There’s a constitution. I have blessing from the president of the university. I have an advisor for it. I may even have all 10 people that I need to get the university to recognize it. In essence, the damn thing is almost running, and should be when the semester starts next semester.
The thing is, what does a “GLBT and allies” group do? I love the idea of this club, but WTH do we do with it, activity-wise? The only thing that I can think of so far is to have an “out day” where all the out people wear buttons or shirts or something.
No experience – but it seems like one obvious part of the mission would be to provide information, both for those dealing with their own sexuality and for those who have a friend or family member (roommate, whoever) who comes out. Peer counseling, perhaps, or support groups?
Well, you’ll have to do fundraiser stuff, for one. Sales (of whatever - buttons, tshirts, etc like you already mentioned), show tapings (common out here since we’re close to LA but maybe not elsewhere) and the like. Do you have an ASO or a similar student org that you could maybe “back up” and take a few pointers from? My JC GLBT group (I don’t know if they’re still around but I hope they are) often did work for local AIDS patients (although I don’t see why this should be contrained to the campus GLBT group alone).
See maybe if there’s a local dance club and your group can sponsor a night there. The possibilities are endless! Good luck and have fun!
It doesn’t really matter. I would advise against doing too many things with a staunch political agenda at heart. It usually gives you a bad reputation. Here’s a question: what do you do with your friends? Do you like to go to clubs, play sports, exercise, camp, hike, eat, party, stage plays, make movies, build things, help people, do volunteer work for a charity (i.e. habitat for humanity), promote a good cause (giving blood, raising disease awareness).
Don’t think of yourselves so much as a GLBT club, and have everything defined as that - the primary goal of a club, IMO, is to have fun, so do that.
My best advice to a starting organization is to build a website, run a membership drive, basically - get your name and purpose out there.
Here are some of the things that Queer McGill does:
Representation and advocacy of Queer issues on campus (i.e. snarking on homophobia).
Organizing campus events (e.g. dances, pride week, Dyke Days; they used to organize the Vagina Monologues as well.)
Providing social/discussion groups (the gay men’s, lesbians’, and bisexual groups – since merged into one – and a coming out group).
Providing support through their Queer Line anonymous telephone support service.
Providing a library of GLBT books.
In connection with a Queer youth organization in the city, helping to run a program called Allies Montreal, which is invited into high schools to demystify homosexuality and build a safe space for queer and questioning students.
Coordination with the Trans/Gender Alliance on certain issues and events.
I’d have to disagree with this. True enough, not everything that a GLBT club does has to be something that GLBT and only GLBT people would enjoy – but a GLBT club is there for the GLBT community and if it’s the only visible face of the GLBT community on campus, it may well find itself having to take political stands against homophobia and heterosexism. (I also don’t think that for a queer group to be political is something to be feared.)
If I could also say – if you want to have the “T” in your acronym, you should 1) know your shit about trans people and their issues and be prepared to deal with the subject when it arises, 2) check all the club’s actions for gender normativity that could be exclusionary, 3) have some idea of what services the trans community might be able to use.
Back in the day my group did weekly meetings. Discussion nights, movie screenings, social events, etc. We also participated in any campus-wide events we could that had any sort of diversity theme. We did annual events for National Coming Out Day in October and an awareness week in the spring.
The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network would be a good resource for you, although I think they deal more with younger students. I haven’t investigated these links but you might find some of them useful too.
Good luck. I know from experience that keeping a group up and running isn’t easy.
Ah, I saw this coming. :smack: I should’ve been more careful with my words. I meant that only as one suggestion. Sometimes it’s easier to think of ideas when not limited by too much definition. For example, it would totally suck to be in a Christian club if all their events consisted of bible study, group prayer, and going to church.
Good for you! My experience with these groups has always been more political than social, mainly because I’m a hermit. So if you go the mainly social route, at least do a few more politically-minded things to bring in those like me!
I’ve been involved in a number of GLBT groups, and I must say that both the Human Rights Campaign and GLSEN are worthwhile organizations that you should look into. At my first college, one of the main focuses of our GLBT group was to educate people on the laws (which were at that time even more discriminatory than they are now.) Not too preachy, but just to let people know. We put up signs that stated the law and what it meant. For example we’d put up a portion of a judge’s ruling on the equal protection clause, then underneath put ‘this means that someone can be fired solely on the basis of their sexual orientation.’ We found that most students were suprised by the lack of rights protected by our local government. Towards the end of my tenure there (after a good amount of progress on the legal front), we began posting the difference between marraige and civil unions. (Well, some of the differences. There are too many to enumerate on an 8.5 x 11 sheet.)
I’m not sure where you live, but Project Yes is also a good organization (mainly in the southeast). Their mission is to curb teen suicide (specifically geared towards GLBT, which constitute a disproportionate number of suicides).
I would suggest to find some way to extend your coming out day to GLBT-rights supporters- there will be some who want to show solidarity but don’t want to be identified as gay or lesbian. Buttons, stickers, etc.
All of these ideas seem like good ones. I would love to have everything going by National Coming Out Day, but I just don’t know if that’s going to happen. :dubious:
The potluck sounds like SO much fun, but I think that the problem is that we don’t have kitchens in the dorms, and a lot of people live there.
I think that my only current problem is that I don’t know what direction we’re going with this. I don’t really think that we’re going to have the resources to do any sort of counseling, unless it is in a support group kind of setting, in which case… how does one lead a support group?
I would like it to be social, to some extent, as well, but we’ll see how that goes.
I’m going to hopefully do a lot of planning this summer, and do things.
Another big stumbling block is funding. swampbear, you expressed interest. When can I count on your check? Failing that, how much does being in your harem pay?
Think small-scale at first. Does the school have tabling facilities in a student center? Reserve a table for NCOD and stock it with free stuff from HRC. One thing we did which didn’t cost a lot was put together fliers in rainbow colors with pictures and bios of gay historical figures and posted them around campus. If you’re really strapped for cash you could just do a few and use them as a background for the table. Gay/Straight Raps (the name was a holdover from the 70s) were pretty popular. Talk with professors in the psychology and sociology departments to see if they would offer extra credit to students who attend (little tip: don’t let them sign up for the extra credit until after the meeting). Another thing we did which got attention and caused not a little controversy (more done in the spring) was Gay Blue Jeans Day. We put out the word that if people wanted to show support for gay issues to wear blue jeans on a particular day. Woo, we got fur flying on that day every year! Network with other minority-focused groups to see if they would want to do a joint presentation (and can help pay for it).
With the group a little bit better established, don’t be afraid about approaching whoever allocates funding for student activities about getting some funding. Even a few hundred dollars can make a big difference in the level of activity you can offer.
A speakers’ bureau is a great way to get the group name out there. Contact those same psych and soc professors, and Communications and English and Poli Sci and whatever other departments you think might have any interest and offer your services to speak to the class about gay issues as they relate to the course subject matter. We routinely got a number of invites from the psych professors but sometimes the Communications department would bring us in. You don’t have to be subject matter experts; just speak from your own experiences as queer people in American culture.
Let’s see, what else did we do…we did a Make Your Own Valentine table in the student center for V-Day, I think we sold flowers one year but that didn’t really go over all that well. World AIDS Day is December 1 and Day Without Art is an easy event (cover campus artworks in plain paper to symbolize the loss to the arts because of AIDS).
I don’t know how big your university is, so I’m not sure if there’s a big student organization organization that runs everything like at my school. You may find that there are ways to receive funding that’s just kind of hanging out there waiting for you to apply for it. Your student government may have a program that gives out money to applicant clubs. Maybe there’s a larger, national society that wouldn’t mind letting you dip in its pocket?
Ask around. Know any other club leaders? If not, find them. They might know where to find a program like that.
Having a fundraiser for yourself might seem a little selfish, but do whatever it takes to get yourself off the ground. Making and selling t-shirts is a good way to make money (assuming they’re appealing) but it requires a sizable investment (unless you’re going to silkscreen them yourself, which requires a smaller investment).
No one likes paying dues, but it might come down to that.
Against my better judgement, I just have to say that that is the best name for a Noir character I’ve ever seen! Ye-ah, shee? I’m Queer McGill and I’m gonna clean up thish town!
Anyhow, chaoticdonkey, let me repeat my congratulations and thanks for this endeavour of yours. If you need me to get you any resources or advice from Queer McGill on any of the topics I mentioned, just email me.
