For a lot of us that were active in any kind of a GSA in high school we probably at least heard of GLSEN's Day of Silence. I participated every year from 8th-12th grade. In my first year of college we really didn't have any kind of organized LGBT group, but then I spent a year at a community college and we tried to do day of silence, but it didn't really work. Now at my current school we have a really active LGBT group, and just an active campus in general. Last year we tried to do Day of Silence and we kind of concluded that we didn't really need to - on our tiny campus in Maine (under 300 students) it didn't seem necessary - we weren't personally being discriminated against on campus in any way. This year we're just going to do a silent lunch, and put out some fact sheets around campus.

But it got us thinking - how do you keep people active as a community when we feel like we don't have much to fight for on your campus or if your school already has coed housing, gender neutral bathrooms, no name calling, and lots of people who are out on campus, from professors to maintenance folks? It seems like our group kind of dies by the end of every year, simply because people feel like we aren't needed on campus.

We have had a few things that have worked out really well for us, and we'd love to hear more!

• Pick topics for your meetings that people can discuss without having personal experience
• Hold lots of events to bring in other campus community members, like movie nights, dance parties, and things like that
• Sponsor events with other student groups to get a larger turnout
• Be open to change
• Get involved in the larger community you live in - it doesn't even have to be LGBT related; you can help at a soup kitchen or clean up effort just as a group
• Let people know you welcome ideas

Let us know how you keep people active on your campus!