Oh man. Okay, well, long story short: our GSA leaders graduated, leaving the GSA to my friend and I to run. This year, we did -nothing- productive, so my goal is to change that. I want our club to be known and to start making a difference, so that when we both graduate next year, we can leave it to someone else at a strong point. (The only 3 members left [including myself] are all seniors now, so I'm getting nervous! Thing is, I've never been in a GSA that's done anything useful, so I have no clue where to start! As the only gay leader, I feel obligated to really make it great, but I need some help. I read this; http://gsanetwork.org/get-involved/run-gsa Awesome, but I still need some tips from real people. What worked/didn't for you guys? What did you do that people just laughed off? What actually attracted members to your GSA? Things like that. Thanks!
uh i always wanted to suggest a movie night at my GSA. Where we could watch LGBT themed movies. I think that would be cool. Maybe a sort of news center like our own LGBT news section where DAN82 post articles on our rights movement. Get the members involved in the movement, you know keep them updated on the current state of affairs
I was actually planning on using those posts as a news resource I want to be more active with it, though, like maybe have a gay news meeting and see what we can do to improve whatever is happening in the news if it's bad? Hmm. Maybe we can run a weekly gay news story on the announcements to raise awareness of things. /thinking out loud
When I was involved in the gay group in college, we would be politically active--going to meetings and rallies and speaking out for gay rights. You could find out if there's any advocacy- or politics-related activity that your group could get involved in.
Find out the activist groups in your state and contact them and volunteer to help. Write letters to your senator to ask to support the repeal of DADT and support gay rights. Discuss transgendered and transphobia. Plan for coming out week and day of silence by handing out flyers and stickers that people can wear! Read up on the rules of your college to see where they stand on protecting rights on orientation. Start a Facebook group for members to join so they can keep up on meeting times and announcements. Contact other GSAs in the area and plan for coalition meetings! Discuss hot issues and new stories.
One of the first things is visibility. See if you can get one of you (or more) out in front of the school, preferably at an all-school assembly or something. Tell your story. Talk about how you felt and why GSA is important, and how there are probably 50 or 100 or whatever number of people in that audience who are gay or lesbian, right now (based on 10% of audience size), who know it but are afraid to talk about it. And make it known that your meetings are the place to come, both for straight people to learn more about how to be supportive to their friends who might be struggling, and to people struggling to come out. If you aren't out all the way it may be a big stretch, but it's something that will make a big difference for others and for the future of your GSA chapter. Next, political activism is a good thing, but so is volunteerism of any kind. Make the GSA not just a self-support community but one that volunteers, raises money for worthy causes, helps out other groups on campus. Finally, make use of the resources the GSA main office has to offer. There should be a liaison there that you can call and speak to for more ideas and support.
Pretty much the exact same thing is happening to me. The entire club graduated, except for me and one other person. The club advisor (all clubs at my school are required to have a teacher as an "advisor") told us that it's normal and that every year, seniors she's never seen before get involved. My school's GSA was fun but really lazy. Basically all we did was socialize, bitch, and gossip. We really only ever did anything else when the other GSAs in the area invited us to tag along with them. I sort of want us to do more but at the same time, I don't want the club to lose it's easygoing, carefree atmosphere.
You could possibly keep the atmosphere but change the subjects of discussion to more relevant topics?
hmm, plan an open event before the club signups? what event I really have no idea. a meeting probably. publically somewhere have some kind of announcement: "look around" raise you're hand if you said "That's so gay" or anything homophobic like that? raise you're hand if you heard it. keep you're hand up if you're openly gay (but maybe consider pplz safety...so possibly probably not say the last one and follow with) odds are, you will have a GLBT family member, friend, roommate, co-worker (ETC) someday if not now. do you want to learn what to do, say, or how to help them as they, maybe even you yourself, struggle with the situation now or later? n then invite everyone to the first meeting pre-club signup.
