Hi Folks,

 Thank you to those that attended our first meeting of the semester, which took place on Wednesday, September 19th at 4:30pm in Room #1 of the Bryant Center.

Our meetings will occur in the Bryant Center on the following days:

• Thursday, Setember 27th @ 4:30pm
• Thursday, October 11th @ 4:30pm
• Thursday, October 25th @ 4:30pm
• Thursday, November 8th @ 4:30pm
• Thursday, November 22nd @ 4:30pm
• Thursday, December 6th @ 4:30pm

If you have any questions regarding the meetings, please contact David Greco at

October 8

The Great Day of Service is a collaboration of individuals, groups and companies joining to provide much needed services to various public works and agencies in and around the East Bay and beyond. You are invited to participate!

After a morning kick-off event, volunteers of all ages proceed to various agencies in our area to lend their help. Anticipated volunteer activities include:  gathering donations for Tap-In, landscaping help with the Barrington Land Conservation Trust, making sock-monkeys for children affected by domestic violence, visiting senior citizens at East Bay Manor, making cards for servicemen, baking cookies and pizza for firemen and policemen, sandwich making for Crossroads, craft making for patients at Hasbro Children’s Hospital and local park clean-ups. Most sites are suitable for families to work together.

The Rhode Island BloodCenter will also be on hand to accept blood donations.

The event is organized by Beyond Our Walls (B.O.W.). B.O.W. is an interfaith, outreach and social action organization established in Barrington in 2005. B.O.W. members include people of various faith traditions, as well as no religious affiliations, who share a common goal of community betterment.

The event uniquely brings together agencies in need of support, citizens of all ages giving of their time, participation of civic groups, and the sponsorship of local companies and institutions. Your participation is not only welcome, but encouraged.

Community collaboration at its best. Be a part of it.

EVENT KICK-OFF AND REGISTRATION:  8:30 am, Monday, October 8, (Columbus Day), Barrington High School, 220 Lincoln Avenue.  Sites work will begin after the kickoff at 9:00 am and most sites will be open to 1:00 pm.

For event information contact Amy Rovin, 401.258.6860, visit www.bowri.org or email greatday@bowri.org.

Donations to help support this event may be sent to: B.O.W., P.O. Box, 567, Barrington, RI 02806

I just thought I’d check in and say hello to everyone and wish you all an amazing summer!  I was wondering about the conference, thanks for updating that Joe!  Just letting you all know that I miss you all and I’m looking forward to next semester!!

(:

 Erica

CALL FOR PAPERS
New England Sociological Association (NESA)
2007 Fall Conference
Stonehill College - Stanger Hall
Easton, MA

Saturday, November 3, 2007

Theme: Civic Engagement: Linking Campus and Community

The 2007 Fall Conference will build on the theme of “Civic Engagement: Linking Campus and Community” through concurrent sessions of paper presentations, panels, roundtable discussions, and student poster presentations, all organized around a keynote address by Bridgewater State College Assistant Professor of Sociology, Dr. Jonathan White.

Keynote Address:

Dr. Jonathan M. White will serve as the keynote speaker at the Fall 2007 Conference. Dr. White is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Bridgewater State College in Massachusetts and the founding Director of Sports for Hunger, the Hunger Resource Center and the Halloween for Hunger and Pass-the Fast campaigns. Dr. White has received numerous teaching and humanitarian awards, most recently receiving the Charles Bassett Faculty Teaching Award at Colby College in Maine. Beginning in the Fall 2007 semester, Dr. White will serve as the Service Learning Coordinator for the Bridgewater State College campus. Dr. White is the co-author of The Engaged Sociologist: Connecting the Classroom to the Community. He is currently writing a book entitled: Hungry to be Heard:Voices from a Malnourished America.

Paper and Proposal Deadline: October 3rd, 2007

Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:

Suggestions for other ways to approach the conference theme are also welcome.

Please submit papers and/or proposals via e-mail to NESA’s 2007 Fall Conference Organizer, Jennifer Dobruck at jdobruck@hotmail.com Please include NESA Proposal in the subject line.

The Sociological Thinkers welcomes our new Executive Board for the 2007-2008 academic school year! 

The Executive Board now consists of the following officers:

• Dave Greco, President
• Joe D’Ambrose, Vice President for Publicity and Communication
• Kim Franklin, Vice President for Events and Community Engagement:
• Erica Baldacchino, Vice President for Information
• Anthony Bailey, Treasurer

In addition to our executive board, we have chairs for our 3 committees:

• Kim Franklin, Special Events Chair
• Sam Schultz, Newsletter Chair
• Carly Bouchard, Education Chair

As you know, the year is coming to an end, and it is time to start thinking about SToB’s future… This Thursday, April 25 from 4:30-5:30, we will be meeting in the Heritage room of the Bryant Center to hold E-board elections for next year.. Anyone is encouraged to run for a position and leadership positions/skills look great on the resume, plus it’s a lot of fun too:-) There are no qualificiations needed to run for a position, preferably a Soc. major or minor. It will be a rather informal process too, so no need to plan a speech. Perhaps just a few words as to why you are in this group, and what you would like to see happen.

Any questions, feel free to e-mail Micaela Maynard. We look forward to seeing you on Thursday!

The first official SToB event will take place on May 3, 2007 in Janikies Auditorium.

We’re going to play the Wizard of Oz synced up with the famous Pink Floyd album, “Dark Side of the Moon”. It’s gonna be awesome! There’ll be a raffle too, so show up!

We now have a group on Facebook which we will use to distribute messages and announcements to the sociology community at Bryant. By the way, we now have more than 25 sociology majors at Bryant!

Join the group here: http://bryant.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2319906821

Bring your Sociology Degree to any Industry!

Find out How - March 5 at 6pm

Amica Center for Career Education

Valuing Liberal Arts in the Not-for-Profit and Business Worlds

Speakers will discuss how their liberal arts degrees prepared them for their careers

Joanne Powers, Sociology, Director of Membership, Girls Scouts of RI

David Crosby, International Studies, International Assignment Program Manager, GTECH

Holly Jensen, Communications, Senior Public Affairs Manager, Fidelity Investments

Suzy Alba, Communications, Development Officer, United Way of Rhode IslandSeats fill up fast so don’t miss out!

Kim Franklin has volunteered to serve as the chair of our Special Events Committee! Please contact her at kfrankl1@bryant.edu if you are interested in joining this committee and sponsoring (or co-sponsoring) events for SToB.

There seems to be a lot of interest regarding the hookah event! If this gets cleared by the University, we have a great connection: Dave’s girlfriend’s aunt’s husband is from Palestine and he has a bunch of hookahs so we might be able to borrow a few from them or rent them at a really low price.

We are still looking for members to serve on the fundraising committee and newsletter committee, so if anyone is interested in signing up for those committees please contact Micaela Maynard mmaynar1@bryant.edu.

Our organization’s budget for 2007-2008 has nearly been approved by the Student Senate and has been approved by Ways & Means. For this semester, we have submitted a request for our budget to the Department of History and Social Sciences.

Please bring all of your friends to next Thursday’s Sociological Thinkers meeting, whether or not they have any interest in Sociology. It is a guaranteed good time.