The schedule below only includes colleges/universities. However, if we have pamphlets left over at the end of each day, we will head over to a nearby high school to distribute them.

Please contact Joanne if you want to help out joanne@liberationbc.org or 604-761-4162

Vegan Outreach Schedule:

Wed, Sept 8 (8-11) BCIT
Thur, Sept 9 (8-1) SFU
Fri, Sep 10 (8-1) SFU

Wed, Sep 15 (10-1) SFU
Thur, Sep 16 (11-1) Capilano
Fri, Sep 17 (9-11) Emily Carr

Wed, Sept 22 (8-11) BCIT
Thur, Sept 23 (10-1) SFU

Wed, Sep 29 (10-1) Kwantlen Richmond
Thur, Sep 30 (11-1) Capilano

I’ve been to countless events and been in even more conversations with people where this subject comes up. Many people want to see some sort of centralized information hub where events, resources, and local organizations can be listed.

The next in our A Powerful Voice Animal Rights Community Dialogue series will be focused on this idea.

We are hosting this conversation to talk about different ideas for such a website. Everybody has different ideas and insight into how it could be built and what it could do.

The hope is that if people from all across the local animal rights community come together we can create together a set of ideas and recommendations for anyone who might want to build a website like this.

The actual outcome of this event will be a document that potential developers can use. This document will be publicly available for anyone to use – and I hope that people are inspired to use it.

So, if you are someone who might use this sort of website, an organization that might want to list your events and contact information, or a developer interested in creating an online animal rights information hub, please consider attending this dialogue.

Beyond the discussion, though, you’ll have a chance to meet and talk to other people in the area who are interested in promoting animal rights.

Projects like this enable us to find ways of working together while still retaining our separate identities, projects, and objectives. We can all have different ideas about how to achieve a world where animals have their own rights and respected existence, but through interactions and projects like this we can become stronger and more effective.

I hope to see many of you there!

This dialogue series takes place at Radha Yoga & Eatery on Main Street (in Chinatown). It’s a beautiful space – a bright and soothing atmosphere for these conversations. Admission is a nominal $5, which helps to cover the costs of room rental, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Register now.

If 4 or more people register together there is a significant cost savings. If anyone is interested please let me know and I can help coordinate a group rate.

Here’s the announcement:

ONLINE COURSE HELPS BUILD MORE CONFIDENT, EFFECTIVE CHANGEMAKERS FOR A BETTER WORLD

Learn to live a joyful life more aligned with your values and to become a more effective, compassionate advocate. Sign up for A Better World, A Meaningful Life (September 6-October 1) a month-long online course through the Institute for Humane Education, and cultivate the skills, knowledge and motivation to assess your life, examine your values, explore new information and do more good for yourself, other people, animals, and the environment.

The course includes a downloadable course booklet, an interactive online discussion forum, phone salons, support from the course advisor, and a copy of Most Good, Least Harm: A Simple Principle for a Better World and Meaningful Life by IHE President, Zoe Weil.

Past course participants have called the course “…powerful, inspiring and life-changing” and “…one of the best decisions that I have ever made.”

The Institute for Humane Education is offering a special discount to Liberation B.C. members and supporters. The normal cost for A Better World, A Meaningful Life is $125, but if 4 or more supporters/members from Liberation B.C. register together, they’ll receive a special rate of only $80 each. To receive the special rate, email Amy@HumaneEducation.org with the names and emails of the 4 or more participants, and she’ll send the link.

Find out more about A Better World, A Meaningful Life:
http://humaneeducation.org/sections/view/better_world_meaningful_life

Save a cow! Visitors play to reunite a cow and her calf.

Liberation BC volunteers were out at Justice Rocks this past Sunday with information about dairy, veganism, and compassion for animals.

Justice Rocks is a festival of music and activism organized by Pivot Legal Society with help from several other nonprofits.

We had a tent with information, including our new Save the Cows game. The game had people answer questions about diary and non-dairy foods with the goal of reuniting a mother cow and her calf. A whole bunch of people played the game – and everyone who won got a free cow ribbon. People playing the game were able to learn about dairy ingredients like rennet and paneer.

It was a really great day. Thanks to Shelly, Paige, Willow, and Joanne who did a wonderful job of sharing information, including many personal stories about animals.

Shelly & Paige - 2 of the best volunteers ever.

Starting out the day quietly

Our tent!

It was fun to talk to other local animal advocacy groups and to catch up with old friends–and new ones!

Hearts on Noses

A big thank you to VHS, all the groups who came out, and all the caring and curious folks who stopped by!

VRRA

]]> http://blog.liberationbc.org/2010/08/animal-rights-day-2010/feed/ 5 http://blog.liberationbc.org/2010/08/animal-rights-day-2010/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LiberationBcBlog/~3/sIe_4hVIWIg/ http://blog.liberationbc.org/2010/08/volunteer-night-making-it-easy-to-get-involved/#comments Fri, 06 Aug 2010 03:38:05 +0000 Glenn http://blog.liberationbc.org/?p=2981 Last night we had our second ever volunteer night. It was a lot of fun.

Volunteers busy at work

About a dozen people came to help with stuffing envelopes, stickering and stamping leaflets, making cow ribbons, writing letters, and a few other miscellaneous jobs.

Volunteer nights are a great opportunity to come out and get involved in a very easy way. Maybe you’ve been wanting to do something to make a difference for animals but haven’t felt brave enough or confident enough to go out leafleting or tabling? Our volunteer nights were made for you.

We are going to be doing a volunteer night every month. If you are interested in coming, the next volunteer night is on August 25th at Mount Pleasant Community Centre. Normally they are on the last Wednesday of each month.  I hope to see you there!

Writing letters in support of several campaigns

This post is titled “Sabotage!” but has nothing to do with the Beastie Boys song. What it is about is how we often undercut our own potential by doing what’s safe and comfortable.

This paragraph in particular:

Or consider the way we resist opportunities to lead, to connect, to do work that matters. We don’t resist because we’re not capable of it… we resist because if our marketing fails, if we don’t get the job or earn the trust, then we’re off the hook. No promises made, which means no promises to keep.

I see this happen in animal rights activism a lot. I’ve seen people come up with an idea but immediately start thinking about ways that it won’t work, reasons why they shouldn’t even start working on it.

I’ve listened to conversations about how people would do more if only they could quit their job, if only they could work for an animal rights organization, if only they could win the lottery. What they’re doing is creating fake constraints that prevent them from working hard and taking risks and possibly failing.

It’s all self-sabotage.

I’ve done more than my share of this sort of thing over the years. It’s hard not too. It seems like it’s a part of our very nature.

But that still doesn’t excuse me from taking those risks, from working on projects even if I don’t feel like I have enough experience, from doing things that are uncomfortable and a lot of work.

This post reminded me of an activist here in Vancouver who recently decided to start tabling at events, even though she had never done it before. She’s really taking this to heart – when something needs to be done, we can’t wait around for someone else to do it, we have to get in there and make things happen ourselves. We’re the only ones we can count on. And by we I mean each and every one of us.

What great projects and ideas are you sabotaging?

[note: this was originally posted on my personal blog.]

The bake sale took place at 3G Vegetarian Restaurant last night.  We received three $1000 matching donations from individual donors and a donation of 20% of dinner proceeds from the restaurant.  In total, we collected $8,314.52 from the bake sale.  All proceeds will go to support the efforts of EARS in spaying, neutering and relocating the rabbits to safe sanctuary.

Thanks to a large donation of $50,000 from Fur Bearer Defenders and additional donations from various individuals ranging in the tens of thousands, there is now enough funds to save all of the UVic rabbits.  The only hope now is that the University can halt their plans for a mass cull until the rabbit relocation details can be sorted out.

A huge thank you goes out to our volunteers, bakers, supporters, donors and corporate sponsors: 3G, EIO Kids Store, Organic Lives, Edible Flours & Gorilla Food.  We could not have had a successful fundraiser without any of you!

If you missed the bake sale and would like to make donations to the rabbits, please visit the EARS website.

Everyone is invited to write down a topic or question that they would like to address, and post their topic up on the agenda wall. Very quickly, the agenda wall fills up with topics. Fight the urge to control them – just let the self-organizing happen.

Each person who posted up a topic is responsible for leading that discussion, and it is up to them how they will lead it. The space is open and it is theirs. As the host, I’m just there to set it up and then get the hell out of the way. (more)

I was at my first Open Space workshop a couple of weeks ago, and I really enjoyed it.  Some people, I think, are a little concerned that a format like this lacks organization by necessity–that it will become chaotic.  The truth is that with the right guidance (for example, Glenn’s!), Open Space can be a fantastically positive event that brings people together and allows for wonderful, creative ideas.

I hope to post some information about some of these projects and how people can get involved when I receive information from the project leaders. Keep an eye open for it.

One project that was discussed was a bake sale to help save the rabbits who are living on the campus of the University of Victoria. That bake sale will be happening on July 28th at 3G Veg Restaurant in Vancouver. For more information, check out our event page.

I just have to say that I was really impressed with how many ideas were presented and how creative everybody is. It was very energizing and empowering to see how capable the animal activist community is in Vancouver.

The next events in this community dialogue series will be:

• September 19: Developing a local information hub: who, what, why, and how?
• November 14: Educating ourselves: becoming better activists through education and practice

There will also be another event focused on “What is our message?” which is yet to be scheduled. This one will likely be a more high-level conversation than these other events, so I’m not quite sure how to hold it yet.

If you have any thoughts or comments about these events or the topics, please leave a comment or contact me directly.