Tactic paper #2

Maritza Guerrero

SOC 122 M/W 10:00 am

12 May 2018

Tactic #2: Movie/Discussion

            The movie tactic we completed I believe had an overall great outcome. Our movie was screened on March 11th at 12:00 pm. I think my involvement in setting up for the event was mainly support and providing options to ideas that other group members brought forward for the event. We all were asked to find a movie, and I found one that another group member had told the group about previously which was the short-film used in the beginning of the event. A couple of group members provided two movies, and I was one of the group members that had voted on doing "Lost Angels: Skid Row is My Home" (one of the films one of group members suggested). I also was involved in bringing a snack for the event as was asked of each group member.

On publicizing the event, I didn't do good in this area. I only told one person about the event and though they came along, I know I should have told more people about the event. I think what stopped me was fear. In fact, I think that is a factor that has led me to not do my greatest in the tactics. I believe it could be that doing some of these tactics required me to get out of my comfort-zone which is something I am not too fond of! The only good that came from publicizing the event was from the movie flyers passed out during class one day. I think that led people to know about our event Also, anything my group members did to raise awareness for the event could have helped publizing for the event as well.

            Overall, the event went well, but there are definite improvements on my behalf that I could work on. First, is my way of going about publicizing an event. If I were to do this again, I would publicize the event on my social media account and through phone messages. I would also pass the flyers around to strangers and let them know what the event is about. Another way I would improve on the planning of the event would be more active discussion with my group about the setup and planning of our event. For example, I think we did okay when it came time for discussion on the movie, but I feel we could have done more if we prepared beforehand. I felt there were some members doing more of the talking while others stood there (me, for one). This brings me to my next improvement which is having enough knowledge on the topic that I am confident enough to discuss about it with others. I felt my knowledge on the topic of homelessness was not adequate enough. Therefore, I believe if I did thorough research on my topic and if my group prepared what we would each touch on in the discussion then it would have been a discussion that involved the same amount of effort from all the members, and not just a few. Although I felt I was active in communicating with my group on the event, I felt I didn't put a lot of effort in some things such as finding a long film, leading discussion and as mentioned earlier, publicizing. As for the event, it started off with a short-film on homelessness in Fresno then later a showing of our main film. After the film, discussion was led by my group with each group member (including me) sharing their thoughts on the film and homelessness in general.

To conclude, I am not sure if the event did anything to so build solidarity among my group. In fact, I noticed we didn't really communicate much after the event when it came down to discussing our topic. In altering people's opinions about the issue, I think it did, but I think it allowed more for knowledge on homeless. The event allowed for others to discuss what they know about homeless from their personal experience and even allowed for open discussion on topics that intertwine with homeless such as mental illness.