KFADEN - Update on Venue, Outreach and UnOrganizing
Rebecca Crane
Venue:
- We're still aiming for Auraria Campus, but it's not nailed down yet. Savy was supposed to meet with someone from the Metro GLBTSS last week, but that meeting fell through, so they are going to try again after the holidays. I'm getting a little nervous because we're getting so close to the date and I feel like there are certain kinds of outreach/advertising and logistical organizing we can't do until we know more about where the event will be happening. I think it's a difficult time to get in touch with people, especially on a college campus, because people are away for the holidays - so hopefully that will get sorted out in early January.
- Meanwhile, I'm thinking about potential back-ups in case it's too late to get space through the GLBTRSS:
** Israel suggested we talk to Sheena Coffee, a faculty member at Metro who might be able to help us get space.
** Liberate Denver has been meeting at the AFSC (http://afsc.org/office/denver-co). They have a smallish office space with several rooms and a kitchen that I think would be *awesome* nonetheless, but we'd need a) a contact there (possibly via someone from Lib Denver) and b) some good thinking around how Kink For All aligns with and can be supportive of their Immigrant Rights mission.
** Is there a reason nobody's mentioned The Center or Rainbow Alley? Do we know anyone who works there?
- Things to figure out as soon as we have a venue:
** Tech needs
** Translators and Interpreters
** What else?
Outreach and Advertising:
- YOUTH: Brandi put me in touch with Eleanor, the person who started Branching Seedz of Resistance (CAVP's youth org). I e-mailed her today to see if I can pick her brain about youth inclusivity, especially around tricky issues like sexuality, and also asked if she knew any youth who she thinks would be excited about helping (un)organize KFA.
- CHILDCARE: Laura and Lee are planning to get together after New Years and talk about the childcare plan. Laura has talked to DABC's childcare group and they're down to try and help us out once we know where our venue will be.
- IGNITE: James is helping organize a sexuality-themed Pecha Kucha night in collaboration with the Boulder CSPC - partially as a way to drum up interest in Kink For All and get people thinking about possible presentations. I vaguely know the guy who runs IgniteBoulder from way back in the day when we both spent too much time on LiveJournal, so I e-mailed him today to see if he was interested in working with them on that. If we could get people from the Ignite community excited about KFA, that would be great because I think they are a pretty diverse audience that extends outside of sexuality-focused sub-cultures.
- DAMN GURL: I'm not sure what's going on re: co-ordinating with Damn Gurl. From their Facebook page, it looks like they've decided to do it the second Friday of every month - not sure if that includes Feb. I feel a little weird about bugging Israel incessantly, since I don't know him that well. Is anyone else on the list more connected to the Damn Gurl organizers than I am?
- OUT BOULDER: We should try to get into their Feb newsletter, once we have a venue.
UnOrganizing:
- Talked to Ken today and he offered to build us a Kink For All - Denver Facebook page, since that might be a more user-friendly space for folks to organize from than the mailing list and wiki are. Yay! Thanks Ken.
- I'll be in San Francisco this weekend. Hoping to touch base with maymay while I'm there and pick his brain for other unorganizing and outreach ideas.
Funding:
- I'm still hoping that we can do all of this for close-to-free, but there will be at least some incidentals that require money. I don't know much about sponsorship or donations. There's some info on the Wiki that I haven't had a chance to read. Anybody familiar with or interested in learning this stuff who wants to take it on?
Okay, that's all I've got right now!
<3
maymay
> - IGNITE: James is helping organize a sexuality-themed Pecha Kucha night in collaboration with the Boulder CSPC - partially as a way to drum up interest in Kink For All and get people thinking about possible presentations. I vaguely know the guy who runs IgniteBoulder from way back in the day when we both spent too much time on LiveJournal, so I e-mailed him today to see if he was interested in working with them on that. If we could get people from the Ignite community excited about KFA, that would be great because I think they are a pretty diverse audience that extends outside of sexuality-focused sub-cultures.
Hellz to the yeah. Ignite was one of the inspirations for KinkForAll,[0] so this makes perfect sense.
> UnOrganizing:
> - Talked to Ken today and he offered to build us a Kink For All - Denver Facebook page, since that might be a more user-friendly space for folks to organize from than the mailing list and wiki are. Yay! Thanks Ken.
There is a Facebook group that anyone interested in KinkForAll and who wants to communicate using Facebook should at least know about, if not join:
https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=175051736459
If someone wants to create a KinkForAll Denver *event*, I think they can do so via the KinkForAll Facebook group (by clicking on "Create Group Event" on the left hand side of the Facebook group screen) and thus loop everyone who's part of the KinkForAll Facebook group into the Facebook event in one fell swoop! :D If you have any tech trouble with that, shoot me a message here, privately, or via Facebook (whatevs works for you) and we'll get it sorted ASAP.
There is also a KinkForAll Facebook fan page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/KinkForAll/40066342762
Be mindful that Facebook is an incredibly censorship-heavy environment.[1][2] That doesn't mean we shouldn't use it—in fact, it is beneficial if we use as many places to talk about KinkForAll as we can—[3]but it does mean that participants who want to (un)organize on Facebook ought remember that not everyone has access to Facebook (notably people who are very involved in doing or advocating for sex worker's rights, among other groups of people) and so any organizing that happens there should be made accessible to them with some supplemental material. At the very minimum, it means making people *aware* of the shift in (un)organizing medium, e.g., sending an email to this mailing list with a link to the group and/or writing a note on the KinkForAll unconference event's wiki homepage.[4]
That's why this mailing list is so central; not just because it's old school, but rather because it's mindful of what I've begun to call techno-privilege. See also a discussion on this list about switching to Google Wave and why we ultimately chose not to do that:
https://groups.google.com/group/kinkforall/browse_thread/thread/415ee93794f25396/3ab6da00f2a1f5dd
The sentiments above are also relevant for any other social media outlet where people are interested in having a KinkForAll presence. You are ENCOURAGED to create and use as many social medial outlets as you want for planning, but to do so effectively you also need to be mindful of who can or who cannot access your new cyber-venue.
For a list of additional places KinkForAll already has online groups set up, see the wiki's "Related Sites" page.[5] If you create a new cyber-space for KinkForAll, please add it to the list in the wiki. Thanks! :D
> - I'll be in San Francisco this weekend. Hoping to touch base with maymay while I'm there and pick his brain for other unorganizing and outreach ideas.
Looking forward to seeing you here! :D
Cheers,
-maymay
Blog: http://maybemaimed.com
Talk show: http://KinkOnTap.com
Community: http://KinkForAll.org
EXTERNAL REFERENCES:
[0] http://wiki.kinkforall.org/OrganizeALocalKinkForAll
[1] http://facebookcensorship.com/
[2] http://maybemaimed.com/2010/07/29/anti-porn-is-pro-censorship-even-if-they-say-theyre-not/
[3] http://maybemaimed.com/2011/03/29/anti-censorship-best-practices-for-the-sex-positive-publisher-atlanta-poly-weekend-2011/
[4] http://wiki.KinkForAll.org/KinkForAllDenver
[5] http://wiki.kinkforall.org/RelatedSites