Queer Discussion Group Held at uWaterloo
Jeremy
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Home page: http://www.wndg.ca
Posts by Jeremy
This Week: First “Questions from a Hat” Discussion of the Fall!
This week we will be hosting a “Questions from a Hat” discussion! Brainstorm some questions to toss into the hat before the group! Questions will be randomly drawn from a hat over the course of the evening to form the basis for the evening’s discussion.
Hope you can join the discussion!
Pride & Prejudice – This Week’s Circle Discussion!
This week we will be hosting a Community Building Through Circles Dialogue discussion related to Pride and Prejudice: Stereotypes, Generalizations and Assumptions in the Queer Community.
As always, feel free to bring along an item to add to the centre for the circle. Items can be anything of personal meaning that is related to the topic of conversation (though this relation need not be obvious to everyone, so long as it has meaning to you). You may also wish to bring along items that could be used as talking pieces for the discussion.
We will be meeting in our regular meeting location in MC 5136.
Queer Gazette this week (in MC 5136B- Not 5136A or 5136)!
8 months ago
This week we will be hosting our Queer Gazette format! Feel free to bring along an article, blog post, cartoon or other media covering a topic that you think would be of interest to other participants. These items will serve as the basis for our discussion!
Also note that we will be meeting in MC 5136B for this week only. Note that there are three meeting rooms in the MC building with the number “5136″. Room 5136 (our regular meeting room) is right in the middle of a long hallway. Room 5136A is around the corner to the left of Room 5136. Room 5136B is around the corner to the right of Room 5136. Be sure to look for the Wednesday Night Discussion Group sign on the door before entering the room as there is another event happening in MC 5136 – and we would hate for you to join the wrong group by accident.
This Week: Informal Discussion in Our New Location (MC 5136) & Volunteer Opportunity!
8 months ago
With so many changes to the WNDG this term (including a new meeting location), it is anticipated that people may need a little extra time to arrive at the discussion group this week (especially with on-campus orientation events also occuring). Rather than having the group disrupted by late arrivals, we will hold an informal discussion this week! Individuals will be invited to mingle and share their experiences and stories about the discussion group with other participants. The facilitator will be available to answer questions about the group and community resources available for queer/questioning/rainbow identified individuals!
A reminder that our new meeting location is in MC 5136! It would be helpful to have someone be present at our old meeting location (PAS 3005) between 7:15 pm and 7:30 pm to redirect people to the new location (just in case they have not been receiving the online updates). If you are willing to do this, e-mail wndg-owner<at>lists.uwaterloo.ca and let us know!
Lots of Changes for the WNDG This Fall (Including New Location!)
8 months ago
There are a lot of changes in store for the Wednesday Night Discussion Group starting this week!
NEW LOCATION!
Unfortunately, our previous meeting location (PAS 3005) was renovated over the past few weeks and the department responsible for the room has decided to designate this room as “non-bookable”.As a result, we have had to search for a new location to hold the discussion groups this term.
I am happy to report that the Faculty of Mathematics has allowed us to book one of their lounges and that discussions will be held in the Math and Computer Building in Room 5136 from this point forward (the only exception is on September 14, when we will meet just around the corner in Room 5136B).
NEW FORMATS!
My personal thanks to everyone who completed the survey over the past week. We received responses from a diverse cross-section of the community that were extremely valuable in setting the formats for the groups moving forward. The majority of respondents requested the following rotation for the discussions – and I am more than happy to oblige:
- First Wednesday of the Month: Coming Out & Questionning
- Second Wednesday of the Month: Queer Gazette
- Third Wednesday of the Month: Community Building Through Circle Dialogue
- Fourth Wednesday of the Month: Questions from a Hat
- Fifth Wednesday of the Month: Coming Out & Questionning
NEW TIMES!
The majority of the discussions will continue to run from 7:15 PM until 8:30 PM. However, on those weeks in which we offer the Community Building Through Circle Dialogue format, we will be advertising the group as running from 7:15 PM to 8:45 PM, as the additional time will be required to facilitate this format.
NEW SCHEDULE!
Discussion group formats and topics have now been set from September 2011 through to April 2012. Check out the revised schedule at http://wndg.ca/events/schedule/.
NEW VOLUNTEERS!
Keep watch for more announcements about volunteer opportunities with the WNDG! We will need volunteers in the following areas:
- Assistant Facilitators for the Discussions
- Individuals to track and post announcements from each week’s discussion
- Moderator for the WNDG E-mail Listserv
If you are interested in any of these opportunities, let the facilitator know at any discussion group.
Thank you for your continued support of and interest in the WNDG! Looking forward to another eight months of great discussions!
Last Chance to Complete Survey (Before Noon on September 5!)
We will need to set the topics for the next 8 months by the end of the day on September 5th, so we are putting our one last call for people to provide their input!
The survey will remain open until Noon on September 5th for last minute contributions. You can access the survey by visiting the following link:
This Week: Survey, Circle and Return to Familiar Surroundings
First, don’t forget to complete the following survey to help plan for the next term:
This week we will be hosting our second discussion group in our new Community Building Through Circle Dialogue format! We will specifically be applying the circle format to discussing First Inklings: Becoming Aware of Our Sexuality. Feel free to bring along items to help create our centrepiece for discussion.
Also, this week marks our return to our regular meeting location in PAS 3005!
Hope to see you there!
Reminder: Discussion will be held in Hagey Hall Room 280
Just a quick reminder that as the renovations may not be complete in our regular meeting room, we will be meeting in Hagey Hall Room 280 this week – just to be cautious.
We will return to our regular meeting room next week.
Don’t Miss Your Chance to Shape the Future of the WNDG!
9 months ago
by Jeremy
in Administrative
With September fast approaching, we are working away to prepare for the next eight months’ worth of Wednesday Night Discussion Groups! To this end, we are asking that past, present and potentially future participants complete a survey so that they can influence the direction of the group! We are specifically requesting your feedback in two key areas:
1] Selection of topics for discussion
2] Selection of discussion formats
The first item is fairly straightforward – we want to be certain that we are selecting topics that participants are interested in. We will be selecting the top voted topics for those weeks in which we advertise a topic in advance of the discussion group.
The second item refers to what will hopefully be an annual re-examination of the discussion group formats that we rotate through on a monthly basis. We currently have the following four discussion formats:
a) Coming Out & Questioning Format;
b) Questions from a Hat (QHat) Format;
c) Queer Gazette Format; and
d) Community Building Through Circle Dialogue Format .
More details on each format can be found by visiting: http://wndg.ca/about/
Over the past year, we have noted that the mix of participants changes based on the discussion format. This is excellent, as it means that the group is meeting its mandate to serve a very diverse community! Not everyone is going to be a fan of every format- and that is okay 
However, we want to be certain that there are enough people interested in each format to allow for an engaging discussion. Some weeks have had very low turnout and we want to be certain that it is not due to the discussion format.
You can access the survey by visiting the following link:
Thank you in advance for your input! It is greatly appreciated!
This Week: Questions from a Hat
This week we will be hosting our monthly Questions from a Hat discussion group!
Hope to see you there.