Equality On Trial

Golden Oldie: Food for thought: A P8TT community project

December 30, 2010

Community/Meta

Hopefully AnonyGrl doesn’t mind, I thought this was one of the best examples of strong community on this blog. The original post has over 300 comments, many of which are worth reading for really great discussion- or you can start new ones here, reflecting.

We at P8TT are taking Christmas through New Year’s off. Golden Oldies you requested will run in the place of regular posts. Regularly scheduled programming will resume on January 3rd–Adam Bink

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(Check out the following guest post by Vienna Hagen — AKA “AnonyGrl” in the comments — in which she talks about how the Prop 8 Trial Tracker community has self-organized a creative campaign to promote LGBT equality through the spirit of giving and community outreach. It’s yet another reason why I love the Trial Tracker family! — Eden)

By Vienna Hagen AKA AnonyGrl

A few days ago the National Organization for Marriage — in conjunction with a number of others including our old friend Lou Engle’s TheCall and Bishop Harry Jackson — announced a 40-day fast against marriage equality (and other signs of the apocalypse) that will run through October 30, just a few days before the November election.

As is usually the case, we here at P8TT gave the whole business the once over, dissected it thoroughly and exposed it for the #completeFAIL that it promises to be. But in the course of that discussion, interesting as they all are around here, an idea was tossed out by our own “elliom”:

He suggested that perhaps if they fast, we should feed; that is we should organize 40 days of feeding the hungry instead.

A number of people climbed right on board with that idea, and we started tossing around ideas of different ways we might proceed, what to call the group, how to organize and so on. The discussion (as some of ours do around here) looked like it might start to hijack the thread, but more importantly, it looked as though it might take on a life of its own, and so I suggested we move it off-site, so to speak, and get interested folks together to talk more and see what happened.

On Saturday, five of us got together on Skype for a conference call from all over the place, and tossed around ideas for almost two hours. Present were elliom, Richard A. Walter (soon to be Walter-Jernigan), Rhie, bJason and yours truly, AnonyGrl.

I have to say, we had a great time, both just chattering and cracking jokes, as well as getting some good ideas percolating for making this idea into a do-able reality. We tossed around some thoughts for names, and came up with one we liked. Currently bJason is on the hunt to see if it is one we can actually GET, researching both the possibility of snagging it as a domain name and finding out what will be necessary to registering it as a trademark, should we decide to go that route. Richard is on the hunt for information about free website hosting, and getting us an established presence that way. Rhie has volunteered to be our social networking resource, looking into setting up a Facebook and Twitter account for use in getting the word out when the time comes, elliom has the task of writing up a mission statement which he will mold and shape as we go along and I get to do some general research, create a logo (once we’ve settled on a name), and to write this post, to tell all of you folks about it.

But that is just the business end of things. Here is what we are looking to actually do.

We want to gather food and get it to food banks.

As we head into what seems to be the season of feasts, Ramadan having just passed, the fall being a time of harvest, Halloween, Hannukah, Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up, the irony is that donations tend to fall off. Food banks are constantly seeking donations so that they may provide assistance to families in need, but more so during these times of plenty, when people who might normally donate start to tighten their belts a little because of all the expenses the season provides them. There are many organizations which seek to help, and we would like to join them, and we think with the advantage of knowing so many people from all around the country and the world, we might be uniquely situated to do some good.

Our idea is that volunteers (and here we turn a hopeful eye to you wonderful people) will help in a variety of ways, both in spreading the word, helping us locate and target food pantries, and in organizing local food drives, which can be as simple as putting a box with some info out at your office and taking the results down to your local food bank, to as full an experience as you might wish to make it, organizing donations of food and volunteers, or whatever your area might need. We hope to be something of a clearing house for coordinating efforts and getting information out to people (as well as serving as local volunteer organizers ourselves) but also to let people in other places know that this is not a difficult project to achieve, and the rewards can be measureless.

It was noted during our Skype conference that we have one pretty strong thing going for us. We are all the sort of people who are not just dedicated, but are willing to listen to the ideas of others and work to incorporate them in where we can. Each of us tossed out great suggestions (if I may pat us on the back for a minute) and we think we have the basis for making this really work. We talked about what we would need to do to make it a short term, 40 day, event, and also discussed the possibility of creating a more permanent sort of organization, if we discover that the idea really takes off. We threw in other suggestions of projects that relate to our main goals that could be added in further down the line. We discussed, a bit, and will continue to do, why we want to do this, and what we want to say while we do it. We have the opportunity to turn this into a way to reach out to communities that might not understand the cause of Equality and to show them who we are, and that we just want to be their neighbors and lend a helping hand where we can. And by doing so, we stand the chance of reaching some hearts, and maybe changing some minds too.

So here is what we are looking for right now. First of all, we would love to know what you think of the idea, so feel free to toss out thoughts and suggestions in this thread. We’ll certainly read all of them, file some away for future reference, and act on any that seem feasible. We also would love to have the assistance of anyone who is interested in getting involved. A second Skype call is scheduled for this coming Thursday at 6pm Eastern time (I am on the east coast, and I am organizing the call, so you guys get to figure out when that is for you, or check with Richard, who is the official keeper of times, since he can remember all the time zones when I can’t). If you are interested and available and would like to join in, drop me a note in my email at [email protected] and include both your real name (or something we can call you, if you like, and if your P8TT name is complicated) and your Skype ID. Skype is easy to set up, free to download and use, and all you need is either a headset or a computer with speakers and a mic. Actually, if you just have speakers, you can still listen in and contribute in the chat panel that also comes up. Just so you know, there is a maximum of 25 people on a Skype call, but we will certainly be doing more posting like this (either here or somewhere else) with updates if you can’t make it.

Some of you have already indicated interest, which is great, and we would love to know what anyone would be interested in doing to help even if you can’t make the Skype call, so feel free to discuss that here too. If you have interest in being a local volunteer, or to organize local volunteers, or are a website administrator, or know something of the legal aspects of this sort of project, or are an accountant with a yen to help set up the bookkeeping… any talent you might want to share, I am certain we can find a way to use, so please do let us know! At the moment, we are working under a committee structure, and will formalize things as we go on, but since we are in the ‘fact finding’ and organizing stage right now, we would be glad of any assistance anyone would like to provide.

And eventually, even if you don’t have the time to volunteer, we hope you all will end up as donors in whatever way you can to your own local food banks so that we can bring a little joy and some full bellies to those who really, really need it.

Golden Oldie: Are you an anti-LGBT conservative?... P8TT New Year’s thread