What an honor! This summer, I was one of four students selected to serve as campus leaders of the new Campus Coalition for Sexual Literacy project of the NSRC. Before I even left the NSRC Summer Institute I was sending out enthusiastic emails to get the CCSL chapter started at Indiana University. A number of students shared my excitment - some feeling relieved that a group that supports their interests now exists. And, with ease, I gained the support of the Center for Sexual Health Promotion at IU: http://www.sexualhealth.indiana.edu/.
As with any student organization, I followed the path to gaining official recognition from the university - tabled at the incoming student fair, attended student organization training, etc. And, with financial support coming from NSRC, I began the process of creating a bank account for my CCSL chapter. With a decent turn out at our first monthly meeting and a high level of excitment about getting the group running, it seemed that things were headed in the right direction.
The month of October and beyond seemed to prove otherwise. I would say that my first mistake was encouraging an active component of membership, including projects that small groups of members would pursue to push our mission of sexual literacy on campus. While this seemed to be ideal for our coalition model, it seemed to scare members away after the first meeting. It's quite disappointing for me to see 15 members before 4 at the next meeting, whereas the projects that we brainstormed were suggested by those who attended. Needless to say, with 3 at our November meeting, things weren't going well with respect to gaining and retaining members. The apparent correlation between declining membership and my increasing coursework complicated the problem. With very few members, leadership of the group rests on my hands - so, at the times when I felt too overwhelmed with my own studies to touch anything CCSL-related, nothing happened with the organization. A third complication has been the slow, very slow bureaucratic process, particularly with money. Once NSRC was able to get SFSU to send a check to me for start up money, IU refused to accept it because it was not made out to CCSL.
I should note that I generally evaluate things in extremes - so, because things aren't going well, i can't help but feel pessimistic. With few members, no past events, and no budget, I'm struggling to find the enthusiasm I had back in the summer. I've had to remind myself that getting things started will have major bumps in the road, and what progress is made will be slow. Dealing with bureaucracy has just slowed that down further. I can say, fortunately, that I know that there is an interest in the organization's mission. The obstacles I face are not ideological, political, or moral. And, I am no where near giving up. I will spend some time during my winter break to brainstorm how to energize the organization. Rough start aside, the spring can be a phenomenal semester for CCSL.
I will say that my sense of the lack of involvement among members or potential members is partly due to the founding of CCSL as a "movement". I do not doubt the existence or progress of the sexual literacy movement, but CCSL as an organization did not galvanize as a movement organization. What I envision as an organization that does galvanize in such a manner is a group of friends/colleagues who come together around some cause, rather than disconnected people being approached with that cause already formed for them. As I reflect on the first meeting, I remeber reading aloud the definition of sexual literacy and the mission of CCSL - I was telling the potential members what our cause is and how we would pursue it. I can imagine that, even if the cause of sexual literacy resonates with them, there is a greater investment when you are a part of the team who creates the cause. Even though we brainstormed projects to pursue, this discussion was directed toward fulfilling the mission of sexual literacy as already defined - not defined by us.
I frequently blame myself for the failure to see CCSL take off at Indiana University. Maybe my uncertainty about what sexual literacy even is showed, scaring some people off - why would anyone commit to a cause that seems ill-defined? Maybe I didn't advertise well enough. Maybe I scared people off by asking them to be active involved, rather than just passively attending meetings. Maybe I'm failing because of my lack of organization development skils and experience, or my lack of experience with social movements. At any rate, this is certainly an experience - one that I would never get from my usual academic endeavors.
Pessimism and doubt aside, spring 2009 is a new semester. I have hope that things will get better, beginning with a large, commited membership base with enthusiasm to create an active organization. Here's to 2009!
