we decided to show the movie "Get Real" at 8pm on October 11th to start off the film series and celebrate Coming Out Day
• Mallery is going to ask Scott Manning to lead a discussion after the film
• the movie location is yet to be determined but will most likely be in Ben Apple or Isaac’s
• a PR committee was created to make posters to advertise the selling of the shirts for Coming Out Day and the movie to be shown on Coming Out Day
• the goal is to hang up the posters this Monday and have them up all week to advertise
• Rick is going to contact Megan Will to ask her to write up a short paragraph for The Crusader about Coming Out Day

Goals of GSA

• last week Mallery asked the members at the meeting to write down on index cards what they would like to see from GSA this year and the response fell under three categories:
1. To promote more awareness about LGBT on campus
2. To hold better activities and events
3. To have discussions of issues in our meetings and be more open to all the LGBTQ letters
• it was discussed whether or not to hold these discussion during the meetings or separately and next week we’re going to have a discussion on transgender issues

REMEMBER!!! The event, "PC is BS" is going to be held tomorrow at 8pm in Meeting Rooms 1 to 5

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Semptember 18, 2006

Coming Out Day shirts

• after much debate and many slogan ideas it was decided that we will again be buying the ‘gay? fine by me’ t-shirts for this year’s Coming Out Day
• we are going to order 300 shirts that are sweatshop free, meaning the cost will be about $2200
• also, we are going to ask faculty to donate money for their shirts, and also if they already have a shirt to allow people who do not have a shirt be allowed that opportunity first
• to cover some of the cost for the shirts we are going to charge students $2 for a shirt as we are allowed to do this as long as we are not making a profit by it
• along with the shirts we are planning on having buttons with three different sayings on them to hand out and see which slogan people prefer so we may use that idea for a shirt for our own shirts for the colloquium in the spring

Facts and Posters for Coming Out Day

• Catena, Claire, Guy and Whitney R. are on the committee to put up posters for Coming Out Day on LGBT facts
• there are going to be both informative and fun facts
• it was suggested that we put pieces of paper with "the good news & the bad news" of these facts, meaning fun and realistic facts, in student mailboxes, similar to what the Thought and Social Science class did last year with the white flags on Deg Lawn and information in the mailboxes regarding those killed in Iraq
• PLEASE email Catena (catena@susqu.edu) with any interesting facts for these posters
• for the posters credible sources will be cited so keep that in mind

Buttons

• we can look on buttonstar.com for information about the cost of buttons, etc.
• try to think of some catchy slogans we can put on buttons for next week as we will determine from their popularity what to put on a shirt for the colloquium

Film Series

• the series will most likely be monthly instead of weekly
• we are planning to show films on Saturday afternoons either at the beginning or end of the month
• we’ll either hold the film showing in Ben Apple or Isaacs Auditorium, that is to be determined
• Whitney R. is going to look into copyright issues as we are trying to determine what are the rules for our organization to show a movie on campus
• we voted to start the series with the movie "Transamerica" (2005) which is about "a pre-operative male-to-female transsexual takes an unexpected journey when she learns that she fathered a son, now a teenage runaway hustling on the streets of New York." (IMDB)

Fun Fact: In case anyone didn’t know, Ellen DeGeneres will be hosting the Oscars, Sunday February 25, 2007. Mark your calendars.

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Semptember 11, 2006

Coming Out Day

• we debated over what we wanted to do and what sorts of events we had planned for the day (October 11th)
• Rachel informed us that we are allowed to charge for the ‘gay? Fine by me’ shirts but not for profit, however we could pay for the cost.
• we could potentially get other shirts with our own slogan made at a lower cost but we first need a slogan hence ASSIGNMENT: think up a slogan to bring to next week’s meeting for a shirt that is in support of LGBT that people would like
• we can still option to go with the ‘gay? Fine by me’ shirts but they will be more expensive
• a podium or open floor was suggested to be held in Deg around dinner time to have people share their experiences or speak about Coming Out Day during the event
• a group photo was proposed again for people to wear their shirts that day and gather in one spot so we can have a colorful rainbow picture. The time has yet to be decided and hopefully will not conflict with too many schedules.
• we can get the campus involved through posters with facts about LGBT and the podium or open mike event
• a committee including Catena, Claire, Whitney R. and Guy will help make posters for Coming Out Day and Catena is graciously going to print them in color

Fundraising ideas

• bright colored bracelets to sell like the yellow Livestrong ones (supposedly there is a site where we can make our own slogan, etc.)
• ‘gay? Fine by me’ or ‘gay for a day’ buttons or other slogans could be made as there are a few button makers floating around campus. Kaitlyn and Catena will look into the buttons

Film Series

• it was proposed that we start a film series showing each week to showcase LGBT cinema and culture through the years
• the time was decided to show the movies on Saturday afternoons
• we will most likely show a movie related to coming out during the weekend prior or after Coming Out Day
• movies suggested include:
• Transamerica
• Angels in America (over a few weeks)
• The Laramie Project
• The Truth About Jane
• Beautiful Thing
• Flawless
• Latter Days
• But I’m a Cheerleader
• Chasing Amy
• If you have any suggestions feel free to email either Mallery or myself.

OMA request

• Brian Johnson, director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs has put out a newsletter from the office each month and he wants the one for October to focus on LGBT and Coming Out Day so if anyone would like to write a brief 500 word summary about a coming out experience or what the day means to you then you can email it to Brian (johnsonb@susqu.edu) and he will put them together in next month’s bulletin.

Conference

• Mallery and Catena are going to a Transcending Boundaries conference in Massachusetts in the upcoming weeks. The OMA is paying for the transportation and helping with getting them housing.
• if anyone is interested in going as well, contact Mallery (koonsm@susqu.edu) or Catena (catena@susqu.edu) for more information
• the deadline to register for the conference is this Friday, September 15th and the fee is $40

Rocky Horror

• Rick talked with Adam Vickers about the possibility of doing a Rocky Horror production as it was brought up last year but there isn’t sufficient funding or enough time to do it
• instead we will probably do a Rocky Horror ball and show the film and people can come in costume, etc. Information for it will be obtained in the future

Side Notes

• Gay Pride parade in New York is going to be held in June of next year so we have plenty of time to organize something for it.
• Mallery, the GSA president, is also editor of the literary magazine "Variance" and encourages anyone in GSA to submit to it!

Sorry for the lateness of the minutes this week. Hope everyone enjoys their third week of classes and remember to think of potential slogans for shirts and movies to show at the film series!

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Semptember 4, 2006

First GSA meeting of the Year

• introductions of both old and new members were done through a cool ‘human bingo’ game
• REMINDER all GSA meetings from now on will be held in Meeting Room 1 in Deg (Same time, same day though)

Last year’s GSA recap

• Coming Out Day was celebrated by disturbing the ‘gay? Fine by me’ shirts to faculty and students for free; donations were also given as well
• the 2nd annual Drag Show was performed and benefited LGBT victims of Hurricane Katrina
• Colloquium with the theme ‘Right to Love’ was held in April with speakers and a good response
• Day of Silence - people participated and carried cards for which there was a lot of interest
• Bake Sale! fundraiser which was fairly successful
• Candy sale for Valentine’s Day which was also successful

Things to do this year

• October 11th is again Coming Out Day - so you can come out with your sexual orientation or as an ally or voice your support
• people wore their ‘gay? Fine by me’ shirts last year, and we hope to do a shirt campaign again this year
• Drag Show is booked for Saturday, March 24th in Trax tentatively
• Mandy is going to determine if students from other schools will be allowed to attend
• Colloquium may be held in conjuncture with the Drag Show so we will get more people from both on and off campus to attend it as the Drag Show attracts lots of people
• Day of Silence will most likely be done again and Catena said she is willing to do it and be in charge
• Rocky Horror Ball - Rick is looking into people who would be interested in doing it
• Monthly film showing - we could possibly set up showing an LGBT related film once a month and have a discussion afterwards
• Jess is doing a poster to advertise the meeting times and place
• people need to email Mallery (koonsm@susqu.edu) with movie ideas on what to show or themes, etc.
• A presenter is coming to campus to talk about Transgender issues and Lisa will email you more info in the future
• National Constitution Day - there will be a rally to defend the constitution and a carpool if interested
• the Office of Multicultural Affairs is willing to fund 4 students to attend a conference on being out in the workplace

Fundraisers and Shirts

• instead of the ‘gay? Fine by me’ shirts we could do shirts with our own slogan on them and potentially sell them for $3 or so ASSIGNMENT everyone is to come up with slogans for such shirts for next week’s meeting
• ASSIGNMENT again is to come up with interesting fundraising ideas we can do since the budget only takes us so far, so think of them for next week!!!
• Mallery will look into making our own shirts and Mandy knows of a place where we can order them for a low price

Budget

• Lianne explained the budget and balance of our account
• we have to return $456 to Diversity Council since we did not use all of the $870 they allotted to us for last year’s colloquium.
• we received $2500 from SGA at the end of last year
• taking into account Diversity Council and SGA our total for this year is $3,162.78

That is everything for this wonderful first meeting of the year!! REMEMBER to think of slogans and fundraising ideas.

Next week’s meeting is in MEETING ROOM ONE in Deg. See you then!!

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