[RAICES] Notas from last meeting

[Joselyn Denise Yrayta]

Hola a todos,

Since not everyone could be there, here is what we discussed and a couple of
reminders.

There will not be a name change. We are staying with Raices since it also comes
with:

RAICES
They plucked our fruit
They cut our branches
They burned out trunk
They could not kill our roots

word. So anyway, since FiCom or whoever does the money transferring is throwing
a fit, we aren't giving most/all of our money to Pa'Lante but Pa'lante is still
happening and everyone should go and represent Hampshire! So, in light of the
money that we have, we are going to have T-shirts. That means

Angel, have the logo in to me by This Monday and Steven, we need the mission
statement ASAP since the deadline to do group recognition is tomorrow! Which
brings me to what was discussed next, we re-did the mission statement and it is
being written/thought out by our member Steven :).

Notes on the mission statement: Not only limited to "Latino" people, we are not
here to define anything.

Also, now that we have money, that also means that our publication, La Fuerza,
is pretty much guaranteed, everyone must submit something! A copy of the old La
Fuerza should be in everyone's mailbox soon. Andrea, could you put these in the
mailboxes of students who identify as being Latino? If so, when can you do it
(don't worry, we will come and help you).

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS IS MAY 9TH!!!! Please give them to me early or BY that
date and please, feel free to write more than one submission. Submissions can
be really anything, a drawing, a quote that you find meaningful or something
that you have created, just that it should have something to do with you/your
heritage/Latinos/however else you identify with (and well, e-mail me with any
questions that you may have on this since the submissions could be anything
really). La Fuerza will be a twice a year publication and our plan is to have
our first one of next year done this year (aka May) so that we have something
to recruit first-years with and something that really sets us apart from other
student groups.

In terms of recruitment, what we want to get done is to set up a table on the
library lawn in September and recruit/spread awareness of Latino Heritage
month, which is September. What will most likely happen is that at least two
people will be at the table to answer questions about the group, armed with the
first publication (that we made) of La Fuerza and a paper with our mission
statement and says what we are all about, and have events that we plan on
having, such as fundraisers and community events that we want to have (I know
its a run-on sentence). This means that next semester we will send a excel
sheet with sign-up times that people can table (not a long time). Also, maybe
tabling at Saga? This was something that was talked about before and even going
to table to table to students that we know identify themselves as being Latino?

Tabling at Hampfest: pretty much the same thing as what we are going to do at
the library lawn.

Events that were talked about:

Do more than socials, more action based events. There was talk about doing
events/talking to elementary and middle-schoolers about college and going to
college. Maybe schools in Holoyoke, Springfield, and a elementary school in
Amherst that has lots of Latinos, schools with a large Latino population and to
get to know the youth there. Also there was talk about having a pen-pal kind of
thing going on with the children there. There was also some talk about doing a
heritage month kind of celebration at these schools.

Revive La Dia de Los Muertos celebration that RAICES use to do, some sort of
party or event that we will host. We (your signer Aymee)are currently
researching what it was that use to happen and how we can do that again.

A 5-College Panel/Panel with people from the Community-- this is great, but what
would they discuss?

International Food Festival: Have us cook and this could also be an event where
people are recruiting new members

3 kings Day Celebration (this still needs to be discussed some more)

Involvement with Relay For Life

Events/collaborations with other SOURCE signers and other places on campus for
more events, collaboration with the Latin-America Interest Group (Possible
event would be on Race within the Latino community, this could be a joint even
with UMOJA and PASA because of "mixing" and mixed heritage).

That is pretty much everything. If I forgot anything, well then my bad. Also,
please note that nothing on this list is set in stone and we can still talk
about this. We can still have another meeting if people feel that we need to
have one. Please E-mail me with any questions that you may have!

Also, our next meeting, yes, next semester will be September 3rd because to make
these events happen, we need to meet as soon as possible. The time can be
arranged next semester although it will most likely be around 8pm or so. So,
everyone should make it! Gracias.

Your signer,

Joselyn