The 20th Annual National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change 2008 February 6-10, 2008Marriott Renaissance Center in Detroitwww.creatingchange.org. 

Creating Change is the nation’s largest and most unique skills building and strategy conference held annually by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. 

VOLUNTEERS ARE NEEDED!  

The local Creating Change Host Committee is seeking 300 volunteers to provide essential on-site people power for Creating Change 2008. We expect 2000 activists, organizers, elected officials and other LGBT community leaders from all over the country to join us in Detroit February 6-10, 2008. Let’s show everyone our Detroit pride!! We also need community housing hosts, as indicated below. 

In order for this event to succeed the Host Committee relies on the generosity and support of local volunteers. The human resources needed to make the conference run smoothly is impressive.  We need your help!  The volunteer opportunities are varied: help with registration or administrative tasks, make sure workshops run smoothly, assist at one of the hospitality suites, and so much more.  Whatever your interests or skills, there’s a perfect volunteer role for you. 

SIGN UP TO VOLUNTEER NOW! 

If you’re interested in volunteering, please complete this volunteer registration form Sign up to volunteer now!   

Or copy/paste the following link in your search engine to fill out the Volunteer Form —  http://www.kintera.org/AutoGen/Contact/ContactUs.asp?ievent=250490&en=juINK1POLlLSI6ORKaLTKjMUKhLSL5MVJjIXKcPMKdKRKbMPIgJ0LbPUKyG 

IMPORTANT - In exchange for every four-hour work shift, you will be able to attend the rest of that day’s sessions for no charge! You’ll want to attend a fabulous Volunteer Appreciation Party after the conference closes on Sunday evening February 10.  

NOTE: As part of your volunteer commitment, you must attend a one-hour Volunteer Orientation & Training at Detroit Marriott Renaissance Center Hotel on Sunday February 3, 2008. We will send you a reminder note about this about ten days in advance of the training. Orientation sessions run throughout the afternoon, starting on the hour, 12 Noon – 6 pm. You will be able to sign up for your work shift at the Volunteer Orientation Training. 

Thank you very much for helping us in creating change! 

In addition to on-site volunteers, the local Creating Change Host Committee is looking for friendly  and generous people to provide housing and transportation for our out-of-state guests who can’t afford to state at the hotel. If you have space in your home and are willing to host individuals from February 5-10, please complete this Housing Host registration form: please sign up now. 

Or copy and paste this link in your search engine to sign up to volunteer — http://www.kintera.org/AutoGen/Contact/ContactUs.asp?ievent=250671&en=jqLKJOMwEcJGKPOuF6LDLOPuFhIRJWNxEcISKXMDKhIJISPwEhLSLZMEIhISLdL 

For more information about this momentous event, please visit the Creating Change website www.creatingchange.org  or contact Carrie Copeland, Co-Chair for the Creating Change Host Committee ccopeland@goaffirmations.org or 248-398-7105. 

Thank you very much for helping us in creating change!

Only power used to empower others is everlasting

~Scott Bartchy

Stumblingly across this quote reminded me about what mentoring is all about and what it means to someone who yearns to learn and to become empowered. Could we not do any less? And, is there room for improvement?

Some would think I write deep, yet to some I write too wordy. But, others would think that when I do that it’s about being “thought provocative.”

Well, I believe it’s the latter and feel the need to be so. Some have expressed that when I (or we) write to expound and to reach out through feelings, expressions of thought in word other than being verbal that it just might hurt and or offend others with tender feelings or not just educated on topics and or information. I do hope that its the opposite and that anyone of us can be a force for the better in reaching out and becoming an impact.

Many summers ago at a church conference for young single adults held in Adrian, MI., I reached out to the congregational young audience as tears began to run down the cheeks of my face and standing there like a watershed so many years before I began to transition I turned to the young in the crowd and asked them to think of the importance in the impact one has caused for the other through the course of the conference weekend turning one to the other from right to left and than back again from where they seated.

I could never to this very day seat back after all those years in ministry and forget what I had expressed upon their young minds. I would hope that walking away from them after my closing remarks it would lead a number of those young men and women verge forward in being better men and women.

I hope the upcoming “Creating Change - Detroit” event slated at the Marriott Hotel at Detroit’s’ Renaissance Center this February, that a good many of us in the transgender community would embrace and do what needs to be done to take some young men or women under our wings and help where mom and dad would not help, could not help or just plain thrown them out to the curb for nothing else but being transgender. With all of these learning, gaining knowledge and gaining further awareness we further stand in place armed in helping them ease the pains of transition and or to help bridge the gap between them, their parents and families knowing all too well that we are not a replacement for their parents and families replacement, but we are there to help and support.

~ Jennifer Elisabeth Mendez,
Executive Secretary / Board Member - Transgender Detroit