Minutes


Wednesday, 7 April, 2004

weeeeeeee

1. had a whopping 11 people!  with 2 from st. olaf too!

2. did an agenda approval.

3. got an update about genderpac from allison.  they're (dustin and allison)
still trying to get funding.  money from dean govoni unfortunately didn't work
out, but they did get money from wgst and the chapel, which is great.  they will
be submitting requests to csa and updating us on everything.

4. decided that roxanne as our brand new shining treasurer is in charge of going
to the spring allocations meeting and gather information on what we've spent and
how much money we have.

5. decided that saga would agree to be affiliated to amnesty international.
they sent us a quarterly newsletter and human rights information.  this will
also mean that we will collaborate with the amnesty international chapter at
carleton. saga takes an international perspective.

6. have a new policy which is to bring snacks to saga!  allison will bring
snacks at the meeting in two weeks.

7. are really excited about marriage activism night!!!  there was lots of
discussion about what needs to be done, so here goes.  you'll also be getting
individual emails about what you each volunteered for.

  --we are going to not only have buttons but actually make them there!  roxanne
    is in charge of getting the supplies and the button maker.

  --there will be snacks!  leah is in charge of getting money from the
alternative beverage fund.  pizza, cookies, beverages, oh my!

  --c.j. is going to contact matt bartel about putting an ad in the all campus
email.

  --gay marriage man, lawrence's supercool cartoon, will be appearing in a
quarter page nnb ad.  leah is in charge of that one.

  --rachel and c.j. are going to get the ball rolling on talking to county
officials about gay marriage legislation.  anyone want to try to get a marriage
license?

  --music will include a selection of indigo girls provided by leah, and other
good stuff from nora, c.j., allison, and courtney.

  --supplies!  here's what we need for the night (c.j. and allison):
        *envelopes
        *paper
        *markers, pens, crayons, scissors, glue (all of which could probably be
         obtained from the gsc, but it should be checked out)
        *old magazines (to cut out stuff for buttons and cards, anyone could
         bring some)
        *construction paper

  --we already have info on minnesota and oregon.  we still need stuff from
massachusetts, california, new york, new mexico, and all the rest.  it may be a
good idea to get info from admissions about the states that a lot of carleton
people come from.  leah and c.j. are going to obtain the info and make neatly
organized binders with divider tabs with all the info.  also, they'll get the
addresses we need to send the stuff.

  --we'll ask people for donations for postage and also send a lot of emails.

  --and FINALLY!  tell everyone you know.  it starts at 8pm on wed, the 14th of
april in sayles 160 (the act office).  it's time to get excited and get active
about gay marriage legislation.  whew.  you'll get personal emails too.



Wednesday, 21 April, 2004

-we started a bit late (8:30) after a very cool discussion with susan raffo (and
her adorable partner and child), the author of queerly classed.

-BUDGET, roxanne gave us an update after dutifully filling out the budget
request for spring allocations (with the help of nora).  we requested about
$1300, hopefully giving saga the opportunity to do more cool things like go to
conferences next year, have more nights like activism night, and head up to the
cities.

-OFFICERS, nora let us know that when filling out the budget request, it was
necessary toname officers, and because we hadn't had a chance to talk about that
yet, it is listed as leah-president, nora-vice-president, roxanne-treasurer, and
courtney-other special person (secretary).  of course, that is subject to
change, so we raised the possibility of having an election.  no one had any
great ideas for nominations or other possible offices, but we will be revisiting
that at the next meeting.  another, more specific email will be sent shortly
about election  plans.

-CITIES TRIP, in the process of bugeting we realized that saga has some left
over bucks asdoes ciao, and we thought it would be a good idea for saga and ciao
to sponsor a trip to the cities together.  possible places include bookstores,
coffee shops, and clubs.  we thought of lucy's (mainly women-oriented queer bar
in st.paul) and bryant lake bowl (cool bowling alley in uptown that has drag
shows).  if you have other ideas, please, come to the next meeting and tell us
about them. watch for a sign-up soon to actually go.

-LGBT HOMELESSNESS, after such a wonderful discussion on class and queerness, we
decided that saga might want to get involved with lgbtq homelessness here in
northfield. it is estimated that some 15-40% (and probably more) of homeless
youth are lgbtq. courtney will check out the feasibility with the act office.

-TRANS ISSUES, we also decided that it's time for saga to really get involved
with transgender issues on campus.  we already have a box for transgender on the
carleton application, but what is the next step.  we will talk to res life about
the implications for housing and president oden about possible steps to for
faculty and staff education.  carrie is going to talk to outfront minnesota and
kaaren about how to get started.  also, some have expressed interest in more
transSTUDENT programming.  any good ideas?

-VOTING, rachel brought up the possibility of saga's involvement with AWESOME,
an effort to get all students on campus registered to vote.  we decided that
issue is very pertinent right now to sexuality and gender issues, so yes, we
will be a part of it.

-finally, EEP! I FORGOT TO HAVE SOMEONE SIGN UP FOR SNACKS FOR THE NEXT MEETING.
 if someone would like to, please let me know.



Wednesday, 28 April, 2004

-ELECTION RESULTS we gave the elections another shot.  saga members feel that continuity in leadership is important, so nominations were made for officers for the entire 2004-2005 school year, accomidations for those who might be off campus in the fall.  roxanne was nominated for treasurer, max for secretary, and courtney, nora, leah, and rachel for general officer positions/co-presidency. everyone voted for two presidents, treasurer, and secretary.  carrie was our official senior counter.  so, for next year--secretary: max noor, treasurer: roxanne moreno, and co-presidents:  leah entenmann and courtney speigner.

-UPDATES from last week's ideas,
    *carrie spoke with kaaren about possible action within reslife concerning transgender housing         policy.  
    we will invite them to a meeting to have a casual and effective conversation with steve wisener         and bucky zietz.
    *carrie also spoke with kaaren about educational programs for faculty about trans issues.             outfront would be interested in conducting the programs.  kaaren will help us to contact             carleton administration about it soon.
    *we decided that transgender social/support programming should be its own wonderful program,             separate from saga.  roxanne and max will work with gsc to start something.  
    *we are still in the process of gathering information about possible outreach to lgbtq homeless         youth.

-CITIES TRIP with CIAO, the best idea we have now is to do bryant lake bowl first (maybe a drag show, depending on the date) and then on to lucy's.  we are only deciding between the friday of 7th week or 8th.  

-RED CROSS, the university of vermont's senate has issued a statement opposing the discriminatory practices of the red cross that exclude men who have had male sexual partners since 1977.  saga would like to bring this idea to carleton's own senate and issue a similar statement. this DOES NOT mean to ask people to not participate in the blood drive to protest.  it just shows our position on the issue. carleton would, of course, continue to enthusiastically participate in the blood drive.  nora is in the process of figuring out what we need to do to make this possible.  

-GENDER FUCK, let's have a gender fuck day!  it would be heavily publicized, encouraging everyone to dress/express themselves in a way that transgresses rigid gender roles.  any good ideas for a day this spring?

-MONEY, roxanne will report how much we have of it next wednesday, after spring als final decision.

-PLUGS
    * 16 may, evening-q&a house and wa house co-sponsor an awesome celebration of recent official         legality of same-sex marriage in the state of massachusetts.  woohoo.  wedding cake will be         served.
    *friday-tie-day- wear a tie!  it's hot and can make a social statement
    *take back the night- next friday night in great hall.  do crafts, march, listen to good music.          raise some awareness about the often silenced topic, sexual violence

-SNACKS, yummmmmmmmmmmmm
    *carrie-the 5th, thank you!
    *alisa-the 12th, thank you!  



Wednesday, 5 May, 2004

-ATTENDENCE, oh, man, 20 people all in all!

-GENDER PAC CONFERENCE, dustin gave us the scoop about the gender pac conference.  dustin and allison travelled to d.c. last weekend.  they saw riki wilchins, dean spade and talked about masculinity, manhood and what it means, organizing as well as other many other supercool things.  we are looking forward to them sharing all sorts of knowledge from the conference with us.

-SPRING ALLOCATIONS kind of sucks for us, for the time being.  we received quite a bit less than we asked for.  so far we have only $242.  but there will, of course, be appeals when we explain why karaoke is pretty important to the drag ball, both for attendance and in the spirit of performance, as well as other stuff we need.  nora's going to take care of that one.

-CITIES TRIP, we decided that the trip (co-sponsored by CIAO and SaGA) will be on the friday, the 21st, which is 8th week.  we will first go to bryant lake bowl in uptown, then to lucy's in st.paul.  the sign up sheet will be for at least 14 and maybe more.  we need campus drivers if anyone wants to volunteer.

-RED CROSS, saga would like for the csa to make a statement saying that we oppose the discriminatory nature of the red cross donation restrictions, as they exclude men who have had sex with men since 1977, or women who have had sex with men who have had sex with men since 1977.  that's a mouthfull. the idea that this group is at very high risk for HIV contraction is outdates,a nd statistics show that other groups have even higher risk and are not specifically excluded.  we will look to csaw, who got csa to pass an anti-war statement, as an example.  next wednesday we will draft a resolution and then set a time to propose it to csa.  we need the red cross's specific policy (leah) and up-to-date statistics about risk and HIV.

-MARRIAGE PANEL, several saga-ers went to the gay marriage panel at st. olaf on tuesday evening.  monica meyer, public policy director of outfront minnesota, tom prichard, president of the minnesota family council, and dale carpenter, associate professor of law at the university of minnesota, participated in a panel discussion about gay marriage, from personal, religious, and legal perspectives.  we voted, and decided that dale carpenter is saga's hero for pointing out that prichard's arguments against gay marriage are circular, among other wonderful, articulate, pro-marriage points.  he will be notified of his position in saga.

-TRANSGENDER ISSUES AND RESLIFE,  william zietz and steve wisener will be invited to attend an open dialogue with saga members about housing policy for transgendered students.  

-TRANS SUPPORT GROUP project may be taken on by the gsc as well as gender roots.  roxanne, max, and dustin are interested in facilitating.  roxanne will talk to kaaren about particulars.

-FACULTY TRAINING, carrie brings news from kaaren that it would be best to conduct trainings through the learning and teaching center, which is well-respected, and well-attended by staff.  dustin will contact someone from the ltc about having a program (possibly assisted by outfront) to help make carleton classrooms trans-friendly.

-DISCRIMINATION AND STUDENT ORGS, mustard seed has written a clause that leaders of mustard seed must meet certain faith guidelines.  this is happening around the country and is setting a precedent that religious groups may discriminate, while other types of student groups may not.  sinda will write a viewpoint or ask-the-ethicist article for the carletonian.

-GLBTQ HOMELESS YOUTH, max spoke with sheri who is willing to help saga get more information about how we might support glbtq youth that are homeless.  for more info, see www.nhc.org.


Wednesday, 12 May, 2004

-BUDGET, in the sad state of affairs that is our allocated budget we are going to have to ask for some more money.  kaaren thinks that we will not get any more money this year, but that we may be able to get karaoke back if we try a special allocation next year.  

-RED CROSS, leah emailed the red cross for their exact policy on blood donation, which should be arriving shortly.  courtney shared info that other colleges have used to write similar statements of disapproval of their discrimanatory policy. we decided to get on the csa agenda to propose the idea this coming week, have a week to possibly petition/refine our proposal, and hopefully have them vote the next week.  c.j. and nora wrote a very professional statement that expresses our concern over the policy while still being sensitive to the importance of the red cross.  

-DALE CARPENTER has been notified of and accepted his position as Our Hero.

-RES LIFE, a meeting is scheduled for monday, the 17th of may at 6pm in the gsc for saga-ers to talk with bucky and steve from reslife about housing policies for transgendered students.  steve is planning on going to a conference this summer to learn about how he might go about creating these policies.  still, saga would like to ask questions such as what options they have in mind for the class of 2008 and propose changes to the roommate questionnaire, possibly including better roommate placement for queer students.  come to the meeting with ideas and/or just to listen.

-FACULTY TRAINING is still a little up in the air.  the only thing left to do is contact the learning and teaching center and make some suggestions.

-HOMELESSNESS, it was decided that going through the act center is not the best way to achieve what we hope to accomplish with GLBTQ homeless youth.  leah is investigating whether a shelter for GLBTQ folks already exists in minneapolis, and maybe saga could volunteer.

-STUDENT ORGS CHARTER, sinda talked to kaaren, who said that dean govoni is already speaking with mustard seed about their charter.   this project is now in a "holding pattern," especially under the direction of saga.  leah and max will talk to members of the christian community to gain their perspective.

Wednesday, 19 May, 2004
-RED CROSS, after a long night of waiting to speak with csa monday, nora did not get the opportunity.  instead, the meeting with saga actually scheduled on the agenda is monday, the 24th of may, at 7pm.
-RES LIFE MEETING, saga-ers met with steve and bucky from res life on monday night (the 17th) about housing policies for trans students.  the current way of addressing trans students is on a case by case business.  steve is attending the conference this summer on specific policy options, but they are writing policy carefully in order to ensure that trans students in the future will have options and input on housing possiblities.  we made suggestions about the roommate housing questionnaire about queer friendly signals to students and possible extra questions about identity.  we also decided that saga should help create a trans fact sheet for swa stalls.  the message from res life was that they would like to see more opportunities for trans students on this campus and don't mind being the front-runners, but still need to be mainly in synch witht he college.  this means saga has its work cut out for itself talking to admissions, the registrar, the deans, etc.  good projects to carry on with next year!  we may table with info on gender blind housing and possibly a petition to let res life know how many current students are interested.  
-LTC, meeting at 10am with people from the learning and teaching center about the much anticipated faculty training on trans awareness.  we will get info on this at the 9th week meeting.
-HOMELESSNESS, in the stress of the end of the term and without reminders, a few saga people understandably have postponed their research on homelessness and glbtq youth until the 9th week meeting.  we are excited to hear about it.  on a related note, saga is interested in more involvement with district 202 the glbtqa teen center in the cities.  they may need help with their rummage sale.  more info soon.
-MUSTARD SEED, sinda wrote a response to the ask the ethicist column about the discriminatory charter to appear in the  8th week issue of the carletonian. saga will leave further involvement and concern to other orgs.
-PLUGS, lucy's and bowling-friday night-super fun; gsc orgs potluck on friday the 28th on mai fete from 4:30-6:30.  sign-up soon to bring something tasty!  as usual, friday tieday for superhot style and gender norm transgression.
-SNACKS-leah!

Wednesday, 26 May, 2004
-AGENDA,  everyone was okay with the planned agenda and even  added discussion about talking with rob oden and trans fact sheets for swa stalls
-INTROS, everyone already knows each other's names, favorite colors, funny, anecdotal stories from the day, aspirations to be a wing-ed animal, and now the plans for the summer.  sounds like everyone  has cool plans.  my favorite was working in a hardware store.
-LTC, dusting reported on his meeting with mary savin, tim vick, and kaaren williamson about intro to trans issues for staff.  they decided that it was best to sneak some learning in, not in a formal training.  there are events to be put on by the ltc with the theme of carleton as a residential community.  this should provide a very good and relevant jumping off point to talk about trans issues. kaaren and steve wisener will be on a panel in early fall and hopefull a student will contribute to a panel in later fall.   in the winter matt rand will hopefully give a talk on his bio-research that problematizes gender.  in the spring, it will be our turn to bring in a speaker.
-RED CROSS, nora reported that the csa was very receptive to saga's proposal of a statement of disapproval of discriminatory red cross policies.  it was sent to the committe to be drafted formally.  if you can, please come and show your support at the senate meeting on monday night.  
-SPRING PICNIC, mai fete- 4:30-6:30 this friday.  saga-ers please bring some fruit if you can, and it will be fab.
-NATIONAL COMING OUT WEEK DANCE is in the fall.  saga has been asked to put it on.  because it is traditionally a ciao event, we might just work together and
co-sponsor that baby.
-HOMELESSNESS, leah got in touch with district 202, a glbtq youth organization in minneapolis, and found that there is a person who has the specific job of counciling run-away and homeless youth.  we'll get more involve next fall.  
-SECRETARY/TREASURER, max has declined her position as secretary, so we did quick, new elections for secretary and treasurer.  roxanne ran for secretary, and nora ran for treasurer, both unopposed, so there you have it.  the new treasurer and secretary.  in the fall, roxanne will do both.
-MEETING NEXT WEEK?--NO! SAGA PARTY!!!!-  come to q&a house next wednesday for some last day of classes partying.  and give leah a few bucks beforehand, if possible.
-ROB ODEN, c.j. talked to president oden who said he backs saga's and res life's quest to make the campus welcome and friendly to trans students 100%  the big guy is on our side!
-TRANS and INTERSEX FACT SHEETS in the swa stalls, carrie checked on what we have and it is not so great.  katie has volunteered to start over and make better ones for next year.  
back