Kappa Beta Serving the transgendered community since 1988

In March, Jennifer and I had the opportunity to visit a small class of seven individuals at UNCC. I found it unique inasmuch as these students are future professional counselors. It was an opportunity to give a bit of Gender 101 to the helping professionals of tomorrow.

One of the many topics we discussed coincides with Trish's excellent piece last month in which she shared how she found her own place in the gender spectrum. Specifically, each of us pointed out as they build their practice, they will likely counsel patients dealing with gender identity issues. Many of these patients will have a burning desire to become a woman/man, as the case may be. Most of them will desire to complete their transition in the shortest amount of time possible.

My topic for this month is stewardship at Kappa Beta. This topic is of great importance for every current member of KB, but also for the new members that will join our group in the next year or two.

My definition of stewardship is human resources contribution. This contribution is different than our contribution of annual dues, or of the monthly meeting fees that help to pay for the hotel room. A human resources contribution is our contribution of our time, our brainpower, and ourselves. It's also the contribution of our problem solving skills, and our logistical and planning skills. In short, it's a bit like the skills needed to run a household, or perhaps even a small company!

Well, we've made it through the first quarter of this year and things are looking bright for Kappa Beta. The group has faced several obstacles since our group's elections in September. The current leadership has continued to move ahead with the help of our members. I speak for all of the board members when I say, "Thank you" for your continued support for our beloved group.

I believe that KB now has a strong group of core members and that we should be able to continue to grow as a group. When one of our members was hospitalized, the group came together; we sent flowers to show our concern and support for her.

Our Editor/Webmistress/IT Girl has done a very good job with our website. We still need articles for our newsletter, The Pink Slip. Anyone can submit an article for the newsletter each month.

Our Treasurer has been keeping us up to date on our finances. By the way, we are doing well in the financial department.

I have been receiving several emails from interested potential members. Pamela has been instrumental in contacting them and possibly setting up meetings to find out if they are potential members of our group.

I've been pretty quiet lately and you probably haven't noticed many changes on the web site. Some of you may be wondering what's up.