chapters
Congratulations to our Featured Chapter, The Harry Potter Alliance of Mexico City!
MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
From Mexico to Colorado, chapters are accomplishing awesome things Our current featured chapter is our Mexico City chapter. They are a university chapter and have been a chapter since June 14, 2011. Their mission as a chapter is to show the community that change is possible and that it can start just with little actions. The HPA Mexico City has done some awesome things for animal rights including helping “Adopcions San Cristobal” in transferring over 300 dogs to a new and better shelter as well as helping the Rotaract group in the Mestizo Parade 2011 and 2012, which consists of a runway of dogs to give them up for adoption. Congratulations, HPA Mexico City!
in this issue: featured staffer yule balls monthly clean-up equality ftw from the director holiday recipes holiday projects winning the vote
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The winner of the Maryland phonebanking is Keeping Austin Wizard with CO Caitlin Gilchrist! Congratualations! Her chapter will receive $250.00 to help fund local campaigns and the work they are doing in their community
Featured Staffer, Arielle, making her way through Platform 9 3/4
Winter Database Clean-Up
FEATURED STAFFER Hi all, I am Arielle. I am currently a first year optometry student at the New England College of Optometry. I am a proud Slytherin, Nerdfighter, Whovian, Whedonite, Sherlockian, and just all around fangirl. I first heard about the HPA from Lauren Fairweather in a Five Awesome Girls video and seeing as I love Harry Potter and social action, I knew it was something I needed to get involved in! I started out just attending l i ve s t r e a m s a n d p a r t i c i p a t i n g i n campaigns however I could over the internet, but it wasn't until my first Wrock show I discovered the wonderful world of chapters. Sadly though, there was no chapter near me. After attending Infinitus in 2010 and meeting a lot of awesome HPA people, I decided it was time to start my own chapter and bring the HPA to my university. Shortly after starting my chapter, I got pulled onto Chapters Staff as the College and University Prefect. I have since graduated and passed on my chapter, but I remain here on Chap t ers S t af f wor king wit h our resources team. I am also on the HPA Workshops Team. I also help run the new Nerdfighter forum, Our Pants, and I’ve joined the board of directors of This Star Won't Go Out.
Yule Balls A Yule Ball can be a great holiday event for any chapter. It’s a fun holiday event overall - a great excuse to put on some party clothes and dance around! Yule Balls can be helpful to get people who aren’t par t of your c hapter participating in an event, and to promote your chapter further. It is also a good way to explore how to host an event in your area and to fundraise for your c h ap t e r, t h e H PA , or any o t h e r organization of your choice. As a high school or university chapter, you can invite people from your sc hool’s community to learn more about the HPA or just enjoy a party and figure out how to host events at your school. As a community chapter, you can explore what is the best place in your area to host an event in your area, and how to engage your community. It’s also a good way to test out your promoting skills. A lot of the things that you can learn from hosting a Yule Ball can very easily translate to hosting other events for your chapter!
Chapters is doing our monthly database cleaning. What that means is that I will be going through about a month’s worth of Galleon Days and marking down everyone who replied. If your chapter hasn’t been checking in to Galleon Days you’ll receive an “Are you still a chapter?” e-mail. If no reply is heard back within two weeks, your chapter will be removed from our active list and put onto our “Potentially Dead Chapters” list. If we do hear back from you, your chapter will remain on the active list. If for some reason you’ve been checking into Galleon Days but we don’t have your Ning name/chapter on our database, you’ll be receiving a message through the Ning asking which chapter you are representing and we will work to make sure your chapter gets onto our database. So make sure you’re checking into the Galleon Days and checking your e-mail/Ning inbox, so that you can reply to any messages you might be getting from us. Thanks!
These past couple of months have been an amazing whirlwind for both the HPA and the chapters department specifically. In many ways this was due to our immensely successful EqualityFTW fundraiser! Thank you all so much if you donated or helped to spread the message to your friends, family, and community. The money we raised (Over $95,000!!!!!) will go towards helping the HPA lead Equality initiatives in the next year, including the as you may have guessed phone banking we did the weekend before the election in November! EqualityFTW:Vote 2012 was also an immense success and it is with particular gratitude towards chapters that we can say that both the DREAM Act in Maryland and the Marriage Act in Maine passed! There were huge strides in equality made this year and the HPA was once again at the forefront of encouraging and engaging voters in voting for equality, the rights Dumbledore and Hermione among others fought so bravely for. While not many chapters participated in the phone banking, those who did made a tremendous amount of calls along with Julian supporting education equality. You guys are AWESOME and should be extremely proud of yourselves and the work you accomplished! Now here comes the next big announcement in regards to EqualityFTW: Vote 2012... This year for the first time ever, the HPA created a grant to chapters for whoever was the winner of the house cup for phonebanking in Maryland. The winning CO and chapter was Caitlin Gilchrist and Keeping Austin Wizard! Caitlin and her chapter will receive $250.00 to help fund local campaigns and the work they are doing in their community! This is an amazing step for chapters and we hope to be able to provide more opportunities like this in the future because we understand that chapters are integral to the HPA and our mission of being Dumbledore’s Army in the real world! Be on the lookout for more EqualityFTW campaigns and initiatives in the next year!
Letter from the Director Hello my favorite Chapter Organizers (well that would be all of you, wouldn’t it?), I write this particular letter with a full heart and immense pride for my chapters staff and for all of you. When I became the chapters director 6 months ago, I was truly unaware on what path working more closely with chapters would take me. All I knew was that I was in for quite a ride because as you all well know - everything with chapters is an adventure. I certainly was not disappointed. Before I go into telling you all about a couple of major developments in chapters, I just want to take a minute to thank each of you for all of the work that you do for the HPA. I understand its difficult and frustrating to get information and to plan campaigns. Trust me, I’ve been there and done that. You all understand more than most what kind of work it takes to get a campaign off the ground, to get people to participate, and to confront the difficulties of explaining what the HPA is and what we do. Each of you is an incredible person and you are do amazing work, you all
deserve to hear that. Your work matters. I am incredibly honored to be the director of what is arguable the BEST part of the HPA (oh, we all know it’s true). So now on to the really exciting developments in chapters... First of all, the chapter department now has three different teams - project development, resource development, and outreach. With our new teams, we also have team leaders and I’m proud to publicly announce that Pam is our new project development TL, Shrima is our resource development TL, and Danielle is our outreach TL. These three ladies have all shown themselves to be extremely dedicated and passionate advocates for chapters, and I couldn’t have more confidence in them! Each team is in charge of a different area of chapters and is hard at work to improve and build the already fantastic program we have. That leads me to my next announcement... The HPA-Imagine Better Chapters Initiative has officially launched. I hope every one of you got to read the email I sent out, but essentially this program is an opportunity for all chapters to be able to create and run campaigns in
other fandoms and highlight that. We love other series and we know that all of our chapters have different interests outside HP and we really wanted to be able to provide more opportunities to use passion to create meaningful social change! There will be some really new exciting programs and details rolling out with this program in the first half of 2013 so keep your eyes and ears out! In addition to this initiative, Chapters is working on revitalizing the prefects program, creating chapter buddies, and we have A LOT of other stuff up our sleeve! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday and remember you do amazing work as a CO and a member of the HPA chapter community. If you have any questions/comments for me, please don’t hesitate to email becca@thehpalliance.org! Best Wishes, Becca Simpson
HAPPY HOLIDAYS! Butterbeer
Eggnog
Holiday Projects
Ingredients: • 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream • 2 tbsp powdered sugar • 24 oz of your favourite cream soda • 2 tsp vanilla butter nut flavouring (regular vanilla extract can be substituted if vanilla butter nut flavouring can't be found)
At Harry’s second christmas at Hogwarts, Hagrid is greatly helped by eggnog. With every cup he consumes, he’s able to sing carols progressively louder. (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Chapter 12).
Want to do something holiday themed with your Chapter? Here are some fun holiday suggestions.
Steps: 1. Make the cream topping You can either add the whipping cream and powdered sugar into a bowl and whisk it until it is a good consistency, or the easier way is to add them to a container and shake it up until you get the good consistency (about 10-20 seconds of vigorous shaking). The container way is a lot easier, especially when serving because you will be able to squeeze the cream on top of the butterbeer just like they do at the theme park. 2. Make the butterbeer Add the vanilla butter nut flavouring to the cream soda. Stir gently so you don't get rid of the carbonation. Then pour into a glass and top with the cream topping. 3. Drink!
Chocolate Pretzel Wands Ingredients: • Pretzel rods • Chocolate chips • Sprinkles or crushed-up candy cane Steps: 1. Melt the chocolate chips over the stove in a double boiler or in the microwave. (Be careful not to overheat.) 2. Dip the pretzel rods in the melted chocolate. 3. Sprinkle on the crushed-up candy cane or sprinkles. 4. Put in the refrigerator to set. 5. Enjoy!
Ingredients: • 6 large eggs • ¾ cup granulated sugar • 3 ½ cups whole milk • 2 cups heavy cream, divided • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, divided • ⅓ cup confectioners’ sugar • Ground nutmeg for serving Steps: 1. Whisk the eggs with the granulated sugar in a medium saucepan until frothy. Whisk in the milk and 1 cup of the heavy cream and cook over medium-high heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture reaches 160ºF or is very hot but not bubbling. Remove from the heat and stir in 1 teaspoon of the vanilla. Pour through a sieve. Cover the surface directly with the plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming, and cool to room temperature. Refrigerate until cold. 2. Beat the remaining cup of heavy cream with the remaining teaspoon of vanilla and the confectioners’ sugar until stiff peaks form. Pour the chilled eggnog into mugs or glasses. Top with a dollop of a whipped cream and sprinkle with the nutmeg.
Every town has some version of this. In New York, an organization called New York Cares runs a program called Winter Wishes for Children and Families. New Yorkers can sign-up to receive gift requests from underprivileged people who would not be receiving gifts otherwise. It may be called other things like Secret Santa in other areas, but the sentiment behind it is the still the same. If money is an issue, you can always do fundraisers or ask people to donate. Toys for Tots is another similar program where people donate toys for the holidays. Great projects to do as a chapter in the true spirit of the holiday season. If your chapter wants a more hands on approach, consider volunteering to help give out meals at a soup kitchen or similar organization. You would be helping the community and showing some good will towards your fellow man. Magical Acts of Kindness is also perfect for the holiday season. This is an HPA campaign where people do nice things for other people anonymously. Since the holidays are all about doing nice things for others, this could be a quick and easy chapter project. And if you’re just looking for something fun, you can always do holiday themed crafts projects, or cookie decorating. Maybe have a Yule Ball or holiday party. Holiday projects don’t have to be big events. They just have to bring your chapter or people in your community together.
Congratulations UAHPA! The University of Arizona won $500 to be spent developing their chapter to be even more amazing. Check out chapter organizer Janae’s response to this amazing feat below (you can also read about it on the Room of Requirement)
Winning the Vote: Lessons Learned Two weeks ago we found ourselves in a local voting competition with the potential to win $1,000. It was an opportunity that was difficult to believe, and looking at the list of organizations we were competing against I wasn't entirely sure we could pull it off. There were all of the usual: Greek Life, various college ambassador groups, club sports, etc. In our chapter of 30 members, did we have the numbers? Maybe we didn't, but the community did. I used some unusual methods compared to my peers, I'm sure: I asked popular Tumblr users to reblog the link (most did); my mom had the link reposted on the couponer blog she follows (they came out in numbers for the "freepie deal" for the community); I talked about it in Nerdfighter groups; and, of course, we got help from other chapters across the country. Slowly, unbelievably, we pulled ahead of the pack. I was not expecting the reactions we got to that. We've never faced a lot of criticism on our campus, have generally been received well. But the moment we began competing for and potentially receiving resources that other organizations wanted we saw some of our first negative reactions. Generally what seemed to bother people was that a Harry Potter club could possibly be winning against more traditional (dare I say more acceptable) organizations. What a silly idea.
In the last few hours of the voting we knew that we were not going to take first place, and it seemed unlikely we would even take second. Mostly out of desperation, I started asking anyone I could think of, and got support from places I had never expected I would: fraternities, student council groups, pages from conferences I attended months ago. My friends called their parents and had them vote, too. Then there was a tipping point, and all of the sudden we were in 2nd place and not going anywhere. The competition ended at 6 PM that evening, but votes continued to come in even into the next morning, until we had collected over 1,200. 1, 200 individual people had put in a vote for us. That's a number I still can't wrap my head around. The biggest thing I took away from this experience was that you should never assume you don't have allies. Had I been brave enough to ask for help from
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people I didn't expect it from a little bit sooner, I wouldn't be surprised if we'd taken first place. Don't write people off before you ask.
Director becca@thehpalliance.org
We came away with $500, the most
Other
we've ever had as a chapter. But we also found friends we didn't know we had, and certainly left an impression on our campus: we're here, and we don't need wands.
Janae Phillips
Newsletter shrima@thehpalliance.org
HPA Website http://thehpalliance.org Room of Requirement http://hpachapters.ning.com HPA YouTube http://youtube.com/thehpalliance