Bi Visibility Day 2020

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Come join us on Saturday 19th September for The Bi+ Gathering from 10.30am – 6pm for a virtual community event in celebration of Bi Visibility Day.

All bi+ people and our allies are welcome to join us for a day of online fun, activities, talks and workshops.

The Bi+ Gathering

Time:Session:Platform:
10:30am – 6pmAll Day Discord Social:
Chat, online games, and general fun!		Discord
Videos, videos, and more videos: including safer sex information from SX, and an exclusive interview with a Hidayah member about being Bi & Muslim.
(These videos will still be available to watch after the event has finished!)		YouTube
11am – 12pmMake-up Tutorials with Kate
Join Kate for some make-up tips and tricks!		Zoom
12:30pm – 1:30pmNeurodiverse Space with Nic
A space for all neurodiverse* people to talk about their experiences in a safe space.
*Neurodiverse includes autism, ADD/ADHD, Tourette’s, and many other conditions, and this session welcomes those who are self-diagnosed.		Zoom
2:30pm – 3:30pmMystery Session
It’s a surprise! Join us on the day for more details 🙂		Zoom
4pm – 5pmWhat Do We Want? More Bi+ Things!
Your chance to have your say about what support, resources, and events you would like to see available.		Zoom

The Bi+ Gathering will be hosted through Zoom, Discord, and YouTube.

Get your free ticket through OutSavvy, which will give you access to the zoom and discord links for the event!

For more information, including any accessibility queries, email info@scottishbinet.org, or send us a message through our social media channels.

National Lottery Community Fund

A huge thanks to the National Lottery Community Fund, with their support we are able to pay for volunteer expenses, and the accessibility fund, for this event!

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

Equality Network

A huge thanks to Equality Network for all of their support, and for providing the Zoom pro that we are using for the event!

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

Hidayah LGBT+

Hidayah provides support and welfare for LGBTQI+ Muslims and promote social justice and education about the community to counter discrimination, prejudice and injustice.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

Shadows at the Door

Connoisseurs of ghostly things & pleasing terrors.
Bringing to life a series of audio drama & spirited debate.
‘Shadows at the Door: The Podcast’ is available wherever you listen to podcasts.

Twitter | Instagram
Hosted by Mark Nixon
Twitter | Instagram

SX

SX works to improve the physical, sexual and mental health and wellbeing of all men who have sex with men. SX works with cis and trans men, and many other allies across Scotland.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

Glasgow Mission: Order of Perpetual Indulgence

Supporting the LGBTQIA+ community to live happy, fulfilling lives free from stigma, raising money for appropriate charities, perform condom ministry, and strutting their stuff in drag as much as possible!

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

The Weir Charitable Trust

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The Weir Charitable Trust Funding

We are thrilled to announce that we have been awarded over £17k in funding to support the work that we do with the bi+ community.
Scottish Bi+ Network was founded in 2018, to provide support and resources to bi+ people and their allies across Scotland, through online engagement, local peer support, events, and training.
Bi+ people face statistically higher rates of poverty, domestic and sexual violence, and mental health issues, than their straight, gay or lesbian counterparts.
Research highlights that 85% of bisexuals feel isolated from their community due to a lack of local groups, and a lack of mainstream funding for bisexual specific work. This contributes to the high rates of social isolation and mental health issues in the bi+ community.
To date, we have directly supported more than 800 bi+ people and their allies through events, talks, training, plus our online forum, and many more through our social media channels.
The new funding from The Weir Charitable Trust will allow us to expand our services by employing a full-time administrator, so that we can develop and deliver more training and education programmes. It will also allow us to train more local volunteers to provide peer support in their communities, so that we can better support the needs of bi+ people outwith the central belt of Scotland.
Additionally, we will also be able to provide more resources and training through our online platforms, including making a wider range of information and guides available, and training webinars.
Graeme, Secretary of Scottish Bi+ Network, said: “It’s amazing that The Weir Charitable Trust has recognised our work, and with this funding will be able to expand as an organisation, and allow us to support more bi+ people across Scotland than ever before.”

About The Weir Charitable Trust
The Weir Charitable Trust aims to support Scottish-based community groups and small charities to provide services across Scotland to help the Scottish community. These groups and charities are likely to have found it difficult to access funds elsewhere.

About Scottish Bi+ Network
We are a network of volunteers, formed in August 2018, to support bi+ people (those who are attracted to multiple genders).
Our aims are to raise bi+ visibility, and increase awareness of the issues facing the bi+ community, both in the LGBTQIA+ community itself, and with the general public.
We do this by: providing resources and online support, taking part in local pride marches, running virtual meetups, organising events, working with other organisations, and raising issues at the Scottish Parliament’s LGBTI cross-party working group.

Notice of AGM

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Notice of Meeting

The 1st Annual General Meeting of Scottish Bi+ Network will be held on Zoom at 8pm on Wednesday 8th July 2020.

Agenda:
1. Welcome
2. Apologies
3. Chair’s Report
4. Treasurer’s Report
5. Election of Office Bearers
6. AOB
7. Proposed Date of Next AGM
8. Close

If you wish to raise any items for the agenda, please email lorna@scottishbinet.org by 5pm on Tuesday 7th July 2020.

For those who cannot attend the AGM, nominations for the positions of Chair, Secretary, and Treasurer are to be received by 5pm on Tuesday 7th July 2020.

For members who are attending the AGM, nominations for the positions of Chair, Secretary, and Treasurer, will be taken at the appropriate time during the AGM.

All members are welcome to attend the AGM.

Full details, including the link to the Zoom meeting, will be emailed to members.

If you have volunteered on behalf of the organisation since August 11th 2019, and have not yet received an invitation for membership, please email lorna@scottishbinet.org


Additional Information:

See the following documents for more details on the roles of Chair, Secretary, and Treasurer.

To view our constitution, visit our Policies & Guidelines page.

National Lottery Community Fund

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We are very pleased to announce that we have been awarded almost £10,000 in National Lottery funding to support our work with the bi+ community.

The money will be used to provide support and resources to bi+ people, in particular those living outwith the central belt of Scotland, by providing local outreach through community events, and training local volunteers, as well as expanding our online resources and support.

Research highlights that 85% of bisexuals feel isolated from their community due to a lack of local groups, and a lack of mainstream funding for bisexual specific work. This contributes to the high rates of social isolation and mental health issues in the bi+ community.

This funding will allow us to organise community events, train local volunteers, and support a far greater number of bi+ people across Scotland.

We will also be able to expand and update our online services, including making a wider range of resources available for bi+ people, and the general public.

Lorna, Chair of Scottish Bi+ Network said: “We are thrilled to have been awarded money by the National Lottery Community Fund to allow us to expand our services and support to more bi+ people across Scotland. The money will allow us to train volunteers from all over Scotland, attend more Pride events around Scotland, as well as hold our own one-day community events.”

For more information about the National Lottery Community Fund visit @TNLComFund on Twitter, @TNLCommunityFund on Facebook, @TNLCommunityFund Instagram, or their website.

June Online Socials

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We’ve listened to your feedback, and we’re sticking to a single platform for our socials so that there’s less confusion!

Tuesday: 2 – 3pm on Discord
Thursday: 7.30 – 9pm on Discord
Sunday: 2 – 3.30pm on Discord

For the link to the discord server, either sign up or log in to our forum.

Even when there’s not a social, our forum and discord server are also there 24/7 if you want to chat!
And you can always message us on social media, or send us email!

There’s still time to let us know what online and telephone services would be of most benefit to you, fill in the survey here – https://forms.gle/LBobA1d7SPwdcW7N8

May Online Socials

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It’s been lovely seeing you all at the online socials, and thanks to your feedback, we have expanded our online services!

Monday: 7.30 – 9pm on Zoom (video and voice chat)
Tuesday: 2 – 3pm on Zoom (video and voice chat)
Thursday: 7.30 – 9pm on Discord (text and voice chat)
Sunday: 2 – 3.30pm on Zoom (video and voice chat)

Details of the zoom meeting links for the week ahead, will be posted every Friday in the forum, and our discord server.

Our forum and discord servers are also there 24/7 if you want to chat!

If you have any suggestions for socials, or would like to volunteer to run a social, please get in touch!

Also, a huge thank you to Equality Network for enabling us to run more online socials by helping us out with Zoom pro for the next four months!

We’d also like to say a big thanks to everyone who took the time to respond to our survey about what remote support you would find useful.

If you haven’t taken the survey yet, there’s still time to share with us what online and/or telephone support would benefit you:

https://forms.gle/sb1AwUAors5qm7mL6 

Online support survey

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It’s been lovely seeing so many of you at our online socials this month, and we’re looking to further develop and expand our remote services going forwards.

We want to know what types of support bi+ people would find most useful at this time.

Fill in the survey here: https://forms.gle/7UG2pd1zAA4WJ4z86

Also, feel free to get in touch by email, or through our social media channels. We’d love to hear from you!

email: web@ScottishBiNet.org
Twitter/Facebook/Instagram: @ScottishBiNet

April Online Socials

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We’re missing being out and about and meeting all of you, but we’ve been looking at ways to do all the same things online!

We’re going to run video chats, online games nights, film screenings and more, in these time slots on our discord server until the end of April, and we’ll add more if they’re successful!

Thursday 6pm-9pm
Sunday 12pm-3pm

You can find all the details, and the link to our discord server, on our forum:
https://forum.scottishbinet.org

If anyone has any suggestions for online games, films to watch, books to read, or topics to be discussed, let us know.

And if anyone would like to run an online event, we would love to hear from you!

We Have A Forum!

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We are excited to announce that we have launched a forum for bi+ people, and those who are questioning their attraction to multiple genders!

It’s something that a lot of people have asked us for, and we are happy to have another way to be able to support the bi+ community in Scotland.

You can sign up at – forum.scottishbinet.org 

Once you’ve signed up, don’t forget to check your email for the activation link!

If you would like to talk privately, or if you are an ally:
You can message us through Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, or email us at contact@ScottishBiNet.org
We aim to answer all messages within 48 hours, but this is not always possible due to holidays and illnesses.


Stonewall Scotland Workplace Conference 2019

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We were honoured to be invited to take part in this year’s Stonewall Scotland conference.
It was a fantastic opportunity to build links with other organisations, and there was a variety of workshops to help us develop our skills, and grow as a network.
Being around other people who have LGBTQ+ rights at the forefront of their work in diverse professions and sectors was inspiring, and we have picked up lots of tips and tricks that will be useful for the continued growth and expansion of our network. 

We were also part of the panel on the importance of a holistic approach to intersectionality and inclusion, which was a valuable insight into the ways that organisations can do better to support the intesecting identities of their members, staff, and/or service users.


Thank you to everyone at Stonewall Scotland for an amazing day, and to all of the speakers and panelists for sharing their stories and experiences with us!