A new year and a new decade are upon us; Happy New Year everyone. Myself and the LGBTQ have much planned for this term...here's an update.

Truth be told, I planned to get back on the case on Saturday following New Years Eve celebrations. However I, my housemates, and the many people who crashed over following our truly epic house party decided to take advantage of the January sales - at which time I bought this:

If you're thinking of buying it, be warned: it is an awesome and very addictive game which will consume entire days of your life and jeopardise your degree.

So, what's new?

You may have noticed significant aesthetic changes to my blog - something I'm quite proud of as I built the template myself.

The new design better integrates the "sub-pages" I had on my old design into better-organised pages and allows me to unclutter the sidebar. Now lather me with attention and praise! xD

The plan is...

Myself and Kitten met just before Xmas to evaluate term 1, identify strengths and weaknesses, and finally to discuss plans for term 2.

Improvement of Sexual Health Provisions

As I mentioned in my previous post, I feel that the sexual health support and provisions have been lacking in the LGBTQ this year. We have focused more on the personal welfare issues; coming out, bullying, relationship support; in which I feel we have been very successful.

However I've reached a snag in my plans to acquire vast quantities of condoms, lube and dental dams from the Terrence Higgins Trust; they don't seem to stock them in the quantities that I'm requesting. Thus begins my quest to search local GUM clinics,

History Month and Coalition West Midlands

Over the past month I've been in touch with the LGBT* officers/presidents/chairs of BCU, Aston, Coventry, Warwick and Wolverhampton. Between myself and Kitten we've reestablished Coalition West Midlands; a collaboration of student union LGBT* groups at these Universities and local FE institutions. The Joint Students Union Network I helped found following the Sheffield Training Residential didn't really go anywhere, besides occasional co-operation between officers on occasion. Local Universities are better equipped to collaborate on joint ventures and the coalition has served us well in the past.

The idea of the coalition - as with the JSUN - is to share ideas, work together on points of common interest and to co-ordinate joint events. The upcoming LGBT History Month is a perfect opportunity for us to get some joint event love on the go.

My plan is for each University's LGBT* group to host an event at their Union/Guild and invite the others. On top of that, Kitten proposed an event in Birmingham City Centre followed by a night out that everyone could attend. I'm in for implementing both plans; it'd make for a good history month.

More on this as it develops.

Recurring Events

Coffee Afternoons and Film Nights were very successful last term and they'll be continuing on a regular basis.

Coffee afternoons will take place every Wednesday between 12PM and 3PM from 13th January, followed immediately by a committee meeting. Film Nights will take place on Sundays at 6PM - starting 17th January - in the Guild Council Chambers.

Reading Group was trialled last term and is likely to really begin in term 2; more information will be available by the end of Week 1 - after the committee has had a chance to meet.

Joint Events

We're kicking off our big joint events with our friend groups/societies this term, namely:



Specific times and dates will show up on the LGBTQ events calendar over the next week as plans develop.

National Student Pride 2010

This is going to be the LGBTQ's "big event" of the year. It will be held in Brighton on Saturday, 6th March - which I don't think should intrude too much on deadlines. This bodes well for the potential turnout, however I do not the relish the task of sorting the logistics.

Campaigns

  • My careers and employability campaign is really going to kick off this term, and there's a definite chance to work with Fabian and the Sabbs who - at the last GC - stated this issue is a focal goal of the Guild.
  • Kitten and I think that a bi-awareness campaign would help improve bi involvement in the LGBTQ.

I'm still writing content for the "current projects" page (see links at the top of this page); once done it'll be maintained with updated information on projects, campaigns and events I'm working on.

Overall

It looks to be an exciting term! This post merely summarises our plans; expect future blogs elaborating on the specifics. The LGBTQ Association will alos rectifying past transgressions with "last minute" events/campaigns by implementing a minimum notice period for advertisement and emails on the mailing list to improve the service it provides.