Monday,

September 16

Meeting:

Assessed levels of interest and experience of attending members, explanation of Voices Against Violence - including structure, background and leadership

Monday,

September 23

Meeting:

Introduction and planning for upcoming Domestic Violence Rally (to be held Friday, October 4)

Talked among the group to determine what connections each member had in terms of publicity for the event

A new member voiced her concern that she did not know enough about domestic volence and sexual assault to be prepared to talk to someone if they had questions or needed to talk to someone about an experience s/he had. Many of the new members agreed and the leadership offered a training day in the next two weeks where experienced members could teach new members more about the cause.

Monday,

September 30

Meeting:

Confirmed New Member Training to be on Saturday, October 5 at 11:00 A.M.

Finalized plans for DV Rally. The sound equipment was confirmed, along with two bands who would perform. Speakers were still tentative, but the leadership showed confidence in support from the community.

West Mall Tables began to publicize DV Rally - they run all week from 11 A.M. - 1:00 P.M.

Friday,

October 5

Domestic Violence Rally

Six members of the group showed up early to help set up for the event. One set of the rented lights did not work, so the speakers and performers were not lit as well as they could have been.

Anxieties ran high, but the outlook stayed positive as the event drew near.

Saturday,

October 5

Training:

New members attended the training sessions put on by the leadership. The leadership employed standard training techniques to develop understanding amng new members. The training sessions also included a time when members could share information about themselves and talk about why they were working with VAV.

New members walked away from this training session with a stronger committment to VAV. It helped them feel more on the same level as the leadership and more like they could contribute something to the movement.

Monday,

October 7

Meeting:

Talked about upcomig events - Movie Night #1 on October 21 and Wellfest on October 23 - volunteers are needed for both

Movie Night #1 needs volunteers for advertising and to help with the facilitation at the end of the movie. Only one new member will help with the facilitation.

Wellfest volunteers would stand at a booth and answer questions and talk to people interested in working with VAV.

Monday,

October 14

Meeting:

Finalized planning for Movie Night #1. West Mall tables will begin Wednesday, and volunteers are needed to work the tables from 11 A.M. - 1 P.M. each day through Monday, October 21.

Another inventory of member's publicity connections was conducted.

Monday,

October 21

Meeting:

Very short - making sure everyone was on track for Movie Night #1 that night.

Movie Night #1

Wednesday,

October 23

Monday,

October 28

Meeting:

Introduction of an idea for the next event - a movie night with clips from popular media that would spark discussion about how domestic violence/sexual assault is portrayed in society.

The group liked the idea and two volunteers said they could collect all the clips and put it together. Some concern was shown over how graphic the clips could be that would be included.

Monday,

November 4

Meeting:

Brainstorming for clips to be used in Movie Night #2.

The leadership addressed what they felt to be a concern of the new membership that VAV had not had a strong enough presence on campus this semester. They explained that because the organization is new, a slower start made sense, but now that they had the confidence of The Counseling and Mental Health Center (the supervising body of VAV), that next semester the organization could come out with a little stronger force.

Monday,

November 11

Meeting:

More planning for Movie Night #2 - discussions of publicity and what worked for previous events and what needed to be done to draw larger audiences

Monday,

November 18

Meeting:

Prescreening of video that will be shown at Movie Night #2. The video itself was longer than the group had originally intended, so suggestions were taken as to which clips could be removed, but in the end it was decided that it would be acceptable if the video ran for a whole hour.

Friday,

November 22

Movie Night #2:

Though the Texas Union changed the location of the event due to a scheduling conflict, the event went off as a success. This is the first event where new members felt as thought they had been adequately involved.