Current mood:

relieved

Power Games Come Crashing Down, & then, Fun!
Whew. What a week.

Thursday, we finally had our meeting of the Pagan Campus Organization to vote on elections. This shit got dragged out for three whole weeks, when it really didn't have to. PaCO lost all of its month of November fighting this. That's really just sad. We could have been doing so much for the students of UMaine, holding so many fun activities and discussions, but instead we had Student Government pushed down our throats until we could finally vote out the one trying to control everyone with their own personal agenda. Gah. How sickening.

We really could have resolved this at least a week sooner, but since Michelle was "in charge", holding the figure-head title of President, she dragged it out and pulled so much shit with involving Student Government and deleting any posts on FirstClass that held any view other than her own. Most of our new members stopped coming. Who the hell wants to deal with Student Government agents sitting there watching your every move, intruding where they don't belong? Who wants to deal with someone who takes away everyone's right to speak and deletes posts left and right? No one. We were lucky to have a few dedicated and capable new people ready to take on the group and save it.

So, the election went quickly. Last week's vote to allow non-students to continue being welcome and counted as equals was unanimous. Of course, that's what PaCO has always upheld, and there are reasons for that. (Not to mention the fact that non-student members has only ever meant one to three former students at any given time, who still wish to spend time with their friends while they're around. Non-students are not a threat, they are just friends, and the group is smart enough not to fall for anyone's stupid attempt to call them a threat.) This week's vote for new officers went quickly, without much contest. This proves that the group did not agree with those trying to clamp down on it, and that the group still believes it has the right to make decisions as a group, without someone forcing their own agendas over everyone else.

And, at the end, it was revealed that Michelle had only dragged PaCO through all these weeks of hell because she became determined to find some way to kick Zeus out, because she doesn't like him. Wow. That really sucks. To make PaCO suffer, and lose a whole month, because she wanted Zeus to have to leave. I wonder if she would have pushed so hard to kick out non-students if Griff were still able to make it, or if Tarsha was still around. She liked both of them, and never questioned the "non-students are equals" belief while they were around. Only when she became obsessed with getting rid of Zeus did she pull all this crazy shit. Wow. I bet she would have said other non-students could keep coming, even though her whole platform was "no non-students". Hell, she even told someone that a friend of theirs could vote, even though the friend hadn't attended the agreed upon "two PaCO functions" that everyone else voting was required to have done, just because she liked the friend. WTF?? I'm glad the group was smart enough to recognize such bullshit and two-faced double standards being pulled all over the place.


Anyway, on to the POSITIVE:

After the elections were over and Michelle decided to leave the group, the room relaxed a bit and we started to get into some fun conversation. Then, some new people even showed up! Yay! It was a woman who had seen our Samhain Divination Fair on the Mall on Friday, October 26th. She came in with her little baby, who was adorable and very well behaved, and then her husband came in a bit later. We all had one of the first fun and interesting conversations we've had in PaCO in a very long time. We actually talked about paganism and Christianity, and other random stuff. Good times. We also slated a full list of activities for the rest of the semester. It's a bit tight, it's a real shame to have lost November to all this mess, but we've got a list of things that are not too demanding, and it should go great.

On Friday, I met up with some of the new Officers, and we filled out our Club Update, an application for a Yearly Budget to cover our button printing and flyer printing costs and such, and an application for Event Funding for the Yule Bonfire & Cookout, and Candles, Soap, and Lip-balm Making! Wee! We got all of those done and handed in, discovering just how easy this all really is. We got the date of the next funding meeting, so that we can send someone to it. And the date of the Student Senate meeting after that, in case they want to see someone there, but I don't think that normally happens. It should be just the first meeting that anyone needs to go to.

We also went to some offices in the Union to talk to people about permissions for advertising and bake sales and whatnot, but the people were in a meeting, so we have to get together again later and do that stuff then. We thought of some new ways to advertise, and will check them all out. Even the "your ad here" phone numbers on the bathroom stall boards! Ha ha. Man, I'm so excited to get PaCO all advertised and stuff, and draw in some new members, and draw back some old. We've already had several old members come back, and more say that they will. (We keep getting told that people left because of Michelle and Toby, but that they'll come back now. Still odd, trying to think about how that all happened. Weird stuff.)

Anyway, on my way back from campus on Friday night, I stopped in at the Natural Living Center and wrote out a whole chart of prices for some of the stuff that our new President said we'd need for making soaps and lip-balms. I wrote down prices and ounces for Almond Oil, Apricot Kernel Oil, Cocoa Butter, and Coconut Oil. Coconut Oil was actually the cheapest thing, if you got it from the bulk refrigerator, being only $1.99 per pound there, whereas the stuff in jars on the shelf was about $14 per pound. Wow. But hopefully, I've got enough here that we won't need to buy any. I've got about half a 128 ounce bucket here, and I don't cook with it as much as I used to, so I don't mind sharing it to make some nice new stuff. Yay! >^_^< We had already gone to the AC Moore together, so we already have pure beeswax for this stuff, and some paraffin for this stuff and the candles. Yay!

Definitely looking forward to some great new fun activities! Wee! >^_^< .