Meeting Minutes & More

Meeting Minutes and Updates:
- We discussed the Sigma Chi rape allegations at Monday's meeting and how to incorporate the issue into the Take Back the Night event. We concluded with the idea of setting up a table that will give people the ability to learn more if they so desire. In addition, we plan on focusing a portion of our advertising efforts on the Greek community
- It is of the utmost importance that TBTN is a safe space for everyone and that should be kept in mind when planning the event
- TBTN is currently on the student organization calendar, so check that out for more info about the event!
- We are still in the process of advertising and setting up an advertising calendar. Quarter page fliers and posters will be made by next Monday or Tuesday, and then volunteers will be needed to help distribute!
- Here is a tentative schedule of the April 18th, 2009 events:
~ 5:00 - 5:30: clothesline projects & tabling (more info on this later..)
~ 5:30 - 5:45: rally
~ 5:45 - 6:15: march on State St to Capitol
~ 6:15 - 6:50: speaker at the Capitol (the speaker is almost confirmed, I will let you know when
that happens for sure)
~ 7:00 - 7:30: candlelight vigil






Here is a picture from last year's Take Back the Night march. Let's make this year's TBTN even bigger!

03-09 Meeting Minutes

Sorry for the absence- TBTN committee did not meet last Monday due to spring break.  The last planning meeting was on Monday, March 9th and we broke up into two groups: publicity and outreach.  For publicity, we have added Take Back the Night on the UW student calendar and are planning on creating fliers and dorm stuffers soon in order to advertise.  

From wsu.edu/~wrc/Coalition/tbtn.html:

"Take Back the Night: gathering within a controlled space that is free from violence and intimidation.  Elevating the consciousness of a campus community in regard to reclaiming the right of women to live and work in an environment free of violence.  Take Back the Night is an empowering experience for women around the world, acting as a variety for reaffirmation of self and allowing victims to come forth and rid themselves of hatred, self doubt and fear.  By sharing their stories, each of these women strengthens her ability to 'take back' her sense of self, of control, and to re-establish self love"

Nicely put!

There will be a meeting tonight at the Campus Women's Center at 6:30!!

Video of Last Year's TBTN

Hey, you should check this out:

Video from last year's Take Back the Night!

Monday's Meeting Minutes (MMM)

We met on Monday, March 2nd to continue our discussion of TBTN

- Kim from the Canopy Center is interested in getting some of her group members to help with Take Back the Night. This will be much appreciated and we plan to have a music, pizza, and volunteer night in the future with some of these helpers.
- We are in the process of writing the ASM grant, which is due this Friday at noon. Hopefully that will go well! I will let you know...
- We broke up into two groups: outreach and publicity. We had a student from MATC at the meeting who will work on getting contacts there. Other areas of outreach: the Madison community at large, the various high schools in the area, the downtown area, MATC, and Edgewood.
- For publicity, we brainstormed the many ways we can advertise TBTN (if you have any more suggestions, please share!): ads in UW newspapers and other Madison/Capitol newspapers(Wisconsin State Journal, Capitol Times, etc), mass e-mails to UW students/staff, sidewalk chalking, classroom chalking, speaking about the event in Women's Studies and other classes, e-mailing class server list, putting fliers in the Women's Studies office, taping fliers all around campus and the Madison community, handing out fliers at Library Mall during busy passing times, dorm stuffers. We are in the process of figuring out the budget for advertising and what we need in order to accomplish this task.
- We still need a musician and a speaker for the big event, so any ideas/suggestions would be great

Take Back the Night meetings are every Monday from 6:30-7:30 (ish) at UW's Campus Women's Center (4th Floor Memorial Union)!!

A little TBTN history to get you excited!

The first Take Back the Night march was actually called "Reclaim the Night" and was held in Belgium in March of 1976. Groups of men and women marched together holding candles in order to protest the ways that violence is involved in the lives of women all around the world.
The first Take Back the Night march in the United States was only two years later, on November 4, 1978, in San Francisco, California. The march was organized by Women Against Violence in Pornography and Media, who believed that rape and pornography are involved in the sexual subordination of women.
Take Back the Night began, and remains, as a form of protest against the violence that women experience while walking in public at night. Most women, especially female students here at UW-Madison, often hear that she should be careful, or refrain from, walking alone at night. Andrea Dworkin, a radical feminist and author, writes in The Night and Danger:
"Women are often told to be extra careful and take precautions when going out at night. In some parts of the world, even today, women are not allowed out at night. So when women struggle for freedom, we must start at the beginning by fighting for freedom of movement, which we have not had and do not now have. We must recognize that freedom of movement is a precondition for anything else. It comes before freedom of speech in importance because without it freedom of speech cannot in fact exist."
The purpose of TBTN is also to raise community awareness of this violence in order to prevent it from happening. TBTN has grown to not only include violence that women face at night, but rather the fear of violence in general. TBTN advocates for the right of everyone to feel safe from violence. We agree with this right and hope to spread the word!