April 28th

After finishing my information gathering from the group, it’s nice to note that they won a pretty big award from the university labeling them the best activist group on campus. While I originally knew nothing about Face AIDS, learning about them this semester has really made the group much more interesting to me. I originally thought their lack of yelling and screaming on campus was due to boredom or apathy but after talking with Prasanth, it’s good to see that their actions are deliberate.

Interview

April 21st

I interviewed Prasanth today for about an hour giving me lots of insight into the history of the group not to mention a shakedown from their primary educator on tabling standards. According to Sunil this is the guy that really makes the group go despite not being the President. While he struck me as being a bit serious, his notion that time spent joking means time that he can’t get donations to save a child does offer a great balance between the free flowing and humorous meeting from last week.
His creation of tabling guidelines is being implemented by other schools which shows me that not only is the UT chapter doing well by means of getting donations, but their methods are proving far more productive than those being used elsewhere.

Last Meeting

April 13th

I attended a Face AIDS meeting tonight in which the group discussed the future of the organization and recounted the previous semester particularly detailing their successes and failures. The informality and joking atmosphere made clear a point that the group must find a balance between being a very serious social movement organization while still offering some sort of social return to a group of people who are still kids.
Sunil, the treasurer, was very helpful in getting me in contact with members who would ultimately help with the final project and also was able to explain some of the historical areas around the group.
It was also funny to see how the voting system worked and while leadership might have been frustrated at the level of joking taking place, it showcased the spectrum of members actively engaged within the group.

National Conference

The group has a conference this weekend with some speakers, apparently quite a few schools are coming to the event. While I can’t attend the events, seeing the prominence of the local chapter makes them appear effective in their goals of raising awareness. At the very least the coverage from the Daily Texan should help here.