A Letter From The President
From the August 2002 Newsletter
Bob Dorr, PFLAG Omaha
Posted on August 1, 2002
Our Aug. 8 meeting will be a bit different. Omaha PFLAG will have a joint potluck with a group of lesbians and gay men and their children. The group formed a few months ago to give each other support and advice on raising families.
We are looking forward to getting to know them better, and to learn more about their struggles in a culture that still is attuned more to families with heterosexual parents.
So bring a food dish--casserole, vegetable, salad, dessert or whatever--to share with the rest of the group. PFLAG will provide the plates, cups and other table service items as well as the soft drinks and iced tea.
The potluck will be on our normal meeting night and place, at 7 p.m. Aug. 8 at First United Methodist Church, 7020 Cass St., in Mead Hall at the building's west end. Come at 6:30 p.m. for social time before the potluck.
I am delighted to announce that five of us from Omaha PFLAG will go to the PFLAG National Conference in Columbus, Ohio, over the Sept. 27-29 weekend. That is a larger group than anytime since my wife, Betty, and I joined PFLAG nearly a decade ago.
Betty and I, along with Venetia Collins, Carrie Spencer and Dave Meyer, will attend. In part, this is possible due to a grant from the Terry K. Watanabe Charitable Trust that will pay part of the expenses of those attending for the first time. It is not too late to sign up if you want to join us.
At a recent meeting, your PFLAG board took note of our growth and success this past year in a number of respects and also specified some goals we would like to accomplish during the coming year.
Some of the goals involve growing financially and in numbers of members. We are asked more often to present our speakers' program and to take part in business-sponsored diversity fairs. We want to do that, because our mission includes educating the public. The only expense is buying the booklets and other literature that we make available. But that can add up in a time of increasing demand.
One way you can help is to continue your membership in PFLAG. If your membership expires Oct. 1, we will send out the renewal notice, with a reply envelope, along with next month's newsletter.
Another way is to consider designating Omaha PFLAG as the recipient of some or all of your annual United Way donation or pledge. Omaha PFLAG, as a nonprofit organization registered with the IRS, is qualified to receive United Way donations. But we are not on the list of organizations that receive money in the United Way budgeting process.
Thus you need to pick up and fill out a special designation form from the person at your company who handles the United Way drive.
We also need more volunteers who believe they can help us in some special way. For example, we don't do a good job of managing our small library of books. We don't go a good job because we have no one doing this.
Nothing is more important in winning the battle for hearts and minds than having the ability to quickly provide a book that will turn on a light in someone's mind. If you think this might be something you would enjoy doing, please call me at 333-7064.
Bob Dorr, President
