October 12, 2004

• Today, we're contacting all the folks who've applied for travel grants to attend our Liberation Now! national
  conference in Berkeley. We'll be telling them one of three things: 1)
  Their application is approved, 2) Application is on waiting list status
  in case of cancellations or additional funding, or 3) Application
  denied. It's probably the hardest thing to do year after year - trying
  to decide who gets their travel grant apps approved and who doesn't.

  This year, we received over 40 applications on behalf of 87 individuals
  (some applications are for individuals and others are groups of people)
  asking for over $13,000, which is an over 50% drop from our previous
  years; thanks largely to the five additonal Demand Liberation regional action conferences which will be held all over the country.

  People often ask us how do we determine who gets travel grants and who
  doesn't. The truth is, we really, really don't have a set formula -
  each application is reviewed and considered in relation to all the
  other applications and our budget. We have a general set of guidelines:
  

  • Why do they want to attend Liberation Now! ?
    As much as we love the goodie bags
    ourselves, if someone tells us that they want to attend LibNow just
    because of the goodie bag, it really won't fly too well with us.
    We pay special attention to what they say - we're absolute suckers for
    peeps who tell us all about how they have such a great group going, but
    they are about to graduate, so they are bringing new activists from
    their school to fire them up, and also for those who tell us that they
    just went vegan and want to learn more and want to get more active for
    the animals.

  • Is it a good deal?

    If both applications are asking
    for $200 - but one benefits only one student and the other benefits
    four, we generally would opt for the application for four (see the next
    guideline). We have an application this year from four Maryland
    students who found a super rad buy-one-get-one-free deal on Orbitz,
    by all means, we just had to approve that one. We can't pass up a good
    deal. (And surely they didn't tell us that all they wanted are the
    goodie bags! )

  • Will it help diversify the conference and/or the animal rights movement?
    

  The Student Animal Rights Alliance's mission is to build a strong & diverse
  youth movement for animals. We're one of the few animal rights
  organizations working to build diversity in the animal rights movement
  and probably the only one with a stated mission to do so (gosh, we hope
  we're wrong on this - there has got to be others!).
  
  
  
  We offer registration fee waivers and keep our registration fees cheap
  (just $10 at early registration; covering the whole three day
  conference, organize free & low-cost lodging, and provide free
  tasty vegan meals at the conference) all in the efforts to make sure
  everyone of all economic backgrounds who wants to learn more about how
  they can do more for the animals will not be turned away just because
  of money.
  
  
  
  The travel grants program *really* help us greatly in our diversity efforts.
  
  
  
  We look at the registration data to help us determine our diversity
  needs - for example, last year we worked to make sure we can get groups
  of students from West Virginia and South Carolina to attend the DC
  conference since there weren't that many other folks from those states.
  
  
  
  And of course, surely, we also work to build racial diversity in
  addition to economic and geographic diversity. We're quite proud
  actually of organizing the most diverse national animal rights event
  each year since we were founded in 2001. 

  Well, that's basically how we make our decisions just in case you were wondering.

  Oh, and in the midst of all the craziness here with organizing the Liberation Now! and Demand Liberation conferences,
  this brought a huge smile to our faces. The folks at Animal Protection
  Institute sent us a couple of $25 Travel Coupon Certificates for travel
  grant applicants. That's so sweet!

  
  Oh, and if you want to know how you can help us with the conferences -
  whether it be making a donation to help or simply helping us spread the
  word - every little bit REALLY counts, please check out the "Help Us" page on the LibNow site.

  And please don't forget about the Demand Liberation regional
  action conferences. Check out the "Help Us" pages for each of the
  cities when you get to the site, simply pick the city and click on
  "Help Us."

  Thanks!

  Oh, and we almost forgot. We really, really, really have to thank all of our conference sponsors,
  individual donors, foundations, and speakers for their support of our
  work to build a strong & diverse youth movement for animals and
  belief in youth. Without their support, there's really no way we can
  put on Liberation Now! and Demand Liberation year after year and keep the registration fees cheap and offer travel grants. Thanks folks!
  

  • 8:29 am
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