Meeting Minutes 4/7/09

STACEYANN CHIN! Wednesday (tomorrow) night! Meet at 6:00 at 55th and Ellis; we will catch the 55 bus to the red line. Call eliza at 7082097119 if you are late/confused. The show starts at 7:30. Be there. (Here’s a link to info about the event)

Want to participate in a feminist focus group? Wednesdays at 6

Events We Discussed
Molly’s event: Self-Defense Workshop: 7-8 on April 30^th in Ratner

Wally’s event: The Feminist comedian is on a comedy hiatus—Feminist Open Mic Night instead?

New Events!!!!
Eighth Week (May 21): Eating disorder/body image panel?
Point person(s): Lindsay/Jess

Ninth Week (May 28): Teach-in: learn about feminist art, make cool stuff
Point person(s): Audrey/Jess

Really Important Event
Next Tuesday: Molly’s birthday.  Oh yeah.

Next Tuesday’s Meeting
Documentary/discussion about Bisexuality at Hull House
Meet in front 5710 at 5:30.  Documentary starts at 7.
We’ll have a mobile meeting on the bus.

Feminist Moments
Eliza saw a play.  Yay Eliza.

Audrey is writing a feminist BA because she is a BAMF.

Chris read an article about “buying” sex.  He might bring it in.  That would be sweet.

Audrey informed us that you can’t buy sex the way you buy a table.

Future Meetings
will not be lead; they will be facilitated by a rotating cast of characters. Wally will be next meeting’s facilitator. Remember that this meeting is MOBILE and will take place on the bus/train. Bad-ass.

>>here is the google calendar for our events this quarter<<

what is feminism?

so, just a forewarnin… my G, H, apostrophe and backspace keys are sticky… so excuse any typos.

Huge List of Possible Events (from last meeting winter quarter):

• Alternative Menstrual Products Teach-In
• Subversive  Women in Academics History Class Teach-In
• Female Masturbation Workshop
• Self Defense Workshop (Jess says talk to Theta)
• Hands-on Art Making creative awesome feminist art! / feminist art teach-in
• body image something
• feminist parenting
• feminist comedian: Carrie Callahan, carriefromcleveland@gmail.com
• women’s RSO study break
• feminist open mic night
• making t-shirts/sweaters/etc
• sex work something?
• sticker campaign & button maker!
• woodlawn collaborative… feminist book/reading club?

and some more we added tonight:

• sex communication workshop
• anarchafeminism
• feminism & religion

Here’s the definitive business stuff we sorted out:

THIRD WEEK APRIL 16: sex communication workshop– point person TBD
FOURTH WEEK APRIL 23: alternative menstrual products– dana
FIFTH WEEK APRIL 30: self defense– molly
SIXTH WEEK MAY 7: women’s RSO study break & comedian– wally
SEVENTH WEEK MAY 14: masturbation workshop– eliza
EIGHTH WEEK MAY 21: OPEN– discuss at next meeting
NINTH WEEK MAY 28: OPEN

please begin making room reservations now (especially wally). here’s the online way:
https://orcsa-ems10.uchicago.edu/VirtualEMSProfessional/

also, the SEX+++ documentary film series is NOT next week, it’s the 14th. so we’ll go then.
more info: http://groups.google.com/group/sexplusplusplus         ,        http://clarissethorn.wordpress.com/2009/01/15/the-sex-positive-documentary-film-list-finally-here/

let’s get crack-a-lackin’!

-eliza.

meeting notes 2/24

Hey boos,

We had a meeting tonight. It was nice. Absent members were sorely missed.

Here’s what we talked about!

1. On this Thursday (the 26th), 5710 is having its 1 Year Anniversary Celebration! We are tabling at 4:30, Molly is performing a poem at 5:30, and from 6 to 10 we will have an assigned room in the building in which to host an activity. What activity you ask?
   Why, what else but SMASHING THE PATRIARCHY??!!! that’s right– props to Wally for this brilliant idea of getting a pinata, putting notes all over it of what we hate about the patriarchy, and then smashing it to bits and eating delicious happiness candy afterwards.
   -Ali will be getting devices: hammer, bat, stick, etc.
   -Jenny will get candy: empowerMINTS, hershey kisses, jolly ranchers (no warheads)
   –eliza will get/make a pinata (or 2) and post-it notes and pens.
   -We arrived to the conclusion that Wally is the embodiment of the patriarchy
   
   
2. We decided against doing any formal celebration of International Women’s Day, so we’re doing the JANE documentary next week! 9th week Thursday the 5th at 7pm. Contact Medical Students for Choice about co-sponsoring and speaking at the event. We are requesting Harper 103 and a few rooms at 5710.
3. IMPORTANT!!: Next week we will meet in RC001 instead of 5710! We will be excavating and organizing and reading all the random awesome stuff inside the Femmaj locker! We will of course be sharing feminist moments and talking about the film screening. Be there or be square!

4. Register for the National Young Women’s Leadership Conference if you want to go.
   
5. The Que(e)ry zine party is this Friday!!! Get pumped!! This zine’s topic is sex, very broadly defined. Feminists have TONS to say about sex! What do you think? A big beautiful email got sent out to the listhost, but if you missed that and want more information email alison.feenstra@gmail.com. Bottom line: Friday 2/27, 5pm to 10pm, 5710 Woodlawn. See you there!
   Also, the zine is seeking anonymous submissions of photos of your (for lack of a better word) genitalia. Briefly, here’s how: 1. go to picvalley.net. 2. upload your picture from your computer or from some other place on the web. 3. for “your email” enter “junkshots@uchicago.edu” 4. for “friend’s email 1” enter “junkshots@uchicago.edu”
   5. push send. 6. your photo will be submitted anonymously and published anonymously in the zine (not full page or compare-and-contrast…this is an effort to confront the shame we feel about our bodies). any questions send to junkshots@uchicago.edu

WOW that was a hefty plate of minutes.

summary: 1) smashing the patriarchy thursday the 26th. 2) Jane documentary next thursday the 5th. 3) meeting in RC001 next week. 4) come to the zine making party from 5pm to 10pm at 5710 this friday the 27th. 5) send pictures of your genitalia to junkshots@uchicago.edu

Meeting Notes 2/17/09

Brought to you by Audrey:

-Brittany suggests that we read some Sherry Ortner! (womb envy)

-Just for fun: Towards a feminist language learning: Jill hit Tommy in the face. Then she rode away on her motorcycle. Jill a frappé Tommy sur son visage. Puis, elle a est parti sur sa mobylette. Little Tommy bakes a pie. It is a delicious pie. And it challenges the patriarchy. Fuck you, patriarchy; fuck you. Petit Tommy fait une tarte. C’est une tarte deliciouse. Et elle est contre la patriarchie. Va te faire foudre, patriarchie; va te faire foudre.

-Molly’s grandma had a birthday party for Susan B. Anthony!! She is awesome!!

-Ali went to the midwest LGBT college conference and it was dissapointing. 😦

-eliza gets Adbusters and it’s cool. Adbusters is a magazine that critiques consumer culture. (addendum: the reason this is in the meeting notes is because we discussed a photo in Adbusters that conjured a variety of responses in eliza, which she will probably scan and add to this post later. (the picture, not the responses))

-We should talk more about body image issues and “fat fear.” We talked about Beth Ditto from the Gossip and how talented she is, and how interviewers always ask her about her weight (wtf).

-We should have a feminist open mic night!

-We should also talk more about what we think about classroom climates and how friendly they are to people of color/women/queers. we talked about what a queer[ed] classroom looks/feels like. how is it different from a feminist classroom? an egalitarian classroom?

Back with a Preamble

Erin has been super-busy this quarter working at Social Justice High School in Little Village, being awesome. Regrettably, that means no one ever thinks about that we have our very own website.

We’ve been sending minutes out to the Board listhost,but in the future we will post them here again so that members can get used to coming to this site.

Here’s Minutes from Tuesday, 2/3/09!

Hey all,
Tonight’s meeting was a great success!!
Here are some updates:
Cookies:
-Eliza, Ali, and Molly will be making cookie dough for our cookie baking, which will be at Audrey’s house at 7 pm on Sunday night (2/8). If you can make dough, please let me know. We will be cooking in both Erin’s kitchen and mine.
-If we don’t make enough cookies on Sunday, we can bake more after the meeting on Tuesday if people are free
-We voted on where the money from the cookie sales and vibrator raffle. It will be going to the St. Martin de Porres house of hope, as per our vote:
swop 0
cwap 3
girls rock chicago 1
st. martin de porres house of hope 6
-Eliza will be emailing out a list of who is tabling when. Read it!
-We will start tabling to sell cookies on Monday.
-Good job on the porn panel! We sent out thank you notes to the panelists to thank them
Ideas for porn panel next year:
-should we do it? Yes!
-include someone from SWOP (sex workers outreach project)
See you all on Sunday!

This is just to get me used to treating this blog like a real thing. More real posts to come.

-eliza.

Week 3 Meeting Notes

Bullet-point-meeting-notes!

Molly suggests watching Wrong Bathroom.

Audrey suggests developing a feminist-specific bat-signal to alert other members of Femmaj whenever Feminist Moments are occurring.

Audrey and Sravan met with Sharlene Holly last weekto reregister for RSO status. 10 feminist points to each of them!

What is Feminism? will be reborn as a discussion during a specific meeting this quarter. We will flyer and discuss personal experiences and views.

Sravan suggests an event about parenting. Audrey recommends reading “When Mom and Dad Share It All.”

We threw around names for Women in Academia.

Brittany suggests a workshop on body image.

Audrey suggests beginning a film series. Erin recommends a screening of Sleepaway Camp, a crazy-pants slasher movie from the 80’s that has lots of interesting things to say about gender. A Halloween screening, perhaps?

-Erin

Meeting Notes

Reading suggestions

• The Creation of Patriarchy, by Gerda Lerner
• Adbusters

Our Bitch subscription has been processed and will be arriving soon. We are considering subscribing to Bust and Off Our Backs and $pread. We find aspects of all of these magazines potentially problematic, but in a productive way!

Friday at 3 PM on Friday, many Femmaj members will be attending the pornumentary film at DOC. Many will also be attending Jihad for Love at 6. In between the two, members will sit on the Midway (or inside Ida Noyes) and discuss plans for What Is Feminism? WiF will be our big event of the quarter, but we would also like to consider a film series and/or porn event.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. We plan to collect pamphlets from the SCC, and perhaps partner with RSVP to table near the end of the month.

Highlight of the day: four-gendered fish.

Minutes, April 13, 2008

A Quick Summary

1. We have a name for our clump of events now; it’s Feminist Wednesdays!

a. …with the footnote that they’re not all on Wednesday.

b. Dana said she would make a Facebook group and flyers J

2. The tentative schedule for our events this quarter:

a. 4^th week: Female Masturbation Day (Becky)

b. 5^th week: Alternative Menstrual Products Day (Dana)

c. 6^th week: Women’s RSOs study break (Sravan)

d. 7^th week: Self-Defense Workshop (Audrey)

e. 8^th week: “What is Feminism?” Panel (Eliza and Erin)

3. Masturbation might not necessarily come before Menstruation; we will decide later this week.

4. Also, if anything is cancelled, or we feel like doing something in 9^th week, we will either screen the documentary Lake of Fire or re-screen Jane (which a lot of people want).

The Events

1. Female Masturbation: Becky is in touch with Early to Bed.

2. Menstrual Products: Dana is asking for free samples.

3. Women’s RSOs study break

a. Jessica Halem will do her stand-up act before we have the study break.

b. Do we want a band? Or just play ‘woman’ music? I would love some recommendations!

4. Self-Defense

a. Audrey is trying to book a room in Ratner.

b. We have Henry Crown right now, but at an inconvenient time.

5. “What is Feminism?”

a. Erin had the genius to suggest a moderated discussion amongst everyone, rather than a panel.

b. She said she would contact professors (like Trudi Langendorf, I think?) to moderate.

c. Eliza decided to take charge of T-shirts—“This is What a Feminist Looks Like.”

d. We resolved to contact the national Femmaj for some free/cheap T-shirts.

e. The idea was to have us design/paint/stamp shirts as we talked.

Other Stuff

1. This Tuesday (April 15^th): RSVP will give us a preview of their workshop and ask for our feedback.

2. The Gala organizers asked us to name the “Women and Reproductive Rights” Panel, and we decided to name it “Reproductive Rights.”

3. The RSO Fair: Erin and Eliza said it was a success.

Meeting Notes

Liz from RSVP came to visit!

• April 20th– poetry reading at the Smart Museum
• We want to cosponsor an event related to the coverage of the Democratic primaries.
  • Based on op-eds?
  • Moderated by Vicki from RSVP? Faculty inclusion?
  • Should we hand out articles beforehand?
  • We will keep in touch with Liz throughout the quarter to develop this.
• RSVP will present its rape culture workshop at our meeting next Tuesday.

Room booking

• All of our events are booked! Thanks, Laura!
• Summary of Bookings
  Date Start End Room Status
  ——————————
  ———————————–
  4/16/2008 7:00 PM 9:00 PM HM Harper 130 Awaiting Approval – SC
  4/23/2008 6:00 PM 8:00 PM S Stuart 105 Awaiting Approval – SC
  4/30/2008 7:00 PM 9:00 PM HM Harper 130 Awaiting Approval – SC
  5/14/2008 7:00 PM 9:00 PM HM Harper 130 Awaiting Approval – SC
  5/21/2008 7:00 PM 9:00 PM HM Harper 130 Awaiting Approval – SC

PSAC RSO fair

• 8 PM this week and next week.
• Erin and Eliza will staff both

Annual Allocations

• Audrey will be representing Femmaj

Events outline

• We will meet at Erin&Dana&Lauren’s apartment on Sunday night at 8 to figure out logistics & finalize things.
• We are canceling our room reservation for the 16th
• Self-defense workshop will happen in Henry Crown

Meeting Notes Week One

Femmaj will offer support to the fourth week feminist seder in terms of funding and participation.  Erin will find out Femmaj’s current budget and we will determine what our financial commitment can be.

Events we WILL do this quarter!

• Self-defense workshop
  • Could be outside, but we should have a backup room
  • AUDREY is the contact person for this.
• Alternative menstrual products teach-in
  • Calculation of financial savings    Parter with GAIA or ECO or GCI? Sarah and Becky will contact.
• Female masturbation day
  • Getting someone from Early to Bed
  • Technically May 7th, but we’ll do it whenever.
  • We want to have a discussion at the end about historical repression of women’s sexuality/pleasure
  • BECKY is the contact person for this.
• What is feminism?
  • ELIZA and ERIN are contacts for this.
• Jessica Halem performance? Women’s group meeting?
  • Sravan may be contacting her.
  • Reserving Hutch
  • SRAVAN is in charge of this.

Gala update!

• Working with UCDems.
• We want to be sure that the women’s panels will be responsibly designed.

Events will be Wednesday (preferably) or Thursday nights from 3rd through 8th week.

Laura will book rooms.