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Post by RyanAlanSteeves on Oct 3, 2014 15:40:10 GMT
My question for ALL candidates: If you were to be successful in your bid for an At-Large position, what portfolios interest you and what relevant experience/training/competency do you have with any of those portfolios? I am absolutely interested in: - Events Coordinator
- Grant writer
- Sponsorship coordinator (Or extremely involved under the coordinator)
- Festival Programming
- Festival or Parade Coordinator
For events/festival/parade coordinator I have a wealth of experience in planning events, big and small. Biggest included being the director responsible for planning NL Youth Parliament including booking many venues, planning travel to and from each (including school buses, flights, and dealing with DRL schedules) and hiring catering while working around varied allergy restrictions. I also planned much of St. John's Regional Youth Parliament, did a fair amount of tabling in the university for various causes, and worked to plan fundraisers for the Young Liberals in tandem with other executive members. I would also rate my time management skills exceptionally high.
With regards to grant writing I have done it for provincial and regional youth parliament in the past and have a fair amount of comfort in completing these sorts of forms. I have also applied for sponsorship with several different strategies and would love to have something to do with reviewing the sponsorship package and offer ideas for improvement.
As well if I am ever needed to be used for media I have experience in drafting successful press releases, and doing interviews for radio, television, and print. Making sure that St. John's Pride is available to the media and that issues we take on are saturated in attention is definitely a big goal of mine as well!
Hope that answers your question 
-Ryan
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Post by RyanAlanSteeves on Oct 3, 2014 18:29:03 GMT
Open question to all candidates. What is your definition of inclusiveness. How would you approach the senior LGBTQ Membership, and the teen aged/school age membership to make them feel included, and address issues of these two under represented groups with-in our Community. Thanks for the important question Pam. Inclusiveness is a complicated word to define so forgive me for missing anything but it's all about making an effort to make people feel as if they're a part of a whole. Being inclusive is about making a true effort to assure that people feel comfortable at our events and that they feel like their issues are being properly addressed. I think the best way to be inclusive of seniors and younger members is to make sure that we can have events that bring everybody together. Some seniors are similarly disadvantaged as teenage students when we talk about drinking events so assuring that we have events that are open to everybody and that are appealing to everyone is very important - members should be able to feel as they're a part of the whole group regardless of their age group so auctions, information sessions, the bonfire, and coffee houses are great ways to have a basic comfortable environment for everyone. Another important step is to have events exclusive to older and younger age groups. This is something that, to my knowledge, has only been done for younger members so far with the bowling events. But I think it's important to attract and attain members by getting them involved through a group they feel comfortable with - it may be uncomfortable for older/younger people to get involved without first starting with people that share similar experiences and similar issues. As well for many younger members "Coming Out", Bullying, and basic sexual health - we have had a fairly good focus with this in the past. But expanding on information sessions and panels is definitely something to look for in the next year. While younger members of the community are fairly well represented on the board and through our events, many of the older members of the community may feel left out on issues that really matter to them. This is another opportunity to attain and attract members that may not otherwise be involved. Huge issues for LBGTQ+ seniors are health related and rights related - how to keep together with your partner through the rough transition to an assisted living complex, can we depend on visiting our partner in hospitals when they're ill and not be told that they "need to be family", it's issues like that (and more that I would have to ask about) that cause grief in our older membership and we need to promote training for our health professionals to understand that to be LBGTQ+ is normal and to make sure they understand how to treat us. Because the issues of senior members will be everybody's issues soon enough. For senior's issues especially but also student issues I think that the best approach is to consult before you act - I fully intend on doing that. Hope that answer's your question! |
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Post by Charlie Murphy on Oct 5, 2014 2:22:26 GMT
Open question to all candidates. What is your definition of inclusiveness. How would you approach the senior LGBTQ Membership, and the teen aged/school age membership to make them feel included, and address issues of these two under represented groups with-in our Community. Well Pam inclusiveness to me is making sure everyone is remembered to be included, its about taking in account everyone in the community. Making sure they feel and are able to attend events, talks and vote on how the St.Johns Pride Organization grows. Its about remembering to use the right pronouns, its trying to do our best to find fully accessible sites to host events. We have to do our best to do out reach to all corners of the community. This year I was given the task to plan one of the youth events, I thought bowling could be a find event. So I called many bowling places but only could find one that was truly accessible. I'd like to remind people that accessible space doesn't just mean having a ramp for wheelchairs and those who find it hard to climb many stairs. Accessible space goes past that, when we look for these spaces that means that washrooms are easy to get to, that the right kinda washroom are on site. That the venue we pick truly is fully accessible to make sure those in the community that want to come to Pride events can. When is comes to senior LGBTQ+ members of the community I think we need to do more to bring their voice to the board itself. The past boards seem to have more a youth voice, I'd like to see more of the over 30 members having a seat on the board. I'd like to have more events where the LGBTQ+ history of St. John's can be shared. Wouldn't it be great to have a sit down coffee social and talk with those that were part of the first fight for same sex marriage in NL. Or even just to exchange stories and hear about people experiences. An event like this was planned for this years festival and we should create more. I personally would love to hear how St. John's changed over the years when it comes to Pride and LGBTQ+ Issues. I think we also just need to ask the senior part of the community what they'd like to see from pride. When it comes to the teen aged/school age members I think we need to be in more contact with the GSA of the schools. We could do another event like the Molly Thomason camp fund raiser that included the GSAs to help create a friendly all age event. See if we could get a few of them to volunteer with Pride so they feel more included in the festival week itself. Having more youth only events would be great too. Taking part in Pflag and the youth group events throughout the year would be a great way to hear from the youth. Plus this would build a face to face connection with them. Pride needs to be the leader in helping to create a community between all ages. Pride should be doing more yearly events, being included in more St. John's activities . Events like the christmas parade, being part of Pflags movie nights and meetings. Being at the regatta, having tables at community events. We need to create space that all ages can feel ok with attending. The past boards have been trying its best to make sure everyone is included. Maybe we need to find a way for the community to tell us what they want. Creating a online survey or list so the community could help pick the festival weeks events |
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