It's finally Friday!

These past few weeks have been hectic not only with schoolwork but also Summit as well, so this Happy Friday is particularly cheerful. Last week the Panthers for Planned Parenthood prepared for the Vagina Monologues. We set up a table outside the event on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights in order to get signatures for Planned Parenthood’s Birth Control Matters petition and to pass out contraceptives. The petition demands that birth control is made available to all women with no co pay and sex education becomes a more prevalent subject in the education of young people.

So these Vagina Monologues events unearthed some of the weaknesses of our Summit house with Planned Parenthood and with each other, particularly in the way of our lines of communication. Our PP representative only contacted us days before the event, requesting our presence at the monologues. This put a strain on all of our schedules, making our attendance at the events rushed and put together at the last minute. On the bright side, when communication with Planned Parenthood is up to par, they are quite helpful in providing us with the necessary materials, i.e. condoms, pamphlets, petitions, to make our on-campus involvement a success.

Like I previously mentioned, communication between the members of our Summit group hasn’t been all that great either. While the event was only planned two days prior to the first night of Vagina Monologues, some of my housemates weren’t informed until the day before. We’ve all come to the conclusion that this is unacceptable, and we as a house must brainstorm more productibe means of communicating about Summit events. Brady posted an event calendar downstairs right outside our front door, a place where our events are easily accessible to all members of the house. In addition, I’ve taken it upon myself to start sending out a group text upon the creation of a new event, or a meeting with Kenny. My role in Summit has been the Faculty Liaison, which isn’t exactly the most demanding task, so I figured this new responsibility of mine will be nothing overwhelming.

Let’s see, goals for the semester. I would like to see an improved relationship between Planned Parenthood and our Summit group. Not only this, but improved communication between the members of the house, but I believe our new event calendar and group texts will do the trick. This far I think the major strength of Panthers for Planned Parenthood has been our ability to become involved on campus. But this semester I’d like to see a bit more involvement in Planned Parenthood events, while still maintaining our status on Drury’s campus.

At this stage in the game, our events in the semester have not been set in stone, so I’m anxious to see what will be happening in Summit. Hopefully our new found communication skills will spur more involved, brainstormed ideas about Summit events from all members of house. A meeting with Kenny is in the works, so our semester events will be set and publicized in the very near future. This semester is looking to be quite interesting for the Panthers for Planned Parenthood.

Laura Jean