[opirgyork] FREE Alternative Media Workshops! (Starting this week!)

[aruna at opirgyork.ca]

Upcoming Alternative Media Workshops!

Workshops on July 30, Aug 2 and Aug 4!

In preparation of the Media Co-op's AGM on August 3, OPIRG is organizing
a series of workshops for those interested in getting involved with
alternative media.All workshops are free and open to everyone. There
will be snacks and TTC tokens available. All locations are wheelchair
accessible.

*Strategies for pain-free activist writing
*Saturday July 30**
1-- 4 pm

Location: Room 5140, OISE, 252 Bloor Street West
With Alexis Shotwell

*Snacks and TTC tokens provided*

Writing is an important way to communicate about, work through, and
reflect on our movements and struggles. It is also a vital part of our
struggles.

The capacity to write with ease, joy, and fluidity is rare: it is
crushed in us through formal schooling, bad teachers, and a world that
fundamentally doesn't mind if radicals have a hard time putting our
thoughts to paper so that they can be shared. Many of us deal with the
challenge of writing by waiting for deadlines to run us down so that we
have to produce something, anything -- using crises to force ourselves
through the panic and boredom writing can induce. Others simply don't
write at all.

In this workshop, I offer some strategies and tactics for writing.
Topics include: dealing with anxiety, procrastination, and panic about
writing; organizing the material realities of the writing process;
stopping writing; communicating well with people who can give you
feedback; setting up support structures for writing.

Facilitator: Alexis Shotwell --Alexis is a teacher, activist, and writer.
She has given versions of this workshop to students and activists
formally and informally, and hears good things about the results.

**

*Fundraising for alternative media!
*Tuesday Aug 2
6 - 8pm
Location: Room 5260, OISE, 252 Bloor Street West
With Roddy Doucet

*Snacks and TTC tokens provided*
(fund)+(friend)+(awareness) = community raising
How you can use sound fundraising methods to build community and support
for your media projects?

The goals of this hands-on workshop will appeal to people with all levels of
fundraising knowledge. By the end we will taken the first steps towards
developing an effective fundraising piece that can be used in
face-to-face, print, and electronic communications. Participants will
also learn effective supporter stewardship techniques and why
fundraising for social change should never be a one-person job as much
as we want it to be. Finally, as a group we will consider the role of
events within a larger fundraising campaign, how to locate new
supporters within existing networks, and how to convince current
supporters to give more. Roddy believes fundraising is a challenge for
all organizations but with the right plan it can weave in with your
goals as an organization to promote social change.

Roddy Doucet is a Montreal-based gadfly who delights in helping
organizations reach their fundraising and social change goals. Having
worked in a variety of settings ranging from institutional fundraising
to marketing and finally as an advocate for several community and
student organizations he is currently working with the Dominion in
Montreal as Membership and Fundraising Coordinator. He prefers an
interactive high-energy approach and is looking forward to meeting you,
exchanging ideas, and providing tips that will help your organization
reach its goals.**

*Mastering Google and Going Deeper: Web research skills for activists and
independent journalists*

Thurs Aug 4
2 - 4 pm
Location: Room 321, Student Centre, York University
With Tim Groves

*Snacks and TTC tokens provided*

This workshop presents the skills and techniques that investigative
journalists and private-eyes use to do deep digging research on the
Internet. It show people how to use google in ways most people are
unaware of and how to access the wealth of information on the Internet that
Google can't find. Jammed packed from edge to edge, this session will be
a chance for novice and expert researchers alike to pick up skills they
can use everyday.


For more information: opirgyork.ca