New Comer/Interested Party Meet & Greets
New members or those interested in learning more about the group are invited to attend our meet & greets with the
executive members and any current members who wish to attend. Meet & Greets are held at various locations on and
near the Wash U campus at various times throughout the semester. The location of each meet and greet will be published
in the newsletters as well as listed on the calendar page. While it is not required for interested parties to attend one
of these meet & greets before attending a regular meeting it is highly recommended. In the past people have enjoyed the
meetings more if they already knew some members' names. Also, the meet & greets are a great place to ask any questions
you might have about the group, presenters, meetings, and so forth without having to worry about it being off-topic.
If you are interested in attending a meet and greet but there is no location listed please send an e-mail to
altlife@sugroups.wustl.edu.
Presentation & Discussion Weekend Meetings (Typically Sunday afternoons, 2-4pm)
Each weekend the ALA has either a Discussion (sometimes lead by guest speakers) or Hands On Presentations.
Discussion sections are typically in a round-table format and give members a chance to talk
about a topic of interest or current events, to discuss personal experiences and to ask questions about each other.
Discussions are also educational opportunities thanks to expert guest presenters on various kinks/fetishes/lifestyles,
health and safety considerations that accompany various practices, etc. presenters such as professors from the psychology
department, First Aid groups, Safe Zones, 24/7 couples of various combinations and authors make these meetings invaluable
to a member's education.
Presentations always involve some sort of demonstration and are often hands-on; our presenters are
experts in a variety of fields including, but not limited to, Quick Ties, Shibari (the Japanese art of rope bondage),
Single Tails, Flogging, First Aid, Impact Play (the play itself as well as the psychology of impact scenes), Fire play,
head space, DMing, etc. Hands-on presentations are not meant to make students experts in a field but rather to
introduce students to the basic methods and safety considerations of each activity and to provide students with the
opportunity to meet experts in various fields who can serve as valuable resources to students who wish to further
pursue any given topic.
Member Outings
It is necessary for members to be able to interact outside of a meeting or demo, this helps us understand and
better appreciate each other. Member outtings include going to the zoo, a picnic, watching a movie (in a theater,
at someone's apartment or in Ursa's) etc. Sometimes memberouttings will take the place of a regular meeting and
sometimes they will be offered in addition to the week's meeting.
Exec Meetings
There is an executive meeting held the first and last Friday of each semester during which executive members
can handle paperwork, assess the completed semester and make decisions about what should change or stay the same in the following
semester. The executive board currently includes the President, Treasurer, Newsletter Editor, Chancellor of fun, and aesthetictitian.