Hello everyone!

The recent inauguration of President Barack Obama has ushered in the opportunity for genuine change in the lives of numerous LGBT Americans.  In the next four (or even eight) years, we have the possibility of seeing numerous improvements in the rights of LGBT persons, many of which are enumerated on the White House's website at http://www.whitehouse.gov/agenda/civil_rights/.  We should strive to ensure that this opportunity is not squandered, and as such, HRC@OSU has decided to make changes to better achieve that goal.  In recent months, we have stepped up our level of involvement in many areas, and we hope to increase our level of activity even further in the future.  We realize that unfortunately, there are areas which we have neglected in the past, and are now taking steps to address those issues so that we might succeed in creating a more inclusive environment.

Also among these changes is a modification to our meeting schedule.  Effective immediately, HRC@OSU's meetings will be EVERY Tuesday (weekly as opposed to biweekly meetings), as per a resolution which was proposed and passed at our January 20th meeting.  The time and location, however, are unchanged.  We feel that in addition to attempting to increase awareness of civil rights issues and performing political activism, we should also strive to help sustain and support the LGBT community at and around Ohio State.  To this end, the new meetings will have more of a social focus, thus alternating between social and activist/discussion meetings from week to week.  The first such social meeting will take place this upcoming Tuesday, January 27th, which will consist of working on signs and banners for the upcoming statewide rally on January 31st.  More details about this meeting will be provided later.

Flyers for this event, as well as flyers advertising for HRC@OSU, are now on the front page of our website under the "Flyers and Posters" heading.  You are free to distribute these as you wish, but we request that if you put them up around campus, you follow the flyering policy, which can be viewed at http://fod.osu.edu/s2f/postings.pdf.

Additionally, there are still some people who have yet to pick up the shirts they have ordered.  If you have not received your shirt, please bring $9.00 to the next meeting and you will receive your shirt.  Due to our ordering method, you must receive a shirt in the size that you requested, as we do not have extras.  If you are interested in getting an HRC@OSU shirt but did not order one, contact a member of the E-Board so that we may gauge interest in ordering a second batch.

Finally, I would like to emphasize that HRC@OSU does not belong to just one person or small group of people.  HRC@OSU is as much your organization as it is the officers', and because of this, we are always willing to hear what you want to see out of HRC@OSU.  There is no better time than the present to try and make our voice heard, and we are always looking for new ways to help advance LGBT and other civil rights causes.

I look forward to seeing many of you at our upcoming meetings and activities!

Andrew Stock
President