It’s been a crazy month for us Astorians but I just wanted to take a moment to let you all know that we’re still on for our February Mixer!

Officers:

• President: Jonathan Blue
• Vice President: Richard Karty
• Treasurer: John Whittemore
• Secretary: Patrick O’Brien
• Events Director: Dan Fingerman
• Communications Director: T’ai Chu-Richardson
• Business Outreach Director: John Paul Detty
• Membership Director: Jason Olsen

Members-at-Large:

• Chap James Day
• Brent Gallenberger
• Michael Mallon
• Paul Nichols
• Aaron Tabak

We have seven seats open and twelve candidates.  It’s always a thrill to see so many talented people who wanted to get involved with our organization!

The election opens at 8:00 PM EST this evening and will close on Thursday, January 12 at 8:00 PM EST.

Make sure you take the opportunity to help shape the Out Astoria Steering Committee for the rest of 2012!

So to celebrate the holidays appropriately we’ve put together a 2-hour open bar (well liquors and draft beers) from 8-10pm! We’ll also have a little area with some bite-sized, nibbly-bits to help offset the onslaught of open-bar-ism! Of course, even if you’re running late from work that evening, make sure you swing by, there’s always a fun contingent of our people still celebrating until late!

Entrance for the party is only $10 for all Out Astoria Members (Affiliate & Sponsor), $20 for all non-members (but remember, anyone can become a member of Out Astoria now – even if you don’t live in Astoria you can sign up as an Affiliate Member and get discounted entrance to all our events in the coming year!)

If you haven’t signed up for membership yet, head on over to our website now and sign up:

http://outastoria.com/membership/

For all you current membership people out there, make sure you have your Out Astoria Membership renewed in time for the party (but don’t worry, we’ll have people on hand that evening to process your renewal in person too).

If you have any questions about your membership just send an email to us:

membership@outastoria.com

And speaking of Mix and the Sunday Morning Mimosa crew, Out Astoria has been given a special discount to Aunt Anita & Aunt Gina Marie’s 4th annual holiday show on a party bus picking up and dropping off at at Mix!

Get ready for a ride you will never forget….

Join your Aunt Anita & Aunt Gina Marie for the ride of a life time! MiX Lounge and the Haus of Mimosa presents the most anticipated event of the Holiday season starring Travis Barr, Steven Incammicia, and Laura Gilreath as Gina’s flirty daughter, Tina Marie! Featuring your favorite holiday carols, new costumes, and delicious drinks! ….all of this on Anita’s Party Bus!!!! Come let your favorite aunts show you the sights of Astoria and sing along to your favorite carols!

Use the code OUTAST to get $20 tickets to a 7, 9, or 11pm show!

But even if you can’t come out tonight you’ll want to keep the following dates on your calendar after the 2011 holiday season!

Out Astoria Steering Committee Nominations/Elections:

As a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization, Out Astoria has a 13-person steering committee that oversees its operations and events. Members of this committee are composed of, and elected by, the sponsor members of Out Astoria. Steering committee members serve for three-year terms that are staggered so that, in a typical year, roughly one third of the steering committee is up for election.

As of today, we are opening up nominations for those who wish to be candidates for the steering committee in our January 2012 election. Sponsor members can either nominate themselves or another sponsor member by sending an email to elections@outastoria.com. Before being listed on the ballot, nominee’s names will be checked against the active sponsor membership list and, unless currently serving on the steering committee, will get a phone call from a member of our elections committee to review steering committee responsibilities and election rules.

The election will be held electronically January 10–12 via a secure Internet voting process. Sponsor members will receive e-mail invitations with a link to the electronic ballot when the election opens. Candidates will have the ability to post a candidate’s statement and photo on a candidate’s page on Out Astoria’s Web site and on the electronic ballot. The ballot is final and closed to new candidacies on January 4.

In this election cycle, there are seven open seats on the board. Four of these are the three-year terms, expiring in 2014, that would normally have been open. Because a few members of the current steering committee are moving out of Astoria, we also have open a seat that expires in 2013 and two seats that expire in 2012. The number of votes winners receive will determine which seats they fill, with those receiving the highest votes getting the longest terms.

If your annual sponsor membership is about to expire, you can renew your membership by Web at http://outastoria.com/membership/membership-form/ or by email to membership@outastoria.com. Again, only active sponsor members can vote or run in the election, or serve on the steering committee. For any sponsor members who have moved out of Astoria but wish to continue attending events at a member discount, check out our new affiliate membership option here: http://outastoria.com/membership/.

Once the new steering committee has been elected and announced on January 13, it will meet the following week to select Out Astoria’s new officers for 2012 from within the committee.

This year Out Astoria’s steering committee benefited greatly from the fresh energy and ideas brought by the committee’s newest members. I hope that many of you will choose to participate, either as candidates or as sponsor members who vote, so that Out Astoria can profit from your efforts and continue to thrive and grow.

OA January Dinner – The location is TBA right now, but it’ll be January 18 at 7:00 PM

OA January Book Club – Remember, only members can participate in this activity, but we’ll be meeting on the evening of January 31 at a location TBA.  This month we’re going back to non-fiction and we’ll be reading Erik Larson’s Devil in the White City.

And don’t forget the QLGPC Winter Pride Event at the Astoria World Manor on Saturday, January 28 from 7:00 PM to midnight!  Tickets/Tables are discounted until January 13 when they go back up to full price.  That’s also the deadline to place a journal ad for the event, so all you local people with a business or service, get your ads in for this – you can get one in for as little as $40!

Last, but certainly far from least, the Astoria Performing Arts Center has been fundraising for the end of the year and for their next musical going up in the spring of 2012.  If you went to their Men of APAC Holiday Party you already know about the calendar they’ve put together to raise money for the organization, but if you missed it you can still get your own calendar online here, or if you’re feeling the true spirit of giving this year, you can make a tax deductible contribution to them here.

See you tonight!

–Jonathan Blue
Vice President
Out Astoria, Inc.

As of November 28, 2011, we are opening up nominations for those who wish to be candidates for the steering committee in our January 2012 election. Sponsor members can either nominate themselves or another sponsor member by sending an email to elections@outastoria.com. Before being listed on the ballot, nominee’s names will be checked against the active sponsor membership list and, unless currently serving on the steering committee, will get a phone call from a member of our elections committee to review steering committee responsibilities and election rules.

The election will be held electronically January 10–12 via a secure Internet voting process. Sponsor members will receive e-mail invitations with a link to the electronic ballot when the election opens. Candidates will have the ability to post a candidate’s statement and photo on a candidate’s page on Out Astoria’s Web site and on the electronic ballot. The ballot is final and closed to new candidacies on January 4.

In this election cycle, there are seven open seats on the board. Four of these are the three-year terms, expiring in 2014, that would normally have been open. Because a few members of the current steering committee are moving out of Astoria, we also have open a seat that expires in 2013 and two seats that expire in 2012. The number of votes winners receive will determine which seats they fill, with those receiving the highest votes getting the longest terms.

If your annual sponsor membership is about to expire, you can renew your membership by Web at http://outastoria.com/membership/membership-form/ or by email to membership@outastoria.com.

Again, only active sponsor members can vote or run in the election, or serve on the steering committee. For any sponsor members who have moved out of Astoria but wish to continue attending events at a member discount, check out our new affiliate membership option here:  http://outastoria.com/membership/.

Once the new steering committee has been elected and announced on January 13, it will meet the following week to select Out Astoria’s new officers for 2012 from within the committee.

This year Out Astoria’s steering committee benefited greatly from the fresh energy and ideas brought by the committee’s newest members. I hope that many of you will choose to participate, either as candidates or as sponsor members who vote, so that Out Astoria can profit from your efforts and continue to thrive and grow.

Sincerely,

Brent Gallenberger
Co-founder and President, Out Astoria

TONIGHT – SEPT 8 – OA DINNER AT SWEET AFTON – 7PM

30-09 34 Street, Astoria, NY - 718-777-2570

Join us tonight for a fantastic dinner at Sweet Afton!  We’ll be enjoying great company in the picturesque back patio (but in case of any rogue thunderstorms tonight, we’ll take refuge in the spacious interior).

Sweet Afton is mostly known for being the happy hour location of many – and all their fantastic reviews in various citywide mags, papers, and blogs have helped establish it as such – but most people don’t even know about their famous mac & cheese, or their Sweet Afton Burger, not to mention the fantastic fried pickles beloved by many of their regular patrons!  Their menu is modestly priced and we’re sure you’ll find something for your taste, but please make sure you accurately RSVP so we can tell the manager how many seats we’ll need tonight!

FRI – SEPT 16 – OA MIXER AT MIX LOUNGE – 8PM – $5/10

40-17 30 Avenue, Astoria, NY - 347-642-4840

As we bid summer 2011 a fond adieu, you can come raise a class with the rest of your Queerstorians at our September Mixer at Mix Lounge!  It’ll be a night of new friends and not-so-new friends.  We’re offering an open well bar from 8-9pm with a $5 for OA Sponsor Members and $10 for non-members.  Come for the open bar, stay for the late shenanigans that always play out later on!

TUES – SEPT 27 – OA BOOK CLUB MEETING – 7:30PM – FREE FOR OA MEMBERS

Email us here about the Event.  Email us here with questions about OA Membership.

This month the Out Astoria Book Club will be meeting to discuss E. M. Forster’s A Room with a View.  We’ve decided to go a more classical route this month and there’s also the added benefit of this book being free for most (if not all) e-readers (as well as being easily found at any used book store).  You might even find a copy at Seaborne’s Book Store on Broadway in Astoria if you happen to be walking by!  So come to the meeting and bring some wine/beer and/or maybe a snack to share with the group and talk about Forster’s loving tribute to a British society we don’t much see anymore…propriety notwithstanding.  For those of you already participating – we wanted to let you know we’ve set up our Out Astoria Group Page at GoodReads.com - so make sure you sign up and join the group and keep up with everything everyone is saying about the next book we’ll be reading!

The location for the meeting is not listed here b/c only dues-paying Out Astoria Sponsor Members are allowed to participate in this activity.  If you’re not already a member, why not become one now?

You’ll also be able to get to vote/run in the Out Astoria Elections for the Steering Committee positions that will be open at the end of this calendar year!  If you have any questions about that feel free to email the OA Elections Committee here.

See you at dinner!