From: cjmchale@cs.tcd.ie (Ciaran McHale)
Newsgroups: soc.bi
Subject: College GL(B?) Society (Was: Bi Quotes and Red Heads)
Date: 13 Apr 92 20:52:03 GMT
Organization: DSG, Dept. of Comp. Sci., Trinity College, Dublin.

Joe P Woodhouse writes about some tension in his college's GL society
due to a few bifolk making their presence felt and asking for the
society's to include "Bi" in its name.

One suggestion I have is that rather than having just one meeting a
week, your society could have one "main" meeting to which everyone is
welcome, and then other smaller meetings which are limited to just a
section of the membership. For example, a lesbian-only (or women-only)
group could meet on Mondays, a bi group could meet on Tuesdays, gay men
could meet on Wednesdays and then have a all-inclusive group meeting on
Thursdays. This way, women who think they might get hit on by bi men can
skip the Thursday meeting but still meet on Tuesdays, etc. Each of the
sub-groups will sink or swim, depending on how much interest there is
in them. Thus if, say, a gay man strongly feels the need to meet with
others without bis present he can try to set up such a meeting on
Fridays.

If you like this suggestion then a few points are in order:

	o It caters for the needs of everybody much better than a single
	  monolithic meeting.
	o It prevents the accusation of bifolk changing GL-space into
	  GLB-space against their will. Rather it is creating many
	  spaces: GL-space, B-space, GLB-space, L-space etc.
	o It prevents one or two vocal people imposing policy on the
	  whole group. For example, if one gay man says that bifolk
	  should not be allowed into the society then he can set up a
	  GL-only sub-group which meets on, say, Fridays. Whether he is
	  speaking for the majority of people in the society or just for
	  himself will be determined by how many people attend the Friday
	  meetings.
	o Do not try to set up a multitude of sub-groups in an effort to
	  be PC. Rather, advertise within the group that members are
	  encouraged to set up their own sub-groups (all they need is
	  to find an available time-slot and to borrow a key for the
	  society's room) and this way sub-groups will be set up on an
	  "as needed" basis. Thus, if there are enough women interested
	  in setting up a lesbian-only (or les/bi-women) sub-group then
	  it will happen; if there isn't enough interest, it won't
	  happen.
	o Make sure that the "main" meeting is open to _everybody_. This
	  is important since it allows the different sub-groups to
	  communicate and decide on, say, (i) group policy, and
	  (ii) the funds of the group are to be spent/split.

This sub-groups idea can be extended to include common-interest groups.
For example, it is likely that some people in the group want to just
socialise while others want to be activists. Ensure that the main
meeting is purely social (and to take care of any society business); a
sub-group can be set up by activists if they want. Similarly, if a few
members want to organise a college GLB magazine, they can set up a
sub-group for that.


ObjFlame: #$@!^%$


<>How many times do I hear that being bisexual means you MUST have a
<>partner of each sex at the same time?
<>--- amy young (alyoung@silver.ucs.indiana.edu)
<>Where are we supposed to get the energy for dealing with all these
<>partners.
<>--- Iseult White (iw@tosser.Rational.COM)

Ciaran.
-- 
Ciaran McHale                                                            ----
Department of Computer Science, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland.      \bi/
Telephone: +353-1-7021539  FAX: +353-1-772204  email: cjmchale@cs.tcd.ie  \/