The 3 winner for the T-shirt Design Contest were the dinosaur, the gandhi difference, and the origami designs!! Thanks everyone who voted, and remember that the next design deadline is Feb 14!!
Dance Marathon Meeting / Open House
Jan 13/09
When: Thursday, January 15 at 5:15pm
Where: CAB 2-69
What: to get the latest info and to sign up for volunteer jobs.
The Dance Marathon for Human Rights put on by the SUSJ (Student Umbrella for Social Justice) Coalition is going to be really awesome and I'm confident it is going to be a major success!! SAGA now knows what tasks we are responsible for and we have created a list of Volunteer Opportunities available. (see below)
More info here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=45097188650
Volunteer Opportunities for Winter Term and January 6 Meeting Minutes Posted
Jan 10/09
SAGA is going to be focusing on 3 Things this year:
1) Dance Marathon for Human Rights
2) T-shirt selling
3) Doing fun team-building activities, so members aren’t strangers anymore
We had a SAGA meeting and our plans for the short term are going to be simplified so that we can achieve greater success in the long term. Here is detailed list of our Volunteer Opportunities (Google Docs)
A Great Opportunity: Youth Action Project!
Jan 10/09
Who: Global Youth Assembly
What: youth professional development, leadership training, work placement; cost is FREE
When: Deadline for Application is January 21
Where: John Humphrey Centre and various work placements
More details at: www.jhcentre.org
Here is the Application form (pdf)
The John Humphrey Centre for Peace and Human Rights would like to engage youth leaders in its Reach Out, Speak Up: Ignite Change Now! Youth Action Project. This project is an exciting youth leadership program focused on human rights and local community issues. The deadline is fast approaching on January 21st for this free, unique program.
Youth in this program will not only learn about critical human rights issues, but also how they can become involved as active citizens. At the end of the program, youth will participate free in the Global Youth Assembly (www.youthassembly.ca) and become leaders in our community
Human Rights Facilitator Training
Jan 10/09
Who: John Humphrey Centre
What: Human Rights facilitator training over ten weeks; cost is $140
When: Deadline for Application is January 15; program starts January 30
Where: John Humphrey Centre for Human Rights
More details at: www.humanrightscity.ca
Here is the Application form (pdf)
This dynamic 10 week course will teach you about human rights issues and give you a hands-on facilitation experience. You will gain a firm understanding and appreciation for all jurisdictions of international conventions and human rights law as well as become proficient with the basics of human rights. At the end, you will have the opportunity to show off your new skills by conducting workshops in your community, informally and formally, as human rights facilitators.
Vote Now on T-shirt Designs!!
Jan 3/09
Voting is now open on the SAGA T-shirt Design Contest!!
There are 10 really cool submissions and you have 3 votes to choose your favorites. The voting closes on January 11 at 11:59pm. You can't vote more than once, but you can tell your friends!!
The winning t-shirts will probably be ready for purchase sometime in February. The losing designs can get re-entered into our next design contest. That contest is open to everyone and the deadline for that will be February 14th at noon.
Top Ten Ways to Help SAGA
Jan 3/09
It is the new year, which is the season of making lists. So here are the best things you can do to help out SAGA. There is the usual stuff surrounding our SAGA t-shirts, workshops and long-term leadership; but we also have a big exciting campaign and a big exciting event going on right now as well.
There is more information below and on the facebook site. If you are interested in something please contact us.
1. Tell us about yourself
2. Vote on t-shirt designs
3. Help make the t-shirts
4. Tell us where to donate our money
5. Attend Meetings/Retreats/Workshops
6. Volunteer with the "Web 2.0 for Social Change" & "Change that Clicks" Workshops - starts January
7. Volunteer with the Dance Marathon for Human Rights - March 20
8. Volunteer with the Post-Secondary Education Access Campaign - Jan 23
9. Volunteer with the Fair Trade Fashion Show - July 31
10. Planning our future (online store/charity status/overseas trips/ national expansion)
January Education Access Campaign
Jan 3/09
The Student’s Union is launching a very compelling Post-secondary Education Access campaign in January. It is really interesting in the context of SAGA because it goes further than the usual talks about lowering tuition, and also stresses "Access"; as a determinant to quality of life. This key distinction allows the issues of human rights and social injustice to be brought up; and that is why we added this to our Top Ten list (see above). Also I think it is interesting because this is a chance for younger SAGA members to form key partnerships with people in the SU, GSA (grad student association), and RHA (residential hall association).
This is a link to an email I received from the Students' Union President, Janelle Morin on January 2nd. I debated posting the whole thing or snippets; but ultimately it's here in its entirety because I wanted you to be aware of all the details and have nothing stopping you from taking part.
Dance Marathon for Human Rights
Jan 3/09
Yay!! The plans are starting to take shape. This is going to be so much fun!!
For those of you that have been following along on the SAGA Facebook group you know that there has already been 3 brainstorming sessions for the Dance Marathon, and that it is going to be a collaborative process involving a dozen different social justice groups from the University of Alberta.
If you want to volunteer in any kind of capacity please contact us. There will be a wide range of jobs to be filled, ranging from small to very big, and a lot of work needs to be done in a short period of time so any help would be greatly appreciated.
A little disclaimer... it is still really early, so changes will obviously happen over time but the main ideas can be found below...
Basics
What: 15 Hour Dance Marathon for Human Rights
When: Friday March 20 (7pm – 10am the next day)
Where: Dinwoodie Lounge at UofA
Who: 500 attendees/party-people
Hosted By: Student Umbrella for Social Justice (SUSJ) Coalition
What can attendees do?
- Buy a ticket for $15
- Join teams of 5 and take on the challenge of having one person from your team dancing throughout the night. Collect pledges in support of the social justice groups at the UofA! (tax receipts will be available). You can form teams with your friends; or attend the open night we’ll have in the week before the event to meet some fellow attendees; or join groups on the day of the dance marathon.
*** Note: A website is coming to help attendees to register groups.
What do attendees get?
- 15 hours of great music: culturally diverse, political, movie music, mainstream, DJs + live bands
- Short dance lessons from dance groups on campus
- 20 minutes of yoga or some stress relaxing thing for the wee-morning hours
- Participate in a Scavenger Hunt
- Chance to win great prizes through draws and competitions
- Watch performances by dance groups on campus
- Randoms: DDR, Rockband, Guitar Hero
- Photographer to take candids!
- Some free food and some purchasable food. Alcohol will be sold as well
- To take breaks in a rest area (that will be modeled as a refugee camp)
- 30 minute empowering speech at the end focused on what attendees can do
How is human rights / social justice connected to the event?
- SUSJ groups will have booths set up with info on human rights issues
- Money raised will be donated to the SUSJ groups
- Fair Trade Certified foods and Earth Water
- Trying to get Green Energy for power supplies
- Short film screening from pre-existing movies every hour for a few minutes
- Scavenger hunt throughout the night with an awesome prize that would help people learn about various human rights issues
- Inspirational speech at the end
- Rest area to have human rights focused movies and look of a refugee camp
- A wall of quotations with inspirational messages interweaved with quotations of people living through human rights abuses
Social Justice on the Web
Jan 3/09
We here at SAGA really believe that the internet has been making a huge difference in social justice and it's only going to grow exponentially. It breaks down barriers, empowers people, increases communication, and forms relationship to others around the planet. This is why we want our SAGA members, and the youth of our world, to be
knowledgeable in this area because this is where the future is heading.
There is an amazing organization based in Canada called Taking It Global (www.tigweb.org) and they really are leaders in this field when it comes to getting youth involved. Therefore SAGA is going to be working with some Edmonton based reps and learning from TIG, while also getting the larger community involved by teaching workshops to young kids about how they can use the internet for more than facebook, youtube and video games.
*Note - this website is currently not a very good example of utilizing the web to its full potential. We have a lot of ideas and we are going to fix this issue; but we are just lacking the manpower to do this right now. So if you want to be a part of that process please contact us.
What's Happening in the Winter Term?
Dec 5/08
Click on the months below to get SAGA Calendars and find out the latest
SAGA events, SAGA activities, T-shirt selling dates, and more!! If you need more information email us.
SAGA wants to teach cool things to you, but only if you think they're cool.
So please vote for workshop you think SAGA should be doing in the Winter
Term. The topics are in categories of Leadership Skills, Organizational Skills,
and International Issues. If anything is unclear, please email us.
We at SAGA care about you beyond SAGA-related stuff. Thus we are
passing along these brochures from the Academic Support Centre.
They include: tips on time management; effective exam writing tips; last minute exam help; practical note-taking tips; tips for enhancing your memory
tips for oral exams; tips for reading efficiently; tips for reducing exam anxiety
Academic Support Centre Brochures - on Google Docs
SAGA T-shirt Designs and Sizes
Nov 6/08
SAGA T-shirt sales are starting again in mid-November. (For complete details see our calendars). Here are pictures of SAGA's Designs and Sizes.
What's Happening in SAGA?
Nov 3/08
Click on the months below to get SAGA Calendars and find out the latest
SAGA events, SAGA activities, T-shirt selling dates, and more!! If you need more information email us.
SAGA General Meeting
Oct 30/08
When: Nov 4 at 5:15pm
Where: CAB 235
What: Fun and info for new SAGA members. Also a big video display that shows the US election coverage. See agenda for details.
RSVP on Facebook
Note on Time Management
Oct 30/08
A portion of the SAGA General Meeting on Nov 4th will be dedicated to a super-fast workshop on Time Management. Here is a brochure that is from the Academic Support Centre; they have great advice but it is also a little vague. Our meeting will have different and more detailed suggestions.
(I am not suggesting that this is the only way to do this; but it could help you. Also, it won't be everything we know since it will only be ten minutes and we could spend hours on this topic).
If you are a young person who wants to "help" overseas, then is event is a MUST for you!!
When: Nov 20 at 5:15pm
Where: ETLC 1-017
What: Students experts from various student group will discuss the issues of student volunteering: Is it for Better or Worse? They have a wide range of experiences and will represent individuals from Engineers Without Borders (EWB), Students Against Global Apathy (SAGA), Students' International Health Association (SIHA), and Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO).
This is a chance for first-time travellers to get first-hand knowledge of what to expect. Plus there will be lots of audience interaction. Please invite your friends and RSVP on Facebook
What's Happening in SAGA?
Oct 27/08
Click on the months below to get SAGA Calendars and find out the latest
SAGA events, SAGA activities, T-shirt selling dates, and more!! If you need more information email us.
Open House Videos Released!!
Oct 19/08
SAGA had open houses at various dates throughout September and October
that were part of our recruitment strategy and they were a big hit. But we
figured that the best way to get the word out about SAGA's story was to
make a video and put it online so that you could watch it at home. Enjoy!
Part 1 - Introduction: Alex the Incorrigible Optimist
Part 2 - Background: SAGA's Successes and Failures
Part 3 - New Members: Our Future Together
Part 4 - Q&A + pics
Member Recruitment Still Ongoing!!
Oct 19/08
If you just watched the videos and are interested in becoming involved with
SAGA, just contact us and we'll schedule a 1-on-1 personalized appointment
to answer all your questions.
Our email is question.saga@gmail.com
New SAGA Facebook Group Started!!
Oct 19/08
Get the latest buzz on events, meetings, and t-shirt sales right here. And also
get to know the other SAGA members more better by adding them as friends!
(or you could secretly just be a fb creeper :-p)
Link to Facebook Group
University Groups Stand Up Take Action!
Oct 17/08
Last Friday, hundreds of students around campus joined together with
millions of others around the world in support of the UN Millennium
Development Goals. This amazing event was an attempt to break a world
record and featured speakers, poets, singers and various groups from around
the province. It was hosted by the University of Alberta's SUSJ Coalition.
