LGBT Campus Organizing
I'm learning more and more about how to facilitate good health with the group I am involved with.
This is what I fear:
"Telephone interviews and campus
visits with lgbt students, faculty and staff
from dozens of institutions across the
country revealed a consistently low level
of functioning on the part of most lgbt
campus organizations. This research
revealed that student groups in particular
were rarely engaged in efforts to bring
lgbt subject matter into the curriculum.
They were not strategizing for domestic
partner health benefits. They were not
marshaling resources to end ROTC discrimination.
Nor were they participating
effectively in efforts to defend lgbt communities
from attacks from the radical
right.
Instead, student groups were expending
large amounts of time and energy simply
keeping themselves together, having to
re-invent or re-establish their groups year
after year as people graduated or, with
disturbing frequency, became burned out.
On campus after campus, the yearly cycle
was the same: The school year begins
and a small group of lgbt people somehow
find their way to each other. Perhaps
there's an officially recognized lgbt organization,
perhaps there are some officers
in place, selected the previous Spring,
and perhaps there's a meager budget. In
any case, this small group of people are
beginning the year without benefit of a
road map — whoever was recording the
activities of the previous year(s) took the
notebook with him when he left and no
one knows where he is. The newly
selected "leader," if in place at all, is clueless
about how to attract members, run
meetings, make decisions, and plan activities
or events. It's not her fault; no one
knew to take the time to groom or prepare
her.
And so, somehow, the group pulls itself
together to do something — maybe a
dance, maybe a speakers series, maybe a
pride celebration — but since they don't
really know how to go about attracting
new members or enlisting volunteers for
various tasks, the small group ends up
doing everything themselves. Some
spend so much time on the event that
their school work suffers, while others
become resentful and bitter about the
"apathy" among other lgbts on the campus.
They may or may not have a successful
event, but burned out, angry and
depressed, some in the small group
decide it wasn't worth all the effort and
they walk away, never to return."-LGBT Campus Organizing Handbook
I don't want that to happen!
I also want to solve this conflict:
"One of the most common problems
that lgbt groups, in particular,
run into is that the tension
between those who want to be
activists, and those who want to
be social."
My goals, to foster leadership for the next generation of students!
This is what I fear:
"Telephone interviews and campus
visits with lgbt students, faculty and staff
from dozens of institutions across the
country revealed a consistently low level
of functioning on the part of most lgbt
campus organizations. This research
revealed that student groups in particular
were rarely engaged in efforts to bring
lgbt subject matter into the curriculum.
They were not strategizing for domestic
partner health benefits. They were not
marshaling resources to end ROTC discrimination.
Nor were they participating
effectively in efforts to defend lgbt communities
from attacks from the radical
right.
Instead, student groups were expending
large amounts of time and energy simply
keeping themselves together, having to
re-invent or re-establish their groups year
after year as people graduated or, with
disturbing frequency, became burned out.
On campus after campus, the yearly cycle
was the same: The school year begins
and a small group of lgbt people somehow
find their way to each other. Perhaps
there's an officially recognized lgbt organization,
perhaps there are some officers
in place, selected the previous Spring,
and perhaps there's a meager budget. In
any case, this small group of people are
beginning the year without benefit of a
road map — whoever was recording the
activities of the previous year(s) took the
notebook with him when he left and no
one knows where he is. The newly
selected "leader," if in place at all, is clueless
about how to attract members, run
meetings, make decisions, and plan activities
or events. It's not her fault; no one
knew to take the time to groom or prepare
her.
And so, somehow, the group pulls itself
together to do something — maybe a
dance, maybe a speakers series, maybe a
pride celebration — but since they don't
really know how to go about attracting
new members or enlisting volunteers for
various tasks, the small group ends up
doing everything themselves. Some
spend so much time on the event that
their school work suffers, while others
become resentful and bitter about the
"apathy" among other lgbts on the campus.
They may or may not have a successful
event, but burned out, angry and
depressed, some in the small group
decide it wasn't worth all the effort and
they walk away, never to return."-LGBT Campus Organizing Handbook
I don't want that to happen!
I also want to solve this conflict:
"One of the most common problems
that lgbt groups, in particular,
run into is that the tension
between those who want to be
activists, and those who want to
be social."
My goals, to foster leadership for the next generation of students!
posted by Blue Writer at
11:49 PM
0 Comments
