Womxn’s Action Commission Assistant Director
Mission/Vision of WAC:
The Womxn’s Action Commission is dedicated to providing intersectional and inclusive programming for womxn/ womxn-identifying constituents on campus. This includes educational programming via events, campaigns, and outreach. This was my first year in WAC and this year was the first year that WAC had an Assistant Director (yay!). This year Julia and I wanted to really emphasize the intersectional intent of the program, as one of the programs major flaws in the past has been that it largely was white feminism centered– not focusing on the specific and variable challenges for minority, LGBTQ+, and other marginalized groups of womxn. This past year we have increased our involvement on campus, working in weekly volunteer and intern meetings. We believed this was an essential part of engaging womxn on campus. During these meetings, we would discuss current WAC programming, issues facing our communities, and ways that we were all involved on campus. We laughed with each other, talked about difficult things in the news, but most importantly, created community. This was my favorite part of WAC this year.
This year we changed up a big component of the programming of WAC– The_____ Monologues. Instead of re-creating the traditional evening event where our constituents would take time to publicly talk about their life experiences and identity as a womxn, we created a “zine” style publication in which constituents could submit art, poetry, photography, or any other piece of expression for print. We felt that this 1) shifted the focus more towards identity and expression, 2) empowered constituents more as it was something that they were collectively creating for publication and 3)increased overall engagement as it was not a one time event– the publication could be spread the entire quarter.
Large scale– my hope for WAC in the future is that WAC becomes something that all womxn on campus seek power in– that they find mobility and opportunity to seek out opportunities for growth, professional, and personal development. My hope is that it does this in a way that talks about womxn with varying life experiences and passions, and that it not only concerns challenges facing womxn on UW campus, but in our community as well. I have hope that we have been the start of that this year, and am confident that you will be able to do that, no matter how you do it!
Letter to Successor
To our next Assistant Director,
Hi there!! WOW, First of all, welcome to the WAC team! I am so so excited for you to join this team and embark on this journey with the Director and the rest of the team! This year was so new and exciting because it was the first year that my position existed. I have found such a strong community of empowerment, positivity, and challenge this year with WAC, and it was because I felt supported by such an incredible team of womxn. There were a few challenges to navigate, but the ways that I have seen myself grow and have seen others grow has been indescribable. I have just as much faith that you will grow in so many wonderful ways as the AD of WAC this year.
In the fall, Julia and I began our year recovering from a bit of disorganization from the previous year. Now, we have all of our passwords, keys, and access to documents that were lost the previous year. Much of the first two weeks of our position (before school started) was figuring out how we were going to fundamentally restructure the way that we kept WAC records. We decided that all of our events and logistic information would be kept on team drives each year. In the drive, you’ll be able to see three past year team drives, with some documents existing in your drive alone. Below, I outlined all of the logistical planning we did in the fall quarter, but the main thing in the fall was orienting ourselves and figuring out when Julia and I would meet with our SAO adviser (Jennifer) and other people each week. Outreach during Dawg Daze and the RSO fair was really important because it allowed us to build our newsletter base and gather interest for WAC + tell womxn on campus what we are about! My advice for you: focus very heavily on this outreach for fall quarter. As I explain above, the WAC is here to serve womxn, and how best can we do that if we don’t get the word out about what we do?
Fall quarter was also challenging not only because it was a new position, but because I also had an internship that I was at during the day. My suggestion: really be intentional with the office hours that you have. Currently, you will have 10 office hours, with the director having round 19. This means you will have half as much time to do your work, but remember that you should also have half as much work! The director should understand this, but make sure you work with them to talk about what tasks you will be responsible for during the year. Having this conversation is so important for you and the director and will really build both of your understandings of how you will work together this year :).
Winter quarter was exciting and challenging, we had onboarded our interns and gotten a handle on our volunteer base, so by this time I was organizing the intern and volunteer meetings and really structuring how our community would operate. Along with planning winter Q events, this quarter was really designated to get interns inspired to create their own projects and events, and get rolling on The____ Monologues. The goal with winter Q was to engage womxn on campus and figure out how interns would actualize their goals and what they wanted to accomplish with their time in WAC. We asked them: what do you want your lasting impact on the WAC to be? What will you be able to take at the end of the year and say “this is what I did to empower and inspire womxn on campus”. Winter quarter was probably the most fun and engaging because by this time we knew what we were doing, and we ran with the opportunity to empower interns.
The end of the quarter was challenging with the abrupt online nature of the quarter, and also my early departure, but regardless, With that being said, spring quarter I was not present for. At the time of this writing, I anticipate so many positive experiences for Spring Q and have been collaborating with Julia and our lovely interns (Grace, Tania, Estelle, and Isabella) to figure out how to delegate my job tasks for them to take over. My absence in the spring was unconventional and I was sad about leaving WAC because I had such a positive experience but we tried to plan and prepare so that it would not disrupt the functionality of WAC. I outlined expected spring quarter events below as well!
With all of that in mind, my biggest advice to you would be to communicate with the Director (Julia and I were so great at communicating each others’ needs, it really made our team stronger), and advocate for your passions and what you want to achieve during your time here. The year flies by so fast, take your goals and run with them, and empower those around you to engage with their own goals.
Remember this is a position of growth: you may find new responsibilities and new ways of working with the future director. Most of all, I want to challenge you to plan each program, each meeting with intentionality. What is the goal behind it, is it intersectional? Are your constituents growing from it? Are your interns and volunteers growing from it?
I am so proud of you for choosing to be part of the WAC. I hope you find the same sense of empowerment, creativity, light and positive challenge that I did. I wish you all of the luck, and if you have any questions or need anything, I will still be on campus so please reach out!
In Solidarity,
Amber Torell
she/her/hers
torella@uw.edu
Logins/Passwords
Slack
Asuwac2k19!!!
Mailchimp: (for weekly newsletter!)
asuwom1
Asuwac2k19!!
Security Questions for Mail chimp: Mascot–huskies Childhood Hero: Frida Kahlo Coffeemaker brand: Mr. Coffee
Access Website:
You can log in with your UW NetID:
https://women.asuw.org/wp-login.php
Hub Res Logins 2019-2020 (this might change next year!):
asuwomn-wac
AD Gmail Account:
Asuwac2k19!!
Instagram handle: @asuwwac
Printing code: asuwomn-wac
ASUW WAC Budget number: 16-9407
Quarterly Goals
To see a week by week play out of what happened, access the google calendar here! I put all of my events, meetings, and other items for WAC on this calendar 🙂
Autumn Quarter
- Get situated in your office. Decorate the space to your liking and make it comfy!
- Meet with Director and set up a weekly 1:1 for you to gather your ideas each week (or however often you want it to be!)
- Set up your 1:1 with your SAO adviser (ours was Jennifer Pope!), this will give you a person to run things by and check in with each week about what WAC is up to. They are here to support you and help with logistical stuff!
- Create intern application with director by the 1st week of the quarter and advertise for it! We had 4 intern positions this year. The application we had was open from Sept. 25th- October 11th ( about 2 ½ weeks!)
- Mid Autumn Q we closed the intern app, that next week we sorted through the people we were going to interview ( we ended up interviewing about 10 out of 35 applicants). We chose 4 interns as planned.
- Recruit at RSO fair and Dawg Daze: we shared a table with ASUW entities and had an email sign up (this is important for letting them know about meetings!)
- Create first intern/volunteer meeting: Our first meeting was Oct 17th (4th week of quarter!)
- Create a newsletter to recruit volunteers to show up to the weekly meeting!
- The weekly meeting was held for Interns and Volunteers– the first 30 mins interns only and then an hour after that for interns and volunteers (you can do this however you please, we just thought it was valuable to meet with interns first!)
Everything else is optional. We planned a few events, here’s what they were:
Check your Boobies:
Oct 24th, 2019. We partnered with Rivkin Education to come in and educate constituents about breast cancer detection and prevention. October is breast cancer awareness month!
Menstrual Hygiene Drive:
Oct 14-18 Oct 19 was National Period Day: we teamed up with the UW panhellenic association to collect menstrual products for Elizabeth Gregory Home and ROOTS youth shelter. Panhellenic put boxes in all sorority houses and WAC put boxes in the WAC office and in the HUB. We collected 4 boxes of products!
WAC x RDR Show at Parnassus:
Nov. 22. We teamed up with Rainy Dawg Radio to have a womxn fronted show (concert) at Parnassus. This was an intimate vibe and was very successful! The concert was free.
Opening The _____ Monologues App:
This was open from Mid November to early January (we had to reopen it because we didn’t get as many submissions as we would have liked fall quarter).
Cookies and Cocoa De-Stress
Dec 6th (Friday of deadweek). Very unsuccessful, no one showed up. I recommend doing this week 7 or 8 instead. We ordered oreos and hot cocoa from safeway (using Justin Camputaro’s HUB Discretionary Fund).
Winter Quarter
- Structure Intern and volunteer meetings for each week
- Continue outreach via the newsletter (sent out before meetings usually!)
- Set up meeting with each intern to talk about their goals for the winter quarter and events they want to plan!
Events:
January 31: Huskies on the Hill! Tania and I went to advocate for comprehensive sex ed in Washington State. Empower interns and volunteers to participate! This is an opportunity to advocate for important womxn’s issues to WA state legislators! This is a day long event hosted by the Office of Government Relations (OGR).
February 9th: Womxn in Sports Day: The interns and I went to a womxn’s basketball game at UW and celebrated. We invited volunteers too!
Week 6: Interviews with artists for The ___ Monologues. This was an opportunity for our artists to explain the design elements they wanted on their page and to talk about how they wanted their art to be presented.
February 13: GALENTINES during volunteer and intern meeting. We wrote encouraging notes (galentines) for womxn in Elizabeth Gregory Home. This was a small event but allowed us to create around 50 notes for womxn!
Week 7: VOICE YOUR VOTE: Voter Registration Campaign! Because of the election year, we really wanted our constituents to register! We tabled inside the HUB and got people to register to vote.
WOMXNS HISTORY MONTH: WOMXN’S WEEK
March 3rd: Check your Boobies
March 4th: The heART of womxn: This was an event in the ECC that was meant to celebrate womxn and allow us to create art and take polaroids in community!
March 5th: Womxn’s March poster party: CANCELLED :,(
March 8th: Womxn’s March Seattle: CANCELLED
Spring Quarter
- Sit on a hiring committee! This will involve you hiring with the future director for an assistant director.
- Spread word about job applications– tell interns and volunteers about what you do!
- Collaborate with RDR on Birthdayfest possibly?
- Collaborate with SARVA for Sexual Assault Awareness Month in April
- Launch The ___ Monologues!!!!
- Consult Julia’s Transition Docs for additional Spring Events!
- Set Goals for next year and challenges.
- Write transition docs!
Budget
- Julia and I both had control over the budget, she should have a spreadsheet tracking all of the money we spent on different room reservations, event collaborations, etc.
- Make sure you are keeping an eye on how much you are spending on printing!
- The largest budget line item we had was for The____ Monologues
Weekly To-Do List
- Sunday: Submit your office hours before 10pm! Prep for the week!
- Monday: office hours, drafted agenda for weekly meeting
- Tuesday: office hours, wrote weekly newsletter for constituents/volunteers/interns
- Wednesday: office hours, sent out newsletter, finished agenda for weekly meeting
- Thursday: office hours, volunteer/intern meeting
- Friday: wrapped up the week, planned for next week
Contacts/Meetings
- Bi-Weekly meeting with JCC (Joint Commission committee) to talk about issues facing different diversity commissions
- SAO Adviser: Jennifer Pope Email: jkiest@uw.edu, Weekly meetings
- Personnel Director: asuwpd@uw.edu — for all things human resources, having to do with your job, once a qtr meetings.
- WAC Director email: asuwomn@uw.edu, You and the director should have 1:1 meetings every week!
Loose Ends
- Email torella@uw.edu for any questions!