ANSO 2010 Annual General Meeting

MEDIA RELEASE July 26^th 2010

For immediate release

On July 23^rd, 2010, ANSO (Association of Nordic and Pol – Balt LGBTQ Student Organizations) had its Annual General Meeting (AGM).

ANSO AGM 2010 took place on July 23^rd 2010 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The meeting was attended by delegates and observers from member organizations such as: BLUS (Denmark), OVI ry (Finland), Homoglobiini (Finland), Telehpy (Finland), Estonian Gay Youth (Estonia), Lithuanian Gay League (Lithuania), Tolerant Youth Association (Lithuania), Campaign Against Homophobia (Poland), Trans-Fuzja (Poland), Q (Iceland), UgleZ (Norway), SFQ (Sweden), and independent observers.

The Agenda of the AGM consisted of approving new member organizations, approving the 2009 Annual Report, the 2010 Activity Report, the 2009 Fiscal Report and electing a new board for the organization.

The ANSO AGM approved two new member organizations: Trans-Fuzja from Poland, who plays a major role in educating students on transgender issues and providing help for transgender students that feel their rights are not respected; Opiskelijavinokkaat Ovi ry, who works as a peer group and a supporting network for LGBTQ students in Finland, working in favor of the human rights of such individuals.

The elections resulted in the formation of a new board. The Presidium now consists of Micah Grzywnowicz (president), Fej Ganebo Skantz (vice-president), Pat Kulka (treasurer) and Irina Dimitriade (secretary). Scandinavia is represented by Maret Ney and Roh Petas, the Pol-Balt region is represented by Wiktor Dynarski and Justinas Suliokas, the representatives of the Vest-Norden region are Guðmundur Smari Veigarsson and Jón Kjartan Ágústsson, and the independent members are Janika Saul and Laurynas Pliuškys.

“It is great to see ANSO growing year after year, developing from all of its events and from the continuous input of its member organizations. I am really excited to see the 2010/2011 ANSO board with so many new faces and new energy, for which I have no doubt this will be another very successful year for our organization,” said Micah Grzywnowicz, the re-elected ANSO president.

ANSO AGM 2010 was part of the School of Diversity conference organized by BLUS between July 18^th and July 25^th. 60 participants from eight countries gathered to work on projects regarding the process of including diversity in higher education. The conference took place at Kastanievej Efterskole in Frederiksberg, Copenhagen, Denmark.

For more information please contact:
Irina Dimitriade
email: secretary@anso.dk
tel: +31616677311

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ANSOzine is now out!

ANSO’s brand new newsletter for 2010 is now out! ANSOzine is published on-line and is focusing on projects and issues that ANSO works or has been working on currently. This year’s ANSOzine is colorful, full of interviews with member organizations and board members. It reports back on ANSO’s study session in Strasbourg as well as shows that ANSO is EVERYWHERE 🙂

So have a look at it NOW! Just follow the link

If you have any questions, comments, or would like to contribute, please contact us at ansozine(at)anso.dk

ENJOY!

ANSO’s brochures online!

It’s from today that you will be able to download and print yourself ANSO’s educational brochures!

One of them, Students for Transgender Inclusion, is devoted to transgender issues and can be found here

The second one, On Heteronormativity, talks about what heteronormativity is and what consequences it has! It has been created in cooperation with the Swedish Federation of LGBTQ Student Organizations, SFQ, who is also one of member organizations of ANSO. You can download this brochure following the link.

With time we will also provide those brochures in languages of our member organizations. So please, stay tuned!

If you have any questions concerning the brochures, please, don’t hesitate to contact us at: info(at)anso.dk

ANSO Annual Conference: School of Diversity, 18 – 25 July

ANSO Annual Conference powered by BLUS!

Every summer these 11 organizations come together for a week long conference to discuss issues that are relevant for us as LGBTQ students. This summer BLUS will host the conference.

The conference is an international conference with 60 participants from eight different countries. The whole shebang will take place in July 18-25. For a week we will be living at Kastanievej Efterskole in Frederiksberg. The theme of the conference is ‘School of Diversity’. Today many institutions of higher education are realising the benefits of having a diverse  staff and student body. Therefore it is important for us as members of LGBTQ student organizations to be able to influence the process of working towards an inclusion of diversity. What does diversity mean for us and how do we, who represent LGBTQ issues, get the best out of this development? We will have discussions, lectures, workshops and loads of social activity. An ANSO conference is a great way to meet LGBTQ people from other countries.

Participation in the conference is free. All participants will be living at the venue for the week and food will be supplied. BLUS will pay 70% of travel costs. If you have any questions or if you want to help with the planning of the conference please contact Ellen at diversity@blus.dk.

And for more info, go to: http://diversity.blus.dk/

Join our week full of Diversity and Revolution!!

Nominate people for the board of ANSO!

Nominate people for the board of ANSO!

Do you want to work with LGBT issues internationally or do know someone who would be well suited for the job? Nominate them for the ANSO board now!

A new board and election committee will be elected at the AGM which will be held in Copenhagen, Denmark from July18^th to 25^th.

The following positions are up for nomination:

President

Vice president

Treasurer

Secretary

6 board members

3 Election committee Members

The nomination has to be endorsed by a member organisation and please make sure that the person is interested in the position before you nominate him/hir/her.

Send in your nomination together with the person’s contact info to candidates@anso.dk before May 30th  .

If you have any questions you are very welcome to contact us in the election committee.

With best regards,

ANSO election committee,

Aldís, Clara and Jonsi

Call for Participants – Gender Queer University: Questioning Norms in Higher Education

ANSO would like to invite you to a study session called Gender Queer University: Questioning Norms in Higher Education, with the aim of creating knowledge and tools for working with gender, gender identity and gender expression in higher education. It will be held in Strasbourg 14^th– 21^st March 2010.

The call for participants with detailed information on the event can be found here as well as the online application  form. Please, submit your application not later than 23:59 29th January 2010. Participants will be selected by the prep team on the 1st February and you will be notified the following week.

The event will be run using non-formal education as a main methodology.

Please note also that participants preferably should be between 18-30 years old and from the Council of Europe member states, however, exceptions might be made, so do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions! (studysession10(at)anso.dk)

We hope that you will join us in this ground breaking discussion and will try to make a change with us!
Please forward the call to anyone you think might be interested in applying!

Media coverage of ANSO’s kiss-in in front of Lithuanian parliament

ANSO received a lot of media attention yesterday, 26th November 2009 when organizing kiss-in to protest against homophobia in Lithuania.

There was TV present and their material can be found here and also some newspaper came to document everything. The pictures can be found here.

More pictures will be added soon!

Kiss homophobia away! ❤

Students kissing against Lithuanian homophobia

Press release 2009.11.26

Students kissing against Lithuanian homophobia

On Thursday 26th of November a group of LGBTQ activists will be kissing against the Lithuanian government and their homophobic legislation through a public kiss-in in front of the parliament.

The public kissing is organized as a demonstration against the state homophobia which is violating the human rights of LGBTQ people in Lithuania. The event was organized by ANSO – Association of Nordic and Pol-Balt LGBTQ Student Organizations, in cooperation with Lithuanian LGBTQ activists.

“Lithuania has long been known as one of the most homophobic and biphobic countries in Europe but the situation will get dramatically worse when the new legislation for The Law on the Protection of Minors against Detrimental Effect of Public Information comes into effect in March 2010” says Madle Saluveer, board member of ANSO and vice president of EGN, the Estonian member organization of ANSO.

ANSO is this week organizing a 4 days long conference on LGBTQ issues in Vilnius to shed light on the Lithuanian situation and to show international support to local LGBTQ activists. ANSO is very concerned about the human rights situation in Lithuania and by organizing an event in Vilnius the organization hopes to draw attention to the homophobia and discrimination that LGBTQ people face with this new legislation.

“With this demonstration we hope to attract the attention of our national governments to put pressure on their Lithuanian colleagues to reverse this legislation and protect the human rights of all people” explains vice president of ANSO, Ann Kristin Fagerlund.

 

ANSO – Association of Nordic and POl-Balt LGBTQ Student Organizations is an organization working for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and Queer students in the Nordic countries, Poland and Baltic states. The organization focuses on preventing heteronormativity in higher education and on improving the situation for LGBTQ people in the member countries.

 

For more information, contact:

Ann Kristin Fagerlund – vice president of ANSO: +4792065379, vicepresident@anso.dk

 

ANSO Workout: Building Organizational Muscles

ANSO would like to invite you to a seminar called ANSO Workout: Building Organizational Muscles with the aim of equipping students activists for capacity building and organizational strengthening. It will be held in Vilnius, November 24-29, 2009.

The main aim of the seminar is to strengthen LGBTQ student organizations by sharing best practices on how to run an LGBTQ student organization. It will gather experienced activists from the member organizations of ANSO who will together accumulate the knowledge existing on local level within different areas of our work. By strengthening the work of LGBTQ student groups we are fighting homophobia and heteronormativity in higher education as well as contributing to the social inclusion of LGBTQ students.

Objectives
The objective is to share and accumulate knowledge and experience regarding:
* How to cooperate with local student unions
* How to lobby institutions of higher education
* How to create networks with other organizations
* How to create a safer space for LGBTQ students
* Community building within the organization
* How to recruit and motivate new members
* How to manage conflict situations within the organization
* Planning activities within the organization
* Communication within the organization
* Sharing the knowledge and making the organization sustainable
* Project management
* Fundraising and financial management

Target group: ANSO member organizations:
We encourage the board members from the member organizations of ANSO to participate in the seminar as it focuses on the capacity building and is strictly connected to managing the organization.
Participants should be able to work and communicate in English and be able to participate in the whole event.

Deadline for applications: November 1, 2009
You can find an application form here:
https://ansoblog.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/anso-call-for-vilnius-seminar1.doc

PRESS RELEASE: ANSO’s Annual General Meeting: Nordic and Pol-Balt LGBTQ students ready for new challenges

ANSO’s Annual General Meeting: Nordic and Pol-Balt LGBTQ students ready for new challenges

PRESS RELEASE

1 October 2009
On Tuesday, 1st of September, a new board of ANSO (Association of Nordic and Pol-Balt LGBTQ Student Organizations) was elected during the organization’s Annual General Meeting in Stockholm. Both, the president, Monika Grzywnowicz, and the vice president, Ann Kristin Fagerlund, were re-elected for their posts.
“I am proud to still be a part of such an important and dynamic organization as ANSO,” states Grzywnowicz. “The last year was full of challenges and successes and I am truly looking forward to start working with the new board and see what 2009/2010 has to offer us”
The new board consists of 12 young activists from all over the Nordic and Pol-Balt (Poland and the Baltic States) regions. The board members are diverse in experiences, competences and visions, which will enable the organization to grow and develop even further.
The Annual General Meeting also decided to change the name of the organization to ANSO, Association of Nordic and Pol-Balt LGBTQ Student Organizations (previously Association of Nordic LGBTQ Student Organizations), making it more inclusive and reality-based.
“The name change is a good start in building a stronger connection with our member organizations and make all of them more visible”, Grzywnowicz explains, and adds: “We will continue fighting heteronormativity in higher education and working on transgender issues, eventually making our universities anti-discriminatory and safe places for all students.”
The members of the new board are as follows:
President
Monika Grzywnowicz, Poland
Vice president
Ann Kristin Fagerlund, Norway
Treasurer
Patrycja Kulka, Poland
Secretary
Arnt V. Arntsen, Norway
Board members
Malou Zilliacus, Sweden
Alice Guéna, Sweden
Anthony Holm, Denmark
Vilmantas Juknelis, Lithuania
Madle Saluveer, Estonia
Laurynas Pliuskys, Lithuania
Guðmundur Smári Veigarsson Iceland
Helga Kristjana Bjarnadóttir, Iceland

ANSO is the Association of Nordic and Pol-Balt Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Student Organizations. It is working in the interest of LGBTQ students all over the Nordic and Baltic region and Poland. ANSO fights discrimination based on homophobia and transphobia in Nordic universities and aims to increase the quality of higher education by fighting heteronormativity. It supports local student organizations so they can both be safe places for LGBTQ students and be an important part of its local university community.

For more information please contact:
President: Monika Grzywnowicz
Mobile: +46 768956168
Email: president@anso.dk

Vice president: Ann Kristin Fagerlund
Mobile: +46 700541170
Email: vicepresident@anso.dk
http://www.anso.dk