Minutes, 10th Oct 2015

Dear all,

The following are the minutes for the meeting from 10/10/2015. The excel sheet of events prepared by Siddharth Swaminathan is annexed herewith. PLEASE GO THROUGH THE SAME AND SEND UPDATES. 

The next meeting is on 17/10/2015 at ALF at 6.30 p.m.

The following updates from Siddharth Swaminathan were presented: 

1. Queer Sports - Spoke to Akkai (who is unable to attend this evenings meeting) about this event. The ground rental is 5000. We will have to put up a shamiana, possibly hire chairs and equipment (a cricket bat, wickets and such) and provide water. Do we have equipment? 

2. The poetry reading and open mic event will most likely be held at Paradigm Shift (Sowmya has agreed to host the event). We might have to rent a sound system. Rohini is following up on this with Sowmya. The other event organised by Rohini - park bench stories will likely be at Cubbon Park. No costs estimated for these events.

3. Spoke to Amrita about fixing the 'feed me' piggy poster. Hope to have that by tomorrow.

4. The estimate for Parents/Family event to be held at Swabhava is 2000 (includes tea/coffee, snacks).

5. Have not been able to contact Padmini on budget details regarding street play.

6. Have not yet been able to send all details to the crown sourcing firm yet. Hope to get this done by this weekend, since we now have a better sense of the costs.

7. Need an estimate for the Queer pop quiz event at Urban Solace. The venue is likely to be free, but do we need to hire sound?

7. I have received a donation of 20,000 for Pride. Holding on to it until I can give it to one of you to deposit in ALF pride account.

FURTHER MINUTES

- Only six of us here. To contact others is necessary. To go directly to people and call them for pride and the meetings. Consistent follow up to be done. List of organizations to be contacted available on www.csmrinfo.blogspot.in. 

- Parents Meet to be on 1st Nov, PLHIV meet in first week. To be added to Table. Updated event list attached herewith.

- Permission for Pride to be taken 15 days before. Kumar will lead, along with rest of us.

- As per email sent, Ayaan will organize queer mela, others can feel free to jump in 

- Kumar to speak to Trans community and come back on Monday for mobilization for pride and events 

- Ayaan has made more people as admins to Bangalore pride page.

In solidarity,

Gowthaman 

For the XL sheet "Bangalore Pride events 2015 & Budgeting", Click HERE

Minutes, 03rd Oct 2015

Please find a summary of the discussion at the CSMR meeting this past Saturday.

The next meeting will be held this Saturday October 10, 2015 at ALF, 6.30 pm

1) The meeting began with updates to currently scheduled events. Of these, the queer quiz has been scheduled for the 19th of October at Urban Solace. The 377 Seminar is still scheduled for the 7th of November, though the suggestion that came up was to have two separate events. The first would be a retrospective looking at histories of pride/ queer activism and be an official pride event. The second is a national level meeting that ALF will organize which will to bring together individuals from outside Bangalore - this would not be listed as a Pride event.

2) The individual event organizers need to be contacted, we need event specific follow up.  If organizers are unable to coordinate the events, we either switch the organizer of strike off the event.

3) Following from the last point, we need to come up with an events schedule - Siddharth will set up a spreadsheet for the same once we hear back from the organizers these week.

4) A representative from the NotforProfit website attended the meeting, and said we could proceed with a call for funds on the site as soon as we got a sense of our budget. As part of events follow up, organizers will be asked to provide a budget.  ALF will host the platform this year.

5) In terms of improving attendance at meetings, it was suggested that we continue individual follow ups with organizations.

Best

Danish

Minutes, 30th September 2015

Please find a summary of the discussion at the CSMR meeting yesterday evening. I have listed the matters in the order they were discussed, but note that decisions taken by the group will be circulated in separate e-mails with the opportunity to propose alternative positions as desired.

The next meeting will be held this Saturday October 3, 2015 @ ALF. 6:30pm

Meeting began with updates to currently scheduled events.

1.Queer Pub Quiz (Danish). Tentatively Scheduled for Oct. 20 at Vapour (100 Ft Rd, Indiranagar). Currently awaiting confirmation of the venue.

2.Seminar on 377 (Gowthaman). Tentative date changed from Oct. 1 (which obviously didn't happen) to Nov. 7. Event will include historical context of litigation pertaining to 377 and discussion about future courses of action at the local, state, and national levels. 

-It is possible to use ALF program funds for this event, which would allow the organizers to invite speakers/participants from outside Bangalore; however, this means that, per the current position of CSMR, the event would be sponsored only by ALF, happen during the Pride, but NOT be listed as a Pride event or directly connected to CSMR. 

-There was some debate about whether a larger event sponsored by ALF was desirable, but the consensus at the meeting was in favor of an ALF organized event on 377. 

3. Street Play (Padmini). Script is written; in progress.

4. Queer Poetry Reading and Open Mic Night (Rohini). Need to follow up on status of these events.

5. Consultation with trans community in RPC Layout, etc. (Kumar). To be organized through Payana. See message on CSMR list earlier today (01/10) for update. Email Kumar if interested.

6. Queer Sports Day (Akkai and Bhuvi). Oct. 31st at Malleshwaram Ground.

7. Flashmob (Naveen). Practices are ongoing. Contact Naveen if interested. There was a discussion about whether it was necessary to take police permission or only to give notice (intimation) to police that dance will be taking place. Delhi and Mumbai flashmobs took police permission, but may not be strictly necessary.

8. Queer Cycling to BBMP office to demand subsidized cycles (Gowthaman). CSMR approached by Bums on the Saddle cycling company (BotS); however, given CSMR guidelines, cannot co-sponsor an event with this company. Coordination with their existing cycling clubs around Bangalore is possible since those groups already include queer people, and clubs can coordinate directly with CSMR on the event. 

9. International Transgender Day of Remembrance. November 20. This will include a candlelight vigil at Victoria Statue in Cubbon Park and a prior screening of a film at ALF (details forthcoming). Identify those interested or willing to speak publicly at vigil.

10. Kothu Party. There was a long discussion about whether a party is a good fundraiser for Pride activities, given that parties have excluded trans people, cross dressers, etc. in the past. Decision: CSMR will not sponsor or accept funds from any party that excludes any member of the community. If a party has any exclusions listed then better not to have a party, or to organize in an accepting, open venue. There needs to be complete transparency in any party organizing done under CSMR. 

11. Diversity Mela: NOT HAPPENING THIS YEAR.

12. Garage Sale. Contact Rovan and ____(?)

13. Funding. Decision: CSMR funds for Pride will be hosted by a rotating member organization; this year ALF will host. (contact: Ramya). There is some time sensitive pressure to have funds collection up and running. Crowdfunding website in process of being set up. 

14. Siddharth spoke about organizing the Pride events in 2012 and the significant participation from diverse communities that year. This has not been replicated since. This included a mela in the open area behind Ravindran Kalakshetra. Through sustained engagement and outreach it was possible to expand participation in Pride events.

-The second point was that events often do not cost as much as people imagine while planning them, especially the parade itself. This led to discussion about the logic of paying for a venue to host a fundraiser. Is this a good idea if the money raised just goes back to that venue and not to future community events?

15. Need for a list of queer friendly spaces in Bangalore where events can be held. 

Includes: 

Humming Tree

Paradigm Shift

Samsa

Atta Glatta

Open Solace 

[Feel free to add!]

If I have missed anything, please let me know. See you all on Saturday.

Best,

Scott