Hello all, a (very) belated Happy New Year to you - or a recent one, if you celebrate Chinese New Year. It's been almost two months since my last update, and that's because this academic year is my own personal year of the duck. Calm on top, high-speed paddling under the surface.
If you'll remember, we last saw each other when I was setting myself up to tackle my priority #2. Here are my first two priorities in case you don't remember (I wouldn't blame you):
#1 - talk to people in the WMG caucus and find out what they want/need
#2 - supporting and representing the WMG caucus in attaining their goals
#1 went well, but #2 was stressing me out. One long night during my winter holiday time, off work and in a different country, I lay awake at night trying to figure out how I was going to work full tilt in my PhD, be on a society committee, have an active social life, and not disappoint anyone in my caucus while doing my very best to revolutionize campus and make it the perfect safe space for all concerned.
Unsurprisingly, I wasn't getting very far. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the system at the RHUL SU, there are several (many) part-time officers (liberation-related and otherwise) who are meant to do a good job in the free time that studying leaves them. This may work alright in some UG courses, but when you're working full-time in a lab-based PhD, it gets a little tough.
I'm not telling you this to be pitied, I figured I knew what I was signing up for. I was going to do as much as possible. What I hadn't figured in was my desperate perfectionism and need to do everything all the time. Turns out that really doesn't work. So when I couldn't sleep the second night in a row because I was drawing up time-tables in my mind and finding more and more things I should do, I made a decision. At 3am, I sat on the floor and wrote down all the ideas I had - both from what I could come up with and what people said in the fora last term.
Here's the list:
W-only swimming, W-only self-defense, W in Science (event/online), non-binary leaflet, sexual harassment leaflet, trans* leaflet, sexual harassment posters for campus venues, emotional abuse leaflet, W intro gym sessions, film screenings, podcasts/blog posts, "Girls' night out" W evening event, LGBT* Soc events (x2), MG awareness campaign (poster/online), MG training for SU employees, W body image session, W sports events, SU motion for WMGO sub-committee, hold W & MG fora in the spring term, write a WMGO handbook for the next officer
I then prioritised them and gave myself one thing to do each month. Not that I've stuck to that, but this way I don't feel pressured to do more than I can manage. Here's what I've done so far this year:
- Put the motion to form a WMGO subcommittee through the GM. At the last general meeting, the WMGO was granted a sub-committee, made up of two positions (to be elected at the next GM):
- WMG awareness & communications rep.
- WMG events & initiatives rep.
- Finished the non-binary gender leaflet. It's been OK-ed by the SU and it's now available on this blog! Have a look under the new "Resources" tab. I'm working on getting it in print in the SU.
- Finished the sexual/general harassment leaflet. This has also been OK-ed, is available under "Resources" and I will also get those into print ASAP.
- Talked to Ian, our VPSA, about women's gym intro sessions. He's spoken to the Sports Centre and they seem fairly interested, so hopefully those will be a thing, if not this year then next.
- Started organising Women's Only Self-Defense sessions. These will take place in May and there will be two opportunities to attend a course. The course will be held by the same instructor who visited ULU last term to great success (thanks to ULU Women's Officer Susuana for putting us in touch).
- Tried to organise Women's Only Swimming. It's not been easy, I've now chased up two separate schools twice each to try and get in touch with the person in charge to just discuss what kind of options we have. This is currently on the back burner.
- Started organising a body confidence session via my role in FemSoc with Body Gossip. The session will be held in March and will be open to FemSoc non-members too, exact date to be confirmed.
So. The plan is to work slowly, and steadily, and get done what I can, with the aim being to establish and secure events and campaigns before moving on to new projects. We'll see what I can squeeze in! Thanks for all those supporting me, particularly our VP Education and Welfare Sidonie, who is spectacularly amazing and supportive.
I'll close now, as this blog post is getting long - I hope to be in touch more regularly over the remainder of the term. If you've any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me at rhulwmgo[at]gmail.com - also please get in touch if you're thinking of running for one of the two subcommittee positions! I'd love to work with you.
#justkeepswimming
