GLSEN Tucson Meeting Minutes - 2006

Dec 31, 2006

November 5, 2006

GLSEN Tucson seems to keep dwindling down in the number of folks who are attending meetings. Maybe we shouldn't meet monthly? Please give some feedback--we've been averaging 5-7 people each month, and that's a REALLY poor showing of interest!

We had a brief report on the October "Pride in the Desert" event. We did have a lot of folks who stopped at the GLSEN table and picked up materials about the Tax Credit donations, so that was positive. No report on "No Name Calling Week". No report from The Imagine Project students. We had a few GSA reports with information on Rincon, Tucson High, Pueblo, Cholla, and Sunnyside.

EON Youth Lounge will host a November 11 event with food provided by PFLAG. University of Arizona will hold a training with support from GLSEN, the Arizona Psychologist Assn, the Tucson GLBT Commission, etc. More info to come . . .

Our next meeting will be our annual "holiday meeting" with food provided by GLSEN. Maybe that will help to bring out more donors/members. We will meet at 4:30 on December 7. Place to be announced, but we will be trying to meet at Bennigans in the River Park Hotel downtown.

September 10, 2006

Another small but important meeting on September 7. We still have only 5 seats sold for the Wingspan Dinner, next Saturday night. We will open the other five seats for Wingspan to donate the seats for politicians, youth, and others.

We looked again at OUToberfest, or Pride in the Desert, Saturday, October 14. We have The Imagine Project youth signed up for 9:00 am and 5:00 slots to staff the GLSEN booth. We have Diane D at 9:00 am, Alex K at 12:00 and 1:00, Martin B & Spectrum Alliance at 2:00, Jean B at 3:00, and Gayle B-A at 4:00. We still need folks at 10:00 am and 11:00 am. We will be looping the "Voices of GLBT Youth" video if David L provides the computer and DVD. We will ask Phil M to provide more of the Tax Credit Info handouts, Alan S will provide the bulleted list of GLSEN goals for 2006-2007. Any other thoughts, please call Alan at 743-4800.

We did not get the mailing out to all the GSA's and the schools, since we did not get any contact data from David L. Still waiting on that before we can send info out.

We had a reasonably good response to our donor solicitation and have received support from about 75% of those folks who donated to GLSEN last year.

Reports from the GSA's that were represented at the meeting: Sunnyside HS is still re-forming with new kids. Tucson HS has an active 6-12 kids. Desert View HS has about 7-8 new students this year. Cienega HS has at least 20 students and has changed the name of the GSA to GLASSS. Rincon/University HS has more than 20 kids this year with lots of freshmen. They are planning a training for staff and will involve help from EON.

Next meeting--Thursday, October 5 at 4:30 at Wingspan. Have a great month.

August 3, 2006

Welcome back to another school year for those of us who are educators!!!!! Our August 3 meeting was not well attended, but we accomplished a lot of business. We will sponsor a GLSEN table at the annual Wingspan dinner, September 16. Tickets are $95 per person, but current GLSEN Tucson member/donors can purchase their tickets for $60. Contact Barb or Michell at 744-8916 to purchase tickets for the dinner. And you can send your annual $35 member/donation and your check to purchase Wingspan dinner tickets to Barb Mathers at 3996 W. Mandarin Circle, Tucson 85741.

Pride in the Desert (formerly OUToberfest) will be held Saturday, October 14th. We need folks to sign up to be present at the GLSEN table/booth. The Imagine Project students will be there to set up at 9:00 am and to take down at 5:00 pm. We'll ask David H. to use his tent. David L. will bring his computer and we will loop the "Voices of GLBT Youth" video. We'll also have GLSEN info, tax credit info, and the new GSA guides available.

We went through the annual report and reviewed the chapter goals, etc. David reported that at the recent GSA meeting held in San Francisco, at least two of the GLSEN chapters in that area have broken away from the national organization and reformed as individual organizations.

Diane D reported on the Denver GLSEN conference held July 13-16. Diane D and Mike G have agreed to take a lead on "No Name Calling Week". We will be mailing the GLSEN survey for Arizona to all of the schools locally, with a cover letter offering training, support, etc. to the schools. The cover letter will also caution folks about the data since it is so statistically flawed, being based on only about 150 students in AZ.

Next meeting will be September 7, 2006. Let's hope to have a great attendance at that meeting.