Proposal, Project and Evaluation of 1st Event

Proposal

Film and Panel Discussion - The Union: The Business of getting high.

Why?

I think the film is informative and entertaining, and controversial enough to get people's attention in this climate of low attendance at school events

Needs:

Flyers- cafeteria tables and billboards. Color on the billboard flyers to stand out, but color expensive so black and white on cafeteria tables

Panelists- Police, NORML, politicians

Booking a room- Charters

Leadership points

Targeting - Whole campus, some sections of downtown

Project

poster and film trailer here Though the picture in the poster is gone for some reason and I can't fix it. Picture that was used looks like this.

Evaluation

After choosing and discarding two films because I lost interest in one and the filmmakers got back to me too late on the other, I picked The Union because it was controversial and I thought that that might get people in the seats in a situation of general low attendance at events. I booked the space in Chateris Auditorium first thing, and was worried about learning to work the equipment, but that turned out to be quite easy. The leadership points thing was also quite easy, contrary to my fears. I had the most trouble with panelists. None of the police returned my calls, and the politicians were too busy. NORML however were very helpful and also offered panelists that could speak to the effect of the drug war on the criminal justice system, which I happily took. Spoke to prof and class and they suggested security. Head of security is former policeman. He agreed on condition that it was made clear that he was not speaking as head of security at the event. That was fine with me.


Made the posters, put them out, waited with bated breath. In the end about 19 people came, Stephens students, no downtowners. I was satisfied with the turnout. Some left early cause movie was long, but about five people stayed to ask questions. I adjudicated and the panel went well, though Head of Security was kinda outnumbered by the activists, of which there were four. I did try to make sure that everyone got to have their say and I think I succeeded. We spoke for fifteen minutes and then adjourned since by now it was quite late.


Would I do this again? Yes. I find that I build up fears and bogeymen in my mind when I try something for the first time and invariably I am proven wrong. Since it isn't so hard to do I will be able to stop worrying so much and enjoy myself more. I think the film itself was informative but as Head of Security Tony Coleman pointed out, it was somewhat one sided. I regret that there wasn't a stronger contingent of "No Legalization Panelists" for more balance, but honestly I feel that either way they would have had an uphill battle because the facts marshalled were strongly supported. I think I would have put the posters out earlier if I had to do this again, especially the downtown ones, but quite frankly I would have been satisfied with 10 people showing up, so I am not too worried about the numbers. I basically held this as an awareness raising thing instead of an activist setup, but now that I know how to do this, I will probably use the format to promote some kind of activist-oriented film-based event in the future.