Subject: r ead me: meeting minutes June and July 06 & HELP NEEDED requests
From: "Reis, Elizabeth" < http://www.safeschoolscoalition.org/contact/?id=1 >
Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2006 18:31:24 -0700
To: "SAFE SCHOOLS: post to main list" , "SAFE SCHOOLS: post to \"IMPORTANT NEWS\" list"

[:ssc539:] read me: meeting minutes June and July 06 & HELP NEEDED requests Dear Safe Schools Coalition members and friends:

Below find belated minutes from June & July … with apologies for their being so late. Find help needed requests in RED (if you are seeing this email in Rich Text format)

Reminder: The Coalition meets tomorrow, Aug 15, 2-4 p.m. PST
        Come meet the new staff person at the Washington State OSPI's Equity Office, Shirley McCune.
        Come see the premiere showing of the new video called, "I'm Not That Different" from DSHS re: LGBTQ youth in foster care

        More info about where to park, for those coming in person, or where to call, for those who want to join in by conference call Beth ">

Can you record minutes tomorrow? We are short two secretaries. If you have been meaning to volunteer, this is your chance. We need you! Contact Beth to chat about it: 206-296-4970.

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Minutes 06/20/06, 2-4 p.m. PDT
Safe Schools Coalition Meeting
Chairing & Recording: Marsha Botzer & Kathy Kaminski

Present:  Beth Reis, Public Health- Seattle-King Co; Heather Murphy, SCC Intervention/Individual Member; Frieda Takamura, WA Education Association; Marsha Botzer, NGLTF, Ingersoll; Chris Johnson, King Co. Sexual Assault Resource Center; Kathy Kaminski; Kari Kesler, Public Health- Seattle King Co., Kristina Armenakis, AmeriCorps member SSC/LGBT Community Center; Gabi Clayton, SSC webspinner.

(1) INTROS
Happy Birthday, Kristina!

(2) KRISTINA’S AMERICORPS POSITION
        The Safe Schools Coalition/LGBT Center AmeriCorps position was not funded for next year.  Kristina will contract with the coalition for 6 hrs/wk for 6 months to continue managing the speaker’s bureau.  The JustServe AmeriCorps program was not funded for the next year and they are looking for other funding.  We are very fortunate that Kristina has agreed to contract with the coalition.  Thanks Kristina!

(3) SSC BUS IN THE PRIDE PARADE
        We are still looking for a volunteer to make a Costco run for Sunday.  Gabi will send a message to the listserve tonight.  If you are interested, please call Lisa at 206-252-0982

       
(4) MEMBERSHIP
Tabled:  Seattle Black Pride Membership (we just didn't have the information with us – Tad and Piper couldn’t attend -- to be addressed at the July meeting)

(5) NEW RESOURCE CHECKER
        There are two interns working with the coalition.
One is checking resources to make sure our information is correct and the other is updating our resource page on the website. 

        We were also contacted by Elizabeth, a recent Swarthmore graduate going to law school, who discovered our website and would like to update/check the transgender/genderqueer page on the website.  Gabi will work with Elizabeth on this.

(6) ARTICLE IN TOLERANCE.ORG RE: A TRANS KINDERGARTENER
        A great article in Tolerance.org profiles a family that is very supportive of their trans child, who is in kindergarten.  A link will be put on the website.

        Marsha mentioned that she is getting numerous calls from families all over that want to learn how to be supportive of their transgender kids.

(7) SSC RETREAT
        It has been a few years since we have had a retreat and it might be helpful for strategic planning.  The group agreed.  If we want to have a retreat on a weekday, we should plan it before school starts.

Weekends might work better for people.  For those in attendance five dates work; Sun, Sept. 24th; Sat, Oct.
21st; Sunday, Oct. 22nd; November 4th; or November 5th.  Beth will send out the possible dates to coalition members and ask them to respond with what dates work best.

(8) GREETING CARDS
        Greeting cards for bullies, targets, and allies have been created.  The cards have statements such as “you’re lucky I’m here”, “I’m fine”, “what difference does it make”, and “it doesn’t matter” on the front.

The inside states, “I deserve safety and respect at school.  It shouldn’t make any difference…how masculine or feminine I am, who I like or love, whether I’m trans or queer or not, whether I’m gay, lesbian, bi, straight, or not sure, who my family is, what color I am, what religion I am, what languages I speak, where I come from.”

        We discussed T-shirt options with the greeting card slogans on them.  Beth sent options to youth GLBT groups and hasn’t heard back yet.  If you have any suggestions, please send them to Beth.  We could make

all the options available for t-shirts on café press.  
        Gabi will make a pdf file of the cards and put them on the website.  If we are going to send them to schools for teachers to post or hand out, we need to choose one to print.  We will wait to hear back from youth and then decide.

(9) SPEAKERS BUREAU UPDATE - KRISTINA
        (a) 386 people were reached in May.  Five of the seven groups trained were youth.
        (b) Kristina is creating a listserve for the speaker’s bureau
        (c) Training of trainers in June- 11 new trainers and three current trainers attended.  They included a teacher, a toastmasters member, and a couple of trans folks.  Kristina is doing one-on-one training for someone in Eastern Washington and two folks from the Kitsap Peninsula.

        (d) Kristina is planning a supplemental speakers training on white privilege at the LGBT center on July 22nd.

(10) FUNDRAISING
        $1525 was raised at the House Party.  Thanks to everyone who attended and donated!  Thank you to Linda and Tom Baker for hosting the house party!

(11) INTERVENTION SERVICES
        (a) We have three new intervention specialists
        (b) Intervention Services marking project- Kristina has not gotten a response from the ad agencies she has contacted.  She is still looking for advertising agencies and a graphic designer to donate time or services for this project.

        (c) Interventions- Chris began a new intervention yesterday.  There is also an intervention right now for the son of two moms, who was brutally assaulted.

There has been a spike in the last couple of months, which we often have at the end of the school year. 

(12) PASSAGES NW - CHRIS
        Passages NW is an outdoor experiential learning program for young women.  They are developing an anti-discrimination statement and policy for how to answer questions that parents ask.  They are creating a course culture to make school safe for all students.  Kristina will follow up to possibly set up a training for staff and course instructors.  Frieda offered to help with TA on policy development.

(13) COMEDY UNDERGROUND - BETH
        The Comedy Underground does fundraisers for local non-profits and has offered to host one for the coalition.  NARAL and NW Women’s Law Center have both participated in the past.  Kari will check with NARAL and Beth will speak with Lisa at the NWWLC to ask how their experience was with this event.

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Minutes 07/18/06, 2-4 p.m. PDT
Safe Schools Coalition Meeting
Chairing: Frieda Takamura; Recording: Kathy Kaminski

Present:  Beth Reis, Public Health- Seattle-King Co; Heather Murphy, SCC Intervention/Individual Member; Frieda Takamura, WA Education Association; Marsha Botzer, NGLTF, Ingersoll; Chris Johnson, King Co. Sexual Assault Resource Center; Kathy Kaminski; Kristina Armenakis, AmeriCorps member SSC/LGBT Community Center; Cathy Schmider, Ballard HS; Gabi Clayton, SSC webspinner; Robert Rakkety and Abby, GLSEN Puget Sound.

BUSINESS

  1. INTROS

(2)     YOUR HELP NEEDED

(3)     POSSIBLE NAME CHANGE – Beth

(4)     NATIONAL SAFE & WELCOMING ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS INITIATIVE – Beth, Ellen, Judy

(5)     MEMBERSHIP - Beth
a)      RENEWALS:  None
b)      NEW MEMBER APPLICATIONS: Human Rights Campaign Foundation and Seattle Black Pride Committee.  There were no objections and the applications were accepted unanimously.  Welcome to both of these organizations!

(6)     FUNDRAISING – Linda, Judy, Kristina, Beth
a)      Exciting Back-to-school Dinner & Concert –… This was Linda Baker’s idea and she has already done the work of finding the location and entertainment.  There was some concern that benefit concerts have not been well attended in the past.  24 tickets have been promised already.  There is no cost to the coalition.  We could advertise in the SGN, the Stranger, Seattle Weekly, etc.  Linda has also said she will work on outreach to get people to come.  There were no objections and the proposal was approved.

(7)     PRIDE reports – Lisa & Heather, Kristina
a)      Seattle- Heather and Kristina- Everything went well and the bus driver was fantastic.  Beth sent a thank you to the bus company.

b)      Bellingham

(8)     GREETING CARDS & T-SHIRTS – Gabi, Beth

(9)     NEW SSC ‘ZINE – Gabriel

(10)    CALIFORNIA SAFE SCHOOLS COALITION TEXTBOOK EFFORTS – Beth

(11)    ALL FAMILIES WELCOME BROCHURE – Beth

(12)    INTERVENTION – Heidi, Kristina, Beth
a)      Recent and ongoing interventions

(13)      SPEAKERS BUREAU – Kristina, Beth
a)      Recent gigs

  1.  NEW DATABASE & POSSIBLY WEB SITE – Beth, Tad, Gabi, Breanna
  2. Gabi reports that we are in the early planning stages regarding a new database to collect information.  It would all come into one central place (i.e. Donors, speakers, members, etc).  The design is being worked on.  Do we want to stay with a design similar to our current look?  Gabi is also working on making the website more interactive with the possibility of a blog.  Gabi and Breanna are putting together a survey for listserve subscribers so that we can have information on demographics.  Maybe later on we can survey web users as well.  Please take this survey RIGHT NOW if you haven't already: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=247672371233

(15)     THANK YOU’S TO KRISTINA & LISA C.!!!

(16)    Lifelong AIDS Alliance Walk on Saturday, September 9 th - Do we want to sponsor a team for SSC?  Kristina offered to help and Frieda will look into co-sponsoring a team with WEA.

SHARING

  1.  Safe Schools Research Brief
  2. From the California Safe Schools Coalition. Download at http://www.casafeschools.org/distpolicies.pdf

(19)     “Get Real: Real Facts, Real Solutions … Addressing Harassment, Bullying and Intimidation in Montana Schools” & “The End of Silence: Montana Gay Youth Speak”

(20)    Lesbian and Bisexual Women’s Health: Common Concerns, Local Issues

(21)    HRC Picture Magnets - Focus on OUR Family
(22)    Amaze- Elementary school curriculum of multicultural literature.  Volunteer parents read books about their own family.

(23)    Respect for All-   Film series by Women’s Educational Media about stereotypes of LGBT people.

(24)    UPCOMING MEETINGS … contact the chair if you have agenda items to suggest or if you need instructions about attending (in person) or calling in (by conference call)

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