willa source

2008-03-19T13:21:00.001-07:00

Subject: Tell Mayor Sullivan Your Priorities -- Come to the Citizen Budget Forum

Dear friend,

What kind of city do you want Vancouver to be? Will we see deep cuts to the
Parks Board, more shifting of the commercial tax base to residential taxpayers, or stepped-up investment in affordable housing to address our deepening homeless crisis?

Each year, the City of Vancouver holds a public consultation process for the upcoming civic budget. Think City wants to bring more people into this process so more Vancouverites can get informed and more citizens can be heard.

Think City and the University of British Columbia 's Political Science Department invite you to learn about, discuss and deliberate the 2008 City of Vancouver budget on the evening of March 19, 2008. HSBC Hall, UBC Robson Square , 7:00-9:30 pm, 800 Robson Street, Vancouver.

Space is limited so sign up today for this exciting evening of conversation:
http://thinkcity.ca/event_signup

Make sure your voice is heard, when city council decides the priorities for this year's budget!

Think City's survey and more information can be found at
www.thinkcity.dreamvancouver.ca
or contact us at
budget_talks@hotmail.com

2008-03-17T12:59:00.001-07:00

Students,

Do you like your U-Pass? Do you spend any time in the SUB?

Then listen up!

A referendum is coming at the end of March to save the U-Pass and renew the SUB. We are attempting to build a sustainable community by keeping the U-Pass and turning the most used and least sustainable building on campus (the SUB) into a model for others to follow. Here are the major issues:

1) The U-Pass: Translink has recently increased their fees and with that, the cost of the U-Pass. If we want to keep the U-Pass, we have to raise the fee by $1.75 per month. This is a pretty small increase and if it doesn’t pass, we will no longer have a U-Pass.
2) SUB Renew: As you can probably tell, the SUB building is old. It was built in the 1960s and has not meet the needs of students for the past ten years. This is the most used building on campus, yet student social space has gradually disappeared over the past ten years. We could be offering so many more services to students. We want to renew and expand this building to address the needs of current and future students.

If you are a UBC student, that means you are a member of the AMS, and thus, can vote in this referendum. Voting takes place online on WebVote at the student service centre: www.students.ubc.ca/ssc. The polls are open from March 25 – March 31. Don’t miss your chance to decide what happens on your campus.

For more information, check out the website: www.ams.ubc.ca

2008-03-05T12:37:00.001-08:00

Dear friend,

What kind of city do you want Vancouver to be? Will we see deep cuts to the
Parks Board, more shifting of the commercial tax base to residential taxpayers, or stepped-up investment in affordable housing to address our deepening homeless crisis?

Each year, the City of Vancouver holds a public consultation process for the upcoming civic budget. Think City wants to bring more people into this process so more Vancouverites can get informed and more citizens can be heard.

Think City and the University of British Columbia 's Political Science Department invite you to learn about, discuss and deliberate the 2008 City of Vancouver budget on the evening of March 19, 2008. HSBC Hall, UBC Robson Square , 7:00-9:30 pm, 800 Robson Street, Vancouver.

Space is limited so sign up today for this exciting evening of conversation:
http://thinkcity.ca/event_signup

Make sure your voice is heard, when city council decides the priorities for this year's budget!

Think City's survey and more information can be found at
www.thinkcity.dreamvancouver.ca
or contact us at

2007-11-20T02:22:00.000-08:00

Hi WILLA members and Antigone Supporters,

Just a reminder that the CONNECT wrap-up party and debriefing is at my house tomorrow night TUESDAY NOVEMBER 20TH from 6pm to 8pm. Bring questions/comments/criticisms. I will provide snacks. Email antigonemagazine@hotmai.com for my address and directions.

Happy feministing!

2007-11-15T19:16:00.001-08:00

"BJORN LOMBORG AT UBC"

NOVEMBER 26th

Hosted by the FRASER INSTITUTE and the UBC CAMPUS CONSERVATIVES

Location: SUB Auditorium
Doors open at 12 noon
Event Times: 12:30 to 1:30 PM

Lomborg will discuss his best-selling new book, Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming

Lomborg argues that many of the elaborate and expensive government policies and programs under consideration to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and halt global warming are based on emotion and political considerations, rather than strictly scientific assumptions. These programs may offer little impact but will cost billions of dollars.

Lomborg offers a second generation of thinking on the issues of climate change, an issue where he believes panic is neither warranted nor is it constructive in dealing with any of humanity's problems. He brings back
rational dialogue and discussion to a topic where contrary opinions are often discouraged and quashed.

This is a free event!!

For more information contact:
EMAIL: ubccampusconservatives@hotmail.com
CALL: Nick @ 778 990 4322
VISIT: www.ubccampusconservatives.com

2007-10-28T17:39:00.000-07:00

Calling All Members!

WILLA and Antigone are looking for some helping hands on November 9th!
CONNECT: A Woman's Networking Lunch needs volunteers to help. Here are some of the positions we're looking to fill.

Event Flow: 11:30-1:30
Set Up: 10:30-11:00
Ticket Sales: 11:30-12:00
Subscription Sales:
11:30-1:30

If you're able and willing we'd love your help! Email us at antigonemagazine@hotmail.com with your availability. Hope to see you there!

2007-10-11T23:04:00.001-07:00

CONNECT: A Woman's Networking Lunch!

Friday, November 9th, 2007

11:30-1:30

UBC's Student Union Building Ballroom

Free to UBC student - $7 for the general public

E-mail antigonemagazine@hotmail.com

to reserve your tickets today!

It's hard to believe that it's already been a year since Antigone first officially launched it's magazine... but indeed it has! Which means we need to celebrate and further our mandate of connecting young women with other women, women's groups and politicians who work for women's causes. That's why we're holding CONNECT: A Woman's Networking Lunch!

The lunch will bring together women and men of all ages who support women's causes. Primarily we will be targetting women's groups from across Vancouver, UBC students and politicians who support women's causes. We believe that it is crucially important to bring these groups together to help encourage collaboration and faciliatate the work that they are doing.

We still need tons of help with the event - so feel free to sign up to help canvas for food donations from local businesses, volunteer during the event, or help promoting it!

Please forward this info on to any other people you might think would be interested in this great event!

2006-11-01T23:12:00.000-08:00

Here's our press release for Antigone's Launch. We've been putting all of our resources into this and we're very excited to be having it tommorow. Thanks to everyone for thier support. We'll have an edition of the magazine online soon (we hope. any techinical skills support would be much appreciated).

Feminist Group at UBC to Launch Magazine

Antigone Magazine will be launched Thursday November 2, 2006 in Meekinson Lounge, UBC. This open house style reception will feature female artists, musicians, poets and politicians and will help us launch the first issue of our exciting new magazine.

Antigone is supported by Woman in Legislative Leadership Associations, WILLA, a group working to promote the participation of young women in politics. This Alma Matter Society club was founded in 2005 and hope to take Antigone national by 2007.
Antigone Magazine seeks to encourage on campus debate around women’s issues and women’s involvement in politics and positions of power. WILLA is the proud recipients of a grant from the Innovative Projects Fund and is anticipating the nation wide distribution of Antigone by 2007. Our project objectives are to:

Encourage on campus debate around women’s issues and women’s involvement in politics and positions of power.

Encourage greater civic and personal engagement by women and men in issues surrounding women in the campus community and in society as a whole.

Provide strategies for women to fight against forces which seek to keep them out of the powerful and political realms.

Provide strategies for men to encourage full female participation in society.

Celebrate young UBC women who work to change the fabric of society or to involvement themselves in politics or their community.

Celebrate UBC men who encourage full female participation in society.

Engage, question and rethink entrenched cultural attitudes towards women.

Create a forum in which women and men can engage in discussion around women’s issues.

WILLA is very excited about this innovative and important new project. We look forward to celebrating the evening fantastic female art and entertainment as well as members of the political community.

2006-05-17T16:55:00.000-07:00

Last year was great for Willa!

We hosted Lisa McLeod for a workshop on Roberta's Rules of Order.

The organization went through The History of the Women's Movement in Politics with Dr. Barbara Arneil.

Along with some great planning sessions and some stellar socials Willa has really flourished.

Now, with the help of some amazing gals (major kudos to Amanda and Kristen especially) we've won an IPF grant from UBC to put together Antigone, Amanda's brainchild publication on the hip world of women in politics. Think Cosmo minus the sex plus the politics.

The planning for the launch party in September as well as the communiques for the year is happening now!

If you want to get involved, fire us off an email at willapresidents@gmail.com

See you ladies and gentlemen in September!

2005-09-20T18:58:00.000-07:00

This is the email that was sent out to various lists of SFU Students. It contains more of the meeting formats and questions answered.

Willa - The Women Involved in Legislative Leadership Association

(a new club at SFU)

We want you to join Willa! email xmenzies@sfu.ca now!

First general meeting: Thursday Sep 22nd 6:30pm in the Rotunda

What is Willa about?

If you've ever wondered why there aren't enough women involved in politics, you aren't alone. We want to promote more involvement of women in legislative leadership, by being more informed, by being more vocal and by being more pro-active. The purpose of Willa is to link ambitious and talented young women together to learn skills that will help us become better informed political citizens and to develop ourselves. We hope to do all this through our workshop meetings and other fun events.

The story of how Willa came to be can be found on our blog at www.willasource.blogspot.com

What will meetings be about and what kind of time commitment is involved?

We realize that these ambitious and talented women are often ultra-busy building their careers and lives. We think our club can suit that. We aim to meet once a month at a hip location downtown. Meetings will consist of a short update of what every member is up to (so we can all support and perhaps join in to some of our great contemporaries' initiatives). Then, will follow a workshop from a notable female figure (examples of women we aim to have include the CFS BC chairperson, Lisa McLeod, prominent Feminist professors and MLAs like Carole Taylor). Workshops will be on relevant topics such as Robert's Rules of Order (to be able to properly participate in a formal meeting), the History of Women in Politics and where we are now or Being a Woman in Politics and Business . After we learn the skill/ information we will put it into action by doing something like running a formal meeting (for Robert's Rules of Order) or seeking out a positive female mentor for each of us in business or politics (for Being a Woman in Politics and Business). After the meeting, it will be tradition for everyone to go out for dinner to talk about anything and everything!

For those who want to be a driving force for Willa, all executive positions are currently open and will be voted on at our first organizational meeting. The positions of Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer. If you are interested in a position, please email xmenzies@sfu.ca with a short blurb on who you are and why you are interested.

What about boys?

Males are more than welcome to join. In fact, the club already has 3 male members. The only condition to join is that you must be dedicated to promoting women in politics.

How do I join?

Send an email to xmenzies@sfu.ca with your name and student number right now! and then, show up to our meeting on Thursday. Since we hope to be a Type II SFSS club this semester, our membership dues are set at $2 for SFU students and $5 for anyone who wants to join that is not an SFU Student(such as staff, faculty, alumni or community members). These membership dues are per semester and can be paid at any one of our events.

2005-09-10T19:48:00.000-07:00

So... Xenia summed that up pretty well haha. It seems like I've been waiting to start this club for a long, long time; however there've always been some necessary components which I've been lacking. I finally have them all now- a great partner (Xenia), some awesomely brilliant female friends to support me and all of the other resources necessary to turn the dream into reality.

The time and effort that it takes to do something like this is always so much more than what one's intuition initially suggests and, to be candid, the process has been tiring at times. Xenia has been an incredible source of energy and creativity to me, I can't imagine doing this without her. Together we are a mix of introverted prudence (me eheh) and extroverted activity (not so much me).

Despite our very disparate characters, Xenia and I share at least one thing in common, and that is a great desire to see more young women becoming engaged in and aware of the political system. I have met countless brilliant, innovative and confident women since I started university and it kills me when I think of all the imagination and knowledge that is being lost because they do not share it with those people who create the policy that governs our nation.

This is not by any means to say that there are absolutely no females in attendance at the various political functions I frequent. There are definitely many wonderful girls who put themselves out there and face the currently male dominated world of university politics... there just aren't enough! We have won the battle of gender equity, the legislation is in place, there is nothing stopping us. The time is now, the time was ten years ago, we must use the opportunity that is before us. It is an opportunity that has not been offered to women in the history of humanity, how can we possibly sit by and waste something that our ancestors fought so hard for?

Our club is non-partisan and merely involves attending one meeting a month. The goal of each meeting will be to introduce you to many like-minded women and also to teach you something about being a female leader in Canadian society. There will be meetings dedicated to the history of women in politics, the current state of the Canadian business woman, the various levels within the Canadian political system and much more.

The primary goal of WILLA is to create a network that will hopefully help many leadership bound young women achieve their true hopes and dreams.

2005-08-21T22:05:00.000-07:00

This all started at a bus stop on main street.

I had gone to meet Kristen at a dinner for Carole Taylor's MLA campaign. I was running late because I got off late from Harry Bloy's office where I was doing voter ID-ing. Standing at the bus stop with two of our friends, Kristen and I started talking about how there really aren't enough girls in politics. We were like 'man, I am sooo happy I found you. Yet, there must be more of us somewhere'. So, we decided to search for more like-minded women. Then we decided to form a network of the sorts of women in politics. Then, the more we talked about it the more we wanted to do it legitimately. So was born:

Women Interested in Legislative Leadership

then we met up while I was in Vernon instructing army cadets for the summer and Kristen was in Penticton working at ICBC for the summer. Kristen drove down to Vernon (because I wasn't allowed to go to Kelowna to meet her as we had planned) and we went to white spot and wrote up a Yearly plan, our constitution and a to-do list for us. We also decided that the hibiscus would be a part of our logo because it's youthful, feminine and would look good on a broach. The name also changed to something a little stronger:

The Women Involved in Legislative Leadership Association

We'll be starting two twin clubs at UBC and SFU this fall and holding swank monthly meetings downtown. The meetings will be half an hour of seeing what everyone is up to, one hour of a distinguished speaker teaching something very relevant to legislative leadership and then half an hour of practice or applying the skill or knowledge learned. We think this will be the most beneficial for our members and for women at large who want to be in positions of legislative leadership.

The idea is to empower smart and ambitious women with both the tools and the network to get to lead and change the world in positive ways. Boys will always be welcome as long as they are aligned with the goals of the organization. We want to make an environment where its encouraged to be talking about manicures and cosmo and then the next minute be talking about middle eastern policy or how the new environmental policy will hurt a big business. There aren't enough places right now where girls feel comfortable doing that. We want that to change.

Want to join? Email xmenzies@sfu.ca