Our meeting last Thursday - Your input welcome!

[millsyboy]

Hi everyone

We had our meeting last Thursday and now the project is off the ground! Thanks everyone who attended. It was a small group, but we had some useful discussion about the project's aim, how we should go about getting this book created, the budget and the timeline.

We had a brainstorm about some of the forms this book could take:

• Short stories
• Poetry
• 'How to' guide
• Drawing
• Photography
• Games, etc.
• Music, songs
• Comics
• Magazine
• What do we want to call the book?
• Do we want to seek advertising so we can print more copies/make a fancier publication?
• What sort of audience should we aim at:
• Young people
• Queer people
• Family and friends

This is just a brainstorm, so additions and opinons on all this is welcome!

We decided to meet at 7.30pm 6.00pm on Tuesday 5 September. The location of the meeting is yet to be decided (let us know where you think it should be). Everyone will be welcome to come along.

David

EDIT: I got that time wrong, sorry.

[Hapgood]

Hello!

Thanks for the briefing! I missed last Thursday (stuck at work, only a few blocks away) so was glad to be able to see the outcomes on here! Thanks David, and to those who went and came up with those ideas!

I like those suggestions - games is an interesting one (and one Tim Fish manages in his collection of gay themed comics, Cavalcade of Boys). Could work.

I guess I have slight reservations about advertising: mainly because it 'brands' the project, in many ways. There's the obvious bilateral endorsement that says "we support them because they support us". But, say if the finished book only features advertisments from local gay clubs, or places that specifically tend to queer sexualities, then it might look a little bit... disconnected from the rest of society. And signal that we're only approved, and approve of, 'our own'.

Does that make sense? It's a reservation that I would have raised had I been present. And while advertising would mean more books to more people, that would also compound the problem itself.

I guess, my point is, that if the project accepts advertising, maybe we should look to a wide range of businesses, and not just 'queer' ones*.

Haps

*I mean, how really can a place of business be queer! LOL