October 26th's Meeting

We talked this meeting about what happened/our expierience about Allies week.

There was some positive expierences, but also some negative.

Here's a few things to say in those negative experiences, or "do's" if you will:
-Walk away, you don't need to provoke them.
-If you are sitting down, tell them that you respect their opinion and turn to someone else. If they try to provoke you more, just ignore it.
-Use it as a teachable moment

Don'ts:
-Handel it in an agressive manner
-Use bad language in response
-start a physical or verbal fight over the words

-What if we did a presentation during class rooms, or do a video on the tv about awareness on Gay rights?
Brianstorm!!
-Needs to grab peoples attention
~LOUD AND PERSONAL
~MAKES PEOPLE THINK
-Tailgaite a Class Meeting?(If we get a speaker we will need a group to stand up on stage with him/her)
-TV Commercail/PSA? (Do by departments? During tutorial.)
-Factual Information!!! (how to not be mean about it, why we believe GSA is a good thing to support, etc...)
-People who had things happen/know things give expierences
-If go to classes, make it group dicussion?
-Pamphlets? Definition Sheets?

WE DECIDED ON GOING INTO CLASSES ON WENSDAYS DURING TUTORIAL TIME.
-Deciding on the groups now, those who want to/able to talk about it.

We need to get a schedule together for those who will/can do it. Mrs. Woods is talking to the teachers about it, and next meeting we should be creating it. :D

Krista is making more GSA Prism posters! :D

Audrey says Hi mom! :D

Fundraisers:
-Bracelet making Party?
-Bake Sale
-Ribbons
(Sell during lunch, or meetings)

T-Shirts? What are we doing about that?

On a special note, the North Star Visited our humble room of 128 this date. :D
The article is appearing possibly next newspaper. I shall talk to Anya. :S

Tis End!

Monday's Meeting

Audrey wont be able to do a full meeting this monday, so we're going to have a two parter! This monday we will have "part one" and then next week we will have "part tw" which is the more indepth part.

Also the north star will be there on monday so beware those who don't want/ can't be phototed!

Hate Crimes Bill Passed!!

I just got an email from the Human Rights Campaign tonight. Here's what it said:

"Dear Rose,

The hate crimes bill has passed through Congress!

I have some amazing news: after a Senate vote today, the inclusive hate crimes bill has crossed its last hurdle in Congress! President Obama has vowed to sign it by the end of this month.

Today's victory marks a truly pivotal moment in our fight for LGBT equality. It happened because of the dedication of people like you and the families of Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., for whom the bill is named.

And with bills seeking to end workplace and military discrimination coming up for debate in Congress, today's victory could be just the first of many if we can keep up our momentum.

But even as we celebrate this amazing news, we're already getting a sense of the fight we'll have to wage to keep our momentum going.

Courageous lawmakers are continuing to hear from right-wing groups falsely claiming their vote will end free speech, criminalize anti-gay thoughts, and open the door to jailing pastors for their sermons.

One recent right-wing article said passing this bill would "shred America's Judeo-Christian value system."

That's what we're up against.

It's clear that we can't afford to sit back and hope for the best.

But we've proved today that if we continue to fight with the passion and persistence that paved the way for today's hate crimes victory – we can fulfill the promise of this moment, despite our anti-equality opposition.

I hope you'll take one moment today to celebrate this turning point and send your message of support for the families whose dedication helped pass this law:

http://www.LoveConquersHate.org

Thank you again for everything you've done to help make this possible.

Warmly,

Joe Solmonese
President"

The bill that he is talking about is a recent act called the "Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act". The act is all about expaning the 1969 United States federal hate-crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim's actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.

The bill would also:

* remove the current prerequisite that the victim be engaging in a federally-protected activity, like voting or going to school;
* give federal authorities greater ability to engage in hate crimes investigations that local authorities choose not to pursue;
* provide $10 million in funding for 2008 and 2009 to help state and local agencies pay for investigating and prosecuting hate crimes;
* require the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to track statistics on hate crimes against transgender people (statistics for the other groups are already tracked).

I personally would like to add that our Michigan Representatives in the senate voted yes. :D

The act passed today, October 22nd, and only has to wait for Obama to sign it. Let us all cross our fingers in hope.

Next Week's PRISM Meeting

Here are some things that we should cover at next weeks meeting.

A)TG Day of Remembrance is coming up on November 20th (Otherwise know as the Transgender Day Of Remembrance: ). Are we going to do something for it?

B)Make sure everyone is aware of the blog. :)

C)Teacher leaflets! D and Tara, can you guys bring it in, if you have it done?

D)We might be possibly making Allies ribbons, and selling them for like $.50. What do you all think about that?

We'll see you at monday's meeting!

Remember, we're in room 128 now, aka Necto's room. :)

Weekly Update for October 12th

OCT 12 2009

Placed Staff Members:

Chair – Audrey

Co-Chair – Felix

Secretary – Rose

Treasurer – Jessica

Project Manager – Katherine

Liaison Team – TBD


Position Descriptions (Can and will be changed in future reference):

Chair: Runs the club, determines what we need to cover each week, basically president.

Co-Chair: Runs the club in absence of Chair, works very closely with chair so knows what was planed to discuss in Chair's absence, works closely as a Liaison between the other staff members, basically Vice President.

Secretary: Notations during meetings, runs the “newspaper” and makes sure that everyone is informed of what has happened at a meeting even if the other members are not there, updates Facebook Page and sends out emails regarding club events and the like, works with Chair to inform people of what needs to happen at meetings via email/facebook. Also BLOG!

Treasurer: Money manager, works with all projects, forms and keeps a budget for all club activities, formulates money raising activities and talks about them to the Chair to get them running.

Project Manager: Oversees all projects that are occurring at the moment to take care of problems that may arise, Liaison between the different projects and the Secretary and Chair to get more support on projects or help with a certain project that needs help (Secretary to send bulletins out to get more help, Chair for most everything else).

Liaison Team: A group of students, and Mrs. Woods, to go between the group and Mr. Jackson to get support/approval on projects/any other reason.


Current Projects to be done:

- Allies Week Events

-Allies Fliers – Jessica Trobaugh

-Teacher Info Paper – Dragana and Tara

- GSA Allies Poster – (If Possible – Needs Jackson Approval)

-Lunch Participants:

-A: Nikki, Jessi, Mary

-B: Leah, Dragana, Jessica

-C: Amber, Rose, *Audrey

-D: Krista, Tara, Jubilee

(* = Available all four lunches)

-Survey (Group Participation)

-Writing Group: Dragana, Audrey, Felix, Tara

-Copies: Katherine

-Pass Abouts: Tara, Jubilee, Krista, Mary, Jessica


Liaison Team Assignments:

- Talk to Jackson about whether or not Teachers can openly talk about PRISM in their classrooms before Allies Week, (think Prep Time...)

-Talk to Jackson (TtJ) about making an announcement during the pep assembly this week.

-TtJ about permission for poster during lunch

Times News Alert

As Felix posted on Facebook:

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1928932,00.html

This is amazing!

Welcome to the offical PRISM blog

This is where I shall be posting the updates of PRISM. What happens at the meetings, what projects we're working on, and so on and so forth. :D

So Welcome to the official LCHSN GSA PRISM site.