Want to give a great big thank you...

[LostInTime]

To all of those who have made the Wiki possible.

Early next month I will be heading up a gender discussion panel and have been trying to dig up what I can to discuss the different aspects of gender, gender identity, and the transgender community.  Time and time again I have found myself using the pages here as a great guideline.

I have actually gone from, "how the heck am I going to have this thing last for two hours?" to "two hours?  How am I supposed to get everything across in just two hours?!?"    I predict a week of heavy editing and a lot of info going into handouts that will just be touched upon in the presentation.  Of course I will have to make sure there are things for the audience to do to interact with the presentation.  So far I have come up with what characteristics do they assign to gender and to sex plus the standard Q&A after each person on the panel does their bit.

Willing to listen to any other ideas too. 

[Buffy]

Hi LIT,

Two hours is a long time honey...

I would try and make it as interactive as possible, throw in a few ice breakers and have some syndicate groups when asking key questions with feed back sessions. The start and end are obviously very important so think about how you handle thes.

I do loads of this type of session and include all types of techniques to keep them moving.... my standard fee is $2000 per day, but free to you!

Feel free to PM... If you are interested in any ideas I have.

Becky

[Melissa]

I like Buffy's suggestion about making it interactive.  If people have to sit in a room and listen to somebody talk for 2 hours, they aren't going to learn nearly as much as if it were a group discussion.  For instance, when I went to college about 2 1/2 years ago, I had a history class and history was one of my least favorite subjects.  I wanted to try my best though.  I thought the teacher was great.  Instead of just lecturing for the entire class, he would give some information and then ask people questions or even have them try and guess the answers.  Many times he would have 10 people guess and if nobody was getting it right he would say the answer, but many times somebody got it right or at least close before that.  I ended up pulling a 'B' in the class, which was really good for me and I learned a lot.  My point it, if stimulate people's thoughts, they will most likely pick up more information as well as enjoy it more.

Melissa

[LostInTime]

The nice thing is that I will not be the only one.  The not so nice thing is trying to cover a broad gender spectrum in a limited amount of time.  There will be some interaction that I will have in the beginning.  Then after each person does their part (two others on the panel) there will be a brief Q&A concerning what they covered.  Whatever they do not cover, I have to make up for so that is why I am doing much reading at this point.  TS, not a problem.  Drag Queens and Kings, need to learn more about.

Thank you for the suggestions and Buffy I will probably take you up on that offer. 

[Melissa]

Another suggestion (if it's possible) is to actually meet some of these people in person that you don't know a lot about and ask them questions that you think would be asked.  It's a great way to learn and many people would be open to talking about themselves to somebody who's open to actually hearing what they have to say.

Melissa

[LostInTime]

Chances are that I may only get to have email contact because everyone involved has VERY busy lives.

If nothing else I shall let my Dominant side out, dictate to them how things will be done, and handle it from there.  It is up to them on how they carry themselves and answer questions.  I have to have some faith in that the organisers picked a couple of good people so I am not too worried about what they will do, more on keeping the flow going, presenting enough information without going into info overload, providing the handouts, and doing my own part for the TS and IS portion.  If the other two do stumble, it will be up to me to help out and pick things back up.