miércoles, 26 de noviembre de 2008

Meeting Minuets ¤ Novenber 14, 2008

Hello everybody, happy summer and Happy Holidays!

Hope everyone is keeping cool out there. We had a great meeting November before thanksgiving; as usual the committee has lots of projects going on; GAD is definatly NOT out for the summer!

GAD at a Glance:

NEXT MEETING: Friday, January 30th at 3:00pm; Upstairs Conference Room-PCO

GAD-in-our-SITES: REPEAT: "If I were a Martian" Gender Roles Activity (from Como Planear mi Vida) and continued work on Boy's Manual Questionnaires (for more info see below).

PATF: the PATF Partnership Program is still open for online donations. We are approximatly half way to our fundraising goal; please help us by contacting friends and family for contributions. The 2009 application deadline has past, so starting this week there will be a list in the office of the carpetas that were rejected so you can atleast find out if your candidates´ application made it past the first selection stage.

GAD Camp: Camp is essentially full, we had sign ups at the meeting. The Camp Committee will be contacting everyone on the list to confirm the number of youth they plan to invite and the information packets will go out by email before Thanksgiving. If you are interested or have any questions, please contact Gariety Pruitt or Nathan Antonio.

SHIRTS: We will be selling two fabulous new T-shirt at thanksgiving, come on by the table and get one before they sell out!

The'08-'09 Officers are:
President: Lara Gamble 0971-101-734
Secretary: Gariety Pruitt 0971-308-352
Treasurer: Marin Palmer 0982-986-214
*Please feel free to contact us at any time if you have questions, suggestions or ideas!

See you next year,

Gariety "Gabi"
GAD Secretary

This Meeting ¤ November 14, 2008

Intros & Icebreaker: We had a lot of new faces this meeting and some regulars were missing….seeing as we will not meet again until after the holidays, we shared things we were thankful for.

PATF:
Ø The deadline for applications was pushed back to the 14th, the date of the meeting. As of the meeting (3:00pm), the office had received upwards 85 applications. The PATF committee will be workig hard in the week or so following the deadline to complete the first selection stage when they purge all applicants that do not meet the qualifications or whose application is in some way incomplete.
o They will then make a list of the applications that were purged that will be in the office, you can call in to ask about the status of you applicants.
o The applications then are passed to an independent panel of professionals. Final winners will hoepfully be announced in December.
Ø The GAD committee is responsible for raising the $10,000 we need to run the beca program before Dec, so please keep asking friends and family members for support.
o We have a template email in English that clearly explains the program, and technical training components, as well as the link to donate to the pc partnership program online to make it easy for you all to send to your friends and family back home, as well as other organizations you feel might contribute to our cause. We will be sending out the English materials via email, it will be posted on the blog and SharePoint as well.
o If you have more question about the PATF scholarship program, how the Peace Corps Partnership Program fundraising works, or are interested in helping youth from your site apply, please contact: Sarah Foust, GAD President Lara Gamble or email us at the Gad email address!
o The 2nd taller for the 2008 winners happened, but only 30 of the 50 or so winners showed. We are not sure why there was such low attendence, if your winner did not attend, please let us know why.
Ø Also, we announced last meeting a donation from a former PCPY GADer and her church to our scholarship program; what we thought was $4000 is really $400, but no matter, every little bit helps!

Kuat/GADGabber:
Ø The minutes will be submitted to the Kuat, as always, but feel free to submit any other articles related to gender issues you want to, all are welcome. The deadline is Nov 21st.

Gad-in-our-SITES:
Ø Activity REPEAT: the “If I were a Martian" Gender Roles Activity (from Como Planear mi Vida)
o The idea is to do a charla based on "if I were a Martian and didn't know what the differences between male/female what would you tell me"….then switch to "what are the only things that don't change about male/female no matter time, cultures etc"…it turns out to be physical parts only.
o This activity was very successful in Lauren's site and she suggested it as a great way to start a conversation about gender roles and stereotypes.
o This activity can be found as the alternate activity for the gender roles activity "Si fuera Hombre/Si fuera Mujer" found in the Stereotypes section of Como Planear mi Vida. There are lots of copies in the office if you don't already have one.
GAD Manuel:
Ø Last meeting we discussed the importance of having a more complete manaul. We talked about the format we would like the manual to be in. It should be efficient (similar to the library manual) and set up a bit like “Como Planear mi Vida” with a topic per chapter. Everyone present was assigned a chapter or topic to reserch and gather materials on. The next meeting, Jan 30 we will pick a small group to edit the chapters and put the manual together, so please bring your info, in Spanish, in electronic format.
o Chapters: Gender vs Sex/general GAD resources(Lara); Cycle of Abuse/domestic violence/intersousal realtionships(Gariety); Self-esteem&Body Image (Lauren); Gender roles&Strereotypes(Melissa);Reproductive Health/SexEd (Gariety&Brain Cross); Sexualtiy (Mary); Healthy Relationships/flirting vs harrasment/dating (Jill M.); Rights (Chris); NGO guide w/contact info (Marin); Office resouce guide (Foust). DIVERSITY??

Boy's Manual:
Ø Several GAD members have gotten together and want to make a manual with activities specifically targeted at young men here in Paraguay. This came out of a desire to create a tool geared at young men that seem to be a bit lost. The idea is to help female volunteers better understand and relate to their young male counterparts.
Ø Rosana is translating a book titled “Challenges” and needs help! Look for a sign up or contact her if you are interested in translating a chapter or two.
Ø to find out more about what topics should be included they have devised a survey/questionnaire to help the creators do a better job:
o The committee is still accepting surveys, the more the better; you can find the questions on the back of your GADGabber, the Kuat or on SharePoint.
o Please include the age of the guys you interview so we can put their responses in context of their age group

Sec&Tres Reports:
Ø Secretary:
o Kuat submission, checking the email regularly and keeping the blog up to date
Ø Treasurer:
o Used some of our funds to pay for T-shirts, hope to recover, plus increase due to sales.
o GAD Camp pedido for 513.000gs to cover shirts for the participants, approved.

Fundraising:
Ø PATF: $10,000 is the GAD committee's financial obligation to the scholarship program; we are about halfway to our goal, but need to keep pushing. So far, we have raised $4,875 and still need $5, 215.
Ø T-shirts ready to sell at Thanksgiving; there will be two designs available. We bought 20 of each design, 40 total. An order form will be available at thanksgiving for additional sizes.
Ø Auction: At Thanksgiving, auction off COSing PCVs' stuff; see Marin or Sarah for more info and the list of great prizes.

Gad-Camp:
Ø The tentative date for camp is the last week in January, right before school starts up again and it will be held in Tati Jup the nature reseeve by Itaipu damn in Ciudad del Este.
Ø SPA Grant application was completed and turned in, just waiting to here back.
Ø There is space for 40 youth. Their camp "contra-parte" will be 60.000Gs to cover a percentage of their pasaje. We passed around a sign up sheet at the meeting, and the committee will be contacting those PCVs to confirm number of youth and other details in the next month. An email with information and an official invite will come soon as well.
Ø We discussed the budget and need for 500.000 GAD funds to cover the t-shirts for the kids and speakers, it was approved.

Jopara Sub-Committee:
Ø There will be a quick organizational meeting right after GAD meeting-ask Nathan for more information.