A date for your calendars. On Saturday January 30th, the LGBT General Assembly 2010 (North Buckinghamshire) will be held at the Ridgeway Community Centre in Milton Keynes (map link). The objective is to bring together all those who are interested in the LGBT community in the area.

Whether you organise events or activities, or are interested in attending them, this is the opportunity. The day will consist of:

• Brief presentations by the various organisations as to what they do and offer
• Discussion as to what people would like to see as events
• Discussion on what is the LGBT community itself
• Public viewing of Olivia Humphreys’ film “Late-Comers” about “older” people coming out.

Topics to be covered include support, healthcare, sports, social evenings and more.

Tell us what you do, tell us what you want.

To be kept informed or to mark your interest, please get in contact with Peter Leeson – PeterJLeeson {at} hotmail(.)com or 01908 501426.

We’ve developed some amazing LGBT awareness training that will appeal to all kinds of people and the profits made from running them help us to fund great services to support local LGBT people!

And now YOU can help us fill the training days and EARN MONEY for doing it! We’ve got places available on courses running from now until March 2010 and we’ll pay you commission to help us fill them.

How to earn up to £20 per booking

It’s really simple!

1) Use the publicity resources on our website and your own contacts, skill and charm to get people to register online for one or more of our training days.

2) Ask them to put your name in the ‘where did you hear about us’ box on the registration form.

3) Email us with the details and we’ll pay you 10% of the fee they pay us.

Depending on the type of organisation they work for, you could earn up to £20 per booking.

Example 1: You get someone from the public sector to book onto a full day session. They pay Q:alliance £120. We pay you £12.

Example 2: You get someone from a private company to book onto a full day session. They pay Q:alliance £175. We pay you £17.50.

Everything you need to get started promoting our training days is available on our website at www.qalliance.org.uk/training or if you have any questions, email us at training {at} qalliance.org(.)uk

This information is available in a poster. It would really help us out if you could print off a copy and display it in appropriate places!

Download the Poster here

Want a cosy new venue to relax, meet or celebrate in MK?

A place where you can eat, drink and just be…

There’s a new group on Facebook where you can share your views on a NEW venue for Milton Keynes. To join the group, click here (you may need to be a Facebook member to view and partake in the group).

In addition, the conversations about starting up new social opportunites for LGBT people in Milton Keynes are still going on at Gay MK.

Now what about Aylesbury? Do you live in, or near, Aylesbury? Are you happy with the social scene? Looking for more to do? Looking to start something up? There’s a Facebook group which is a bit quiet, but could be a good place to start a discussion.

Let us know at info {at} qalliance.org(.)uk if you know of other places on the web or around town where LGBT people in the Aylesbury Vale area meet up, we’d love to help promote them.

A list of LGBT groups that meet in Milton Keynes and Buckinghamshire can be found at www.qalliance.org.uk/information/ – do let us know if we are mising any! ]]> http://www.qalliance.org.uk/places-to-socialise-in-mk-and-aylesbury/feed/ 0 http://www.qalliance.org.uk/local-information-updated/ http://www.qalliance.org.uk/local-information-updated/#comments Sat, 02 May 2009 16:25:21 +0000 Admin http://www.qalliance.org.uk/?p=627 We have just updated our Local Information page with details relevant to lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people in Milton Keynes and Buckinghamshire, including links to social groups. If there are any groups we’ve missed, do let us know!

We will be updating this information regularly, so check back here often or sign up here to be notified of updates to the site by email. We also have a very exciting RSS feed if you’re into that sort of thing.

…wondering what to do with your time?

Q:alliance Needs You !!!

We are looking for new volunteers, in particular for Admin Support, Web Contributors & a Minute Taker (see below for more info).

Admin Support
- You can help us with anything from simple filing and sealing / stamping envelopes to replying to letters, emails, phone calls and recording data on spreadsheets.
- We also need help to keep our offices tidy and the centre clean.

Web Contributors
- The Q:alliance website (www.qalliance.org.uk) is *your* website and we’d love for you to be a greater part of it!
- We’re currently looking for some LGBT bloggers / writers to help contribute to this website.
- You can blog / write about almost anything – topics you’re into, your daily life, opinions on news stories / LGBT issues.
- Blogging is really easy, you can even just email us your entries and we’ll do the techy bits.
- Have a look at Bex’s Bits for inspiration!

Minute Taker
- The minute taker for Q:alliance needs to prepare and send out agendas to Trustee’s, as well as write and type up meeting minutes for distribution.
- You will need to be able to attend Trustee meetings, currently held on a six weekly basis on a week night.
- It would be helpful if you have previous experience of minute taking in a voluntary or community organisation.
- You will need to be familiar with MS Word and able to send the minutes out via email. Training can be given.

If you are interested in any of these volunteerining opportunities, please email Jim our Volunteer Co-ordinator at volunteer {at} qalliance.org(.)uk

You can also find out more about volunteering with Q:alliance here.

Do you want to see more things happening for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Trans people in Aylesbury Vale?

Do you want to make a difference in your community?

Q:alliance, the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Trans (LGBT) charity for Bucks & MK is looking for Community Champions to develop, support and promote local LGBT services, community groups and events; along with other volunteering opportunities in Aylesbury.

Community Champion’s are caring and proactive people with ideas about how they can make their community more interactive. Q:alliance helps its Community Champions with support and training. Together, they build better communities for LGBT people.

Want to find out more? Come along to our open evening on Monday 21st July at 7:00pm in the Multicultural Centre, Friarscroft, Aylesbury.

- WHY SHOULD I VOLUNTEER FOR Q:ALLIANCE? Q:alliance is a strongly community and volunteer-led organisation, therefore we are always seeking new volunteers to become involved in our work. For all roles, you should be a LGBT-friendly person and have a non-judgemental understanding of some of the issues that may affect LGBT people. You do not need to be LGBT yourself.

- AM I THE RIGHT SORT OF PERSON? If you are proactive and enjoy talking to people then this opportunity can make a big difference to the LGBT people who are looking to make contact with each other.

- WHAT COMMITMENT IS NEEDED? Just a few hours once a month. Q:alliance is very flexible around time volunteers can commit and recognises people lead busy lives.

For more information, see http://www.qalliance.org.uk/volunteer/

 

The International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO)
this year is 17th May 2008.

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What are you doing to stamp out Hate Crime?

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Want to know more?

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Click HERE

 

Hi there, Great news! It’s time for the next
Q:alliance Volunteer Social & Support Session !!!

On Wednesday 7th May, starting at 7:00pm and finishing around 9:00pm, at the David Baxter Centre we will be meeting up for our regular Volunteer Social & Support Session.

This session will focus on community mobilisation and what you can and want to do for your community. Those of you who came to the Q:recruit will already know about our new Community Champions, but there is still time to get involved!

Our regular Guest Speaker slot will this time be filled by Sue Moss, the Domestic Abuse Coordinator from Buckinghamshire County Council who is going to talk about domestic abuse and violence, with a particular focus on same-sex-relationships.

Please pass on this message to any friends and colleagues who you think may be interested in volunteering with Q:alliance.

Take care,

Jim Dalziel
Volunteer Co-ordinator

Over the last few months there have been lots of exciting things happening in Q:alliance and our website has been growing too!

• The MK Q:recruit on Monday 21st April was a tremendous success and a big thank you to everyone that turned up. It’s not too late to become involved in the organisation, go to the Volunteer page for more info. We will be holding a similar event in Aylesbury Vale soon, so watch this space!
• Q:clean, our ’spring clean party’ on Sunday 6th April was great fun, but also a really good opportunity to tidy up The David Baxter Centre and make it a much more comfortable place to work and socialise in.
• We have now had two successful Q:meets starting at The Entertainers and then moving on to Pink Punters. The Q:meets are on the 1st Friday of each month and there are also Lavender Nights (just for the ladies) on the 3rd Friday of each month.

• Our regular Volunteer Social & Support Session’s have been useful and enjoyable. The guest speakers (such as The Samaritans) have been proving very popular too. Click here for a list of the rest of this years sessions.
• Q:alliance’s Counselling service has now been going strong for over 6 months and has helped many people. We hope to role out this service to Aylesbury Vale soon.
• The Information section on the Q:alliance website has recently been expanded to include sections on Trans, Support, Coming Out & Social Activities
• Working with Milton Keynes PCT, our HIV Quick Test service is back, starting on Saturday 3rd May (and every 1st Saturday of the month) from 11:00am to 2:30pm. Come along to Q:alliance for a result within one hour.

There are loads of more exciting things coming up soon and ways for you to get involved with your community, email us with your ideas: website {at} qalliance.org(.)uk  We are looking for more website contributors, especially for Coming Out Stories.