Meeting with FVA went okay. Their organization is very similar to ours and they very much felt as though we were “reinventing the wheel”. FVA covers youth issues in four categories: youth politics, teen issues, environment, and school issues, and they asked if we would be willing to, rather than create a whole new organization, just become the more complex school issues wing of FVA. I said we’d like to get up on our feet before we would even begin to consider a merge, and I think that as we do get on our feet, the differences between FVA and NYCSU will become more apparent.

Another thing we discussed is FVA’s annual Youth Congress, which is a pretty cool event they host every year, where kids from around the city come together and discuss issues, eventually voting on two that FVA will pursue for the following year. I told them we’d be interesting in taking an active role in congress, as they are in great need of kids who are really informed, which we could provide. It would also be a great time for us to gain contacts and to get an idea of what students need.

In any case, I think we should work closely with them for the following year, but to just merge into them seems like giving up on NYCSU, and we’re doing pretty well, so now is no time to give up!