I've been thinking quite a bit about how we can not only be a better student group, but a better ACTIVIST student group.

To recap the last year, I feel we did a lot of/too many events that either were poorly attended, slapped together at the last minute, or were not truly cared about. That being said, I think it would be a good idea to perhaps stick to two really big events, and NOT at the ends of the semesters--because of the stress with finals.

These two events should be incredibly well-planned, well-budgeted, well-promoted, and things that the entire collective cares about as opposed to only a few members. These events, I believe, should be activist related (not necessarily radical, but definitely HIGH-IMPACT and HIGHLY VISIBLE), and/or educationally related. I feel like the Feministing Panel was a super event for us to do this past year, but could have been a lot bigger and promoted more heavily. What took away from this event was a lot of the other sort of piddley events that surrounded it that no one was really into. I propose we botch any sort of film series--while it was great for the first couple of films, it soon became a stressor and a pain in the butt to put on. It would be better if we did one HUGE film event, related to feminism perhaps, and followed it with a panel-like discussion.

In terms of WHAT these two larger events should be, I'm not entirely certain. We talked about doing more educational things with younger students (middle school) about sex education. It's definitely possible for us to start a teaching squad that is responsible for going out to schools and teaching these oh so very important topics.

Personally, I would love to see a march that celebrates women, transgender, and gender non-conforming people ON CAMPUS but also raises awareness of the violence, oppression, legal rights, and other such heinous inequalities. We could team up with the Women's Center, the GLBTA Programs Office, the Trans Commission, the Aurora Center, and other student groups on campus. It would be important to have a speaker who could talk about inter-related oppressions and their connection to feminism. It would be very much like Take Back the Night. Maybe, then, we should be much more involved in Take Back the Night and that can be our big event for the spring?
Any sort of march would be GREAT in my book.

As for the Fall, I haven't fully sorted that one out yet. I mean, a march could also happen in the fall..doesn't matter.

It would be more than wonderful if we could have a well-planned programming schedule for the entire year...at least some sort of rough draft so we aren't scrambling a few days before an event. Like, let's think about RATH now as opposed to a week before it happens, yes?

Also, let's think about being well equipped and ready to protest any sort of anti-feminist, anti-progressive thing on campus. If we witness something we dislike on campus, we should really try to plan a counter attack to make sure our voice is heard.

I want people to know that we are an activist student group, not an entertainment group. While entertainment is great and fun, people often times lose the message.

That's my two cents, how about you?