Tuesday, January
28
Good morning Rob,
I just wanted to drop you a quick note and tell you,
thank you very much for allowing me to be a part of
last nights meeting. I think that for the very first
one, it went very well. I hope you consider doing it
again next year! I gained a lot from it, saw old
friends and made new ones. Again, thank you!
In Leather,
Micheal (Harned)
Gentle Readers,
I wish to publicly congratulate Rob Abiera and GayOKC.com
for the inclusive presentation last night at the Town
Hall Forum Year in Review.
Having organized small music recitals, I know how
difficult it can be to coordinate 3 or 4 people, let
alone the two dozen who participated as panelists in
the omnibus Forum which covered 2002 from soup to
nuts (including religious gay bashing as an example
of nuts).
I can only think next year will be even better with
practice.
Jim Nimmo
Thank you for
putting together such a splendid meeting last night.
It was very informative and enjoyable. I hope it
won't be too long until we can experience another one.
Also, would you please add my name via email to your
news alerts so that I might be kept informed of
upcoming events? Thanks very much,
Sincerely,
John Hillabolt
I am finally getting
mail again... All my files were lost, but I have some
new improved things .
The meeting last night was inspired and inspiring!
Congratulations!
I learned lots of things, and appreciated your
efforts so much! It is a fine beginning for some
cohesiveness in the community... How about a
conference in October, ending up with a Day of the
Dead Bash on Nov 1
So many topics came up, and we just scratched the
surface!
I do have a few suggestions: You are a fabulous
writer, visionary, presence in the community, but not
such a good MC. I do not have that talent either, and
I think we both make great back stage people. I think
you have to take a class on public speaking, like I
have always intended to do, to do the job justice. I
urge you to do this because I think you can be a
success, since you think on your feet so well.
You will get lots of responses to the meeting that
are not positive, but we all know that you did a
wonderful thing for the community, and underneath all
the criticism is gratitude!
Thank you again, and I hope I can contribute in some
way. Jeanne (Flanigan)
Rob,
Just wanted to say, Great Job! Your event was very
informative. Looking forward to next year's State of
the Community.
Paul (Bashline)
I had looked forward
to the meeting, however, I was greatly disappointed.
The month by month thing was time consuming and I am
sure nothing new for many of those in attendance.
Each organization, etc, could have made a concise
report. More time should have been devoted to
positive events or happenings, and not personal
awards or personal opinions of other persons or
groups.
Appreciated Club Liquid's efforts to explore other
possibilities to meet the need for social events for
those of us who would enjoy something other than a
"bar" or church, and dosen't wait until 10:30
or 11:00 PM to begin.
I felt this was a missed opportunity to have had a
positive enfluence in our community.
(unsigned)
Hello Rob,
I am running around a lot today and will write more
later-
I just wanted to say that I thought our town hall
meeting was great last night and I am so thankful
that you organized this and invited me to participate
in it.
Peace,
Tessie (Mandeville)
Wednesday,
January 29
The meeting was too
long, but I think you realized that, but there was
lot of information to discuss. I'd like to see it on
maybe a quarterly basis or seim-annual basis. Why
were there no representatives from HRC? Overall, it
was pretty good and I enjoyed hearing about what has
been going on in our community and what is planned
for the future.
Steve Kuder
Dear Rob:
First, I would like to commend you for organizing
such an event. My lover and I were looking forward to
a personalized update on where our community is and
where it is going. Our community needs such events to
get us all physically into one place, to personalize
our goals, and to organize them. So, we made time to
attend the panel.
However, I think you were aiming at the wrong
audience last Monday night. A majority of the time
was spent wastefully by re-hashing everything my
lover and I and probably at least 90% of the people
who attended had already read on your website, in the
Gayly or some other gay news-related media, or the
Internet. It was a grandiose, noble concept to
compare the global community with the local
community, but one has to wonder if you actually sat
down and read all those papers beforehand to see how
long it actually takes to read all those news
snippets. The whole global-compared-to-local concept
might have been okay to get some people who are not
civic-minded and just climbed up onto the civic seat
out of the bars up to speed. However, the people who
attended were already well aware of the goings-on,
both globally and locally. My lover and I had to
leave at 9:15, but up until then, the entire meeting
had been a review of everything we already knew. From
what we saw, it took several people a shorter time to
realize that it was going to be a looong review!
Okay, so the grand, noble concept didn't pan out
right. What to do? Here's my suggestion. Next time,
have each panelist explain what their organization is
currently doing and what they plan to do the
following year. (It was a total waste of time to go
back to each panelist each time they did something
during a month. We laughed when they couldn't go into
a topic because that would be covered in another
month!) Then go directly into the question and answer
session. From what I heard from the brave hearts who
endured the entire meeting, it got more interesting
then. Skip the news summaries entirely. Those who
care enough to show up already know that stuff. We
want to know what's going on now and what's going to
happen.
If you get more negative feedback, please do not
become discouraged. I really would like to see
another State of Our Community Forum in the future.
Such meetings are important to our community, and my
lover and I would be interested in attending one if
we knew we weren't going to just be listening to a
year's worth of headlines we'd already read and
digested (and in some cases, passed through).
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions for
me, or if I can be of assistance.
Sincerely,
Paul Marek
Rob,
Let me congratulate you on the historic event. I
think it will become an annual event.
I spoke with people who really liked the question and
answer period and wished it had been earlier.
The suggestion was, although they fully understand
and appreciate the inclusion of national and
international events, it might be best to limit the
recaps to local events having people involved comment
as you had them do, and this would allow a longer
time for questions and answers.
But the general attitude was this was a wonderful
thing, and they were glad they were at the first one,
and that there will be one each year.
Joe (Quigley)
Rob,
I think the idea of a Town Hall meetings is a
wonderful idea! I am SO glad I was able to be there
after all. I am SO sorry that I had to leave early. I
had prearranged to meet someone in OKC after the
meeting at 9 pm and then Susanne and I had to drive
home - 100 miles! It was midnight before we got home
the way it was. I do apologize that I could not stay
for the entire program. I want to commend you for
putting the program together. You did a great job
getting people there. I thought the program was too
long. I know you already realize that. I think it is
a good idea to recap the past year; however, I think
you could allow organizational leaders and
individuals to speak once and recap all of their
events and activities at once. I think that would
save time. I also think that I would forgo recapping
all of the national events. If you wanted to touch on
national events, I would narrow it down. I think 45
minutes is plenty of time to recap. I would focus the
majority of the agenda on assessing where we are,
where we want to go, and plans for the future.
This is the way to learn though. Have it once and see
how it goes and go from there. As I said, I applaud
you for the idea and for putting it together. We also
need some mingling time to visit with people we only
get to email or talk on the phone to. Perhaps there
could be some way to have a social hour before hand
or something like that.
Thank you for inviting Soulforce In Oklahoma. I look
forward to the event next year.
Karen Weldin
Soulforce In Oklahoma
Hello Rob:
Yes, I did attend the event and I enjoyed it. I
appreciate how the various organizations and
representatives were able to provide information and
updates about themselves. I have been wanting to
achieve more information from certain organizations
that were present; but, I'm somewhat new to the
community and shy. The event provided me the
oppurtunity to learn new and more background about
these organizations. I am glad that Commissioner Jim
Roth was able to attend and speak. Although the event
was a little bit long, I understand that it was the
first time having an event of this sort, at least for
me. Altogether, I wouldn't mind attending another
meeting next year and learning of the improvements
that have occurred. Thank you for allowing me to
participate.
Dominique Nero
Hi Rob, I've been
meaning to email you and tell you what a great job
you did. It was a fine forum, and very well attended.
I liked your tying in the national/international news
with local news. For next year, I'd try to keep it to
two hours (and I'll bet you tried to do that this
year, too, but people are wordy!) Still it was a
wonderful event. Thank you for conceiving it and
planning it and pulling it together and mc'ing it!!!
You did great - peace & love, Margaret (Cox)
It was definitely a
good idea to do. However, I wanted more focus on
local issues not so much on national/world. Most g/lb/t
people take the Advocate and are abreast of those
events. The things that concern us on the home front
(OKC) state and local issues are what I came to hear
about.
Thank you for organizing.
Sincerely,
Kole Kleeman
Dear Rob:
Yes I attended the meeting on Monday night. I
found it to be very informative. I was
especially moved by Paula, the transgendered member
of your board. I was very impressed with the
speakers and the services which are available to
members of our community.
The only downside to the event which I noticed was
the length of it. Perhaps more of the audience
would have been able to see more of it if there had
been a 5 to 10 min break at about an hour and a half
in. I think we are on the right track in having
such events as this meeting.
Another option might be to have a twice a year
meeting where we can discuss what has been
accomplished in the first half and to set goals and
make plans for the second. I think this would
also make things easier for your panel to recall for
discussion.
All in all I think it was a very informative and very
good meeting. Thank you for asking my opinion.
Sincerely Yours
Greg Cantrell
Thursday,
January 30
Hello Rob:
I would like to thank you for inviting me to
participate in your Town Hall Meeting. I appreciate
the experience of hearing from many of the members of
our GLBT community. I enjoyed the inspiring stories
which were shared by many of the panel members
present. I certainly hope that this is a forum that
remains available to our GLBT community.
Sincerely,
--
Phillip Roulain
Two Spirit Program Coordinator
Rob,
It was a pleasure to meet you, I am JeanAnn's
partner, I really enjoyed all the information,and
found it inspiring and help full. I did feel like it
ran a bit long, but I would enjoy going to something
like this again I do wish we could get more of the
younger crowd involved to let them see what powerful
times these are or can be.
Best wishes, Tracy Turner
Friday, January
31
I think the idea was
great but the meeting was WAY TOO LONG. I lost
interest. Alot of people commented on not wanting to
attend next year. I think that is a shame. Part I
should have been limited to one hour and part 2 to
one hour. I would much rather have heard from each
organization their year in review limited to "X"
amount of minutes than that month to month format.
Also, I'm not interested in National events at a
"Town Meeting".
(unsigned)
Sunday, February
2
Well I was really
excited about attending and since it was the first
one I think we should all give ourselves a break! lol
I appreciated the time and effort it took to put this
together, but my suggestion would be to do quarterly
meetings with the same type of agenda.
When going through the months "happenings"
internationally as well as here in Oklahoma (quarterly),
I would pick the ones that STAND OUT the most.
Pick community speakers for each quarter to discuss
certain issues. If something important happened or is
happening during the next quarter then add a speaker/presenter
for that topic.
I think by doing this people will be able to know
that know matter what they can participate each
quarter. It keeps everyone more current and up to
date. Hopefully the word would spread and more people
would attend.
Another suggestion would be after each quarterly
meeting for the summation/notes be posted on gayokc.
Hope I was some help.
Thanks again for the hard work.
Sabra Taylor
