QSA General Meeting Minutes
11/4/2012
Board Attendance
Board Present: Roland, Trevor, Sarina, Ivel, Neimy, Ariel, Ken, Philip, Ben, Josh
Board Absent: Edith
Check-ins and Housekeeping
Check-ins and preferred gender pronouns (PGPs): High points, low points
Ground rules: Be respectful. Assume best intentions. Confidentiality: everything said in this room stays in this room. No laptops except co-chairs and secretary. Sign-in sheet: putting your name down adds you to the QSA-members email list. No one will see your name except co-chairs and secretary.
Week-in-Review
Harel Skaat Concert: Supposed to be last Monday, 8-10 PM at the Cambridge Head Queen’s Pub. Cancelled unfortunately due to Sandy 
Harvard Students For Israel is looking into whether or not they can get him back later this year.
Online Dating Panel: Last Thursday, 5:30-7:30 PM in Ticknor Lounge, was really successful! Lots in attendance, get more food next time!
Queer Poetry Reading: Last Friday, 6-8 PM in Ticknor Lounge, Boylston Hall. Great attendance, attendees seemed to really enjoy it.
John Harvard’s Bar Mitzvah: Last Saturday, November 3, from 9:30 PM – 1 AM in the Sheraton Commander. Hillel’s first formal co-sponsored by the QSA, $5 open bar, food and swag. Extremely successful party, Hillel really want to co-sponsor with us again, since we “bring the party.”
Upcoming Events
Blood Donation Campaign: Last week, Ivel and Ben got almost 400 signatures in Annenberg! They will be doing another round of letter-signing tonight (Sunday) in Adams from 5-7. Over the next two weeks, we will be tabling at Annenberg and other dhalls. Last week we were really understaffed; so please, if you are free, sign up to help table on the Facebook group, or email Ivel at ivelposada@college.harvard.edu.
Health Panel: There will be different health care professionals from Fenway and HUHS to talk about queer health issues. Held in Ticknor Lounge, date selected is November 19th, from 7-8:30 PM. Opportunity for students to learn about resources at Fenway and HUHS. Political committee and Philip will work on publicity for this, and send out the tumblr where people
Harvard-Yale Party: Cross our fingers, we’ve found a room (maybe). Email Josh at hernandez.joshua14@gmail.com if you would like to volunteer your room. Keep your eyes open for emails about this – we will be sending out a Google form to solicit hosts for the Yalies. If you are willing to host a couple of people, please fill it out!
Queer Board Game Night: Tentatively planned for the 16th, we will be lent awesome board games.
Queer Tour of Boston: Scheduled for the 30th. We’ve emailed Professor Bronski, who wrote a Queer Tour of the United States, who emailed back about potential places. GLOW, Bagels, and the BGLTQ Office are co-sponsoring.
Queer Ballroom: Next Tuesday (the 13th) we are collaborating with the Harvard Ballroom to host a Queer Ballroom Dance Workshop. Dessert and discussion after about gender roles in dancing. Still looking for a space – potentially a room in Lev or Holden Chapel. If anyone has any space ideas, or wants to help bake desserts, please email Ariel at achurchill@college.harvard.edu.
Trans 102: Tentatively set for immediately before Thanksgiving; genderbread cookies will be served. Timing conflicts may push this to immediately after Thanksgiving.
Weekly Cookie Hour @ BGLTQ Office of Student Life: Hour-long drop-in mingle session; eat delicious ice cream and meet new people. Tentatively on Fridays from 2-3 PM.
IvyQ: A conference organized between various Ivy League schools, takes place in February. This year it will be at Yale, and this is the first year that IvyQ will feature student-led workshops. Application was already sent out over LGBTQ-Talk; Alex will send it out again. Application is due tomorrow (Monday) afternoon, so if you are interested, please apply! Email Alex at alexchivescu@gmail.com with any questions.
QSA Elections
Elections: Coming up soon! After this meeting, Roland and Sarina will send out an email with the positions available. You can nominate yourself or someone else; we will solicit candidate statements; and on November 18th. All of this will be explicitly spelled out in detailed emails.
New position: The position of Communications Chair is going to be redefined, based on new organizational need. Historically, Harvard has not had a strong presence at IvyQ, OUBC or OUTC; traditionally, Harvard representation has been under the purview of individuals. These individuals have done a fantastic job, but In order to institutionalize the communication we have with different schools, and in order to ensure that we have a strong presence at these conferences, we are redefining the Comm Chair position to be, in essence, a Conference Chair. This person (or perhaps team of persons) will work to publicize these conferences as widely as possible, and work with the Treasurer to ensure that funding is available for students who want to attend.
*The constitution will be amended to reflect this new position, and Trevor will draw up a concrete job description for next week.
UC Election
The UC has asked us to co-sponsor the UC Presidential and Vice Presidential Debate on the 8th of November (this Thursday). Co-sponsorship will allow us to ask questions of the candidates at the debate.
*Vote taken on co-sponsorship of the UC Debate. Co-sponsorship passes unanimously; 0 abstaining and 0 nays.*
