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RU12? (Are you one, too?) is a small non-profit based in Winooski that "celebrates, educates and advocates with and for lesbian, gay, transgender, bisexual, queer or questioning individuals." I had the chance to sit down with Sheila O'Donnell, a volunteer for the organization on her role within the organization, which has a focus on the non-profit's social media entities. Check out the nuggets below. If you wish, you can listen to the entire interview (about 10 minutes) here.

S: My name’s Sheila.

R: And why am I talking to you today?

S: Because you asked to interview me… because I work or volunteer rather at the RU12? Community Center.

R: What is that?

S: It’s a resource center for adult members of the LGBT community in both Burlington and Winooski. It’s stationed in Winooski, but it services the broader Chittenden County area.

R: What is LGBT for those who don’t know?

S: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Questioning.

R: Can you give me some examples of the resources that they offer?

S: Yup. They offer everything from free, anonymous HIV testing every week if anyone wants that, there are social support groups that meet different nights of the week, one of them is for coming out support, one of them is a transgender support group, there is a newly instituted military support group now that Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was repealed. They also house Safespace which is domestic violence prevention, that victims of domestic violence, specifically people in same sex relationships, can call if they are experiencing domestic violence and have a safe person to talk to anonymously and figure out what their options are.

R: So what do you do at RU12? that specifically relates to social media?

S: I write some blog posts for them. They have a blog on their site that is typically focused more on community events and RU12? activities, but they like to incorporate some more policy-based posts, and that’s where I come in. I find news stories, write about them, and try to encourage involvement and activism. And I put my own spin on them, explaining how people can get involved and such.

R: Is the blog the only social media tool that they use, or do they also have a Facebook?

S: They do have a Facebook. I don’t believe that there’s a Twitter yet. I think that it’s just the Facebook and the blog on the website.

R: How does the work you do at RU12? connect with your personal social media experiences?

S: Well, I follow quite a few LGBT groups and individuals on Facebook. By individuals, I don’t just mean I have gay friends, I mean people like Lt. Dan Choi.

R: George Takei?

S: I do follow George Takei, but he’s more entertainment. Much less policy-driven than Dan Choi. But, these people I follow will post links to articles which I will then read and incorporate into my blog posts, so, it’s sort of a cyclical process.

R: What do you hope social media will do for RU12? and groups like RU12? in the near future?

S: Well, with RU12?, I think it would be nice to see them embrace the social media tools a little bit more. Like I said, really only got the Facebook page and the blog isn’t even a blog on a separate site, it’s just on the RU12?community site. I think it would be cool to see them have, maybe a Tumblr or Blogspot and get more involved with Twitter and maybe even branch out into Google+ and all that new stuff. Youtube, it would be cool too if they could involve some visual public service announcements or something.

R: Where do you see social media going? We’re in Web 2.0 now, what’s Web 3.0 gonna look like?

S: Honestly, I’m not sure what Web 3.0’s gonna look like, but I think very soon everything’s just going to be connected to one- like, you’re already seeing it. You log into Youtube, Gmail, and a bunch of others with one password and you can log into a bunch of other sites via your Facebook and I think that soon it’s just going to be one username, one password and you have everything that you need at your fingertips.

R: In your line of work, do you see any negative side effects in using social media?

Definitely, there was an event I think, last year, where a college student’s roommate set up his web cam and left it running while he left the room and caught this closeted college kid making out with his boyfriend on tape and then posted it to Youtube and Facebook and the gay student actually ended up committing suicide. There’s a lot of cyberbullying in high schools and it definitely doesn’t go away when you hit college. I think that, when everything is connected the way that it is, if someone is in the closet, and wants to stay in the closet, it just takes one post on one site to blow it all out of proportion and that individual has suddenly lost the power to self determination. He or she can no longer come out on his or her own terms.

R: What social media tools do you wish you were using, and what tools do you wish you could stop using?

S: Personally or at RU12?

R: Both.

S: Personally, I wish that I was a little bit more integrated into Google+, it looks like a really cool site, I just haven’t quite shifted over yet. And I am on my Facebook quite a bit… maybe a little too much. As for RU12?, like I said, I would like to see us having a separate blog on a separate link that could just be maybe dedicated to the policy stuff that we could link to from the main site. Instead of just having, you know, “Next week there’s a talk on safe sex,” then “we’ve got free HIV testing” and then “This politician is overtly against LGBT rights, this is what you can do.” I feel like that information should be in a different spot than the itinerary of what’s going on.

R: When did you first start using social media, and when did RU12? start using social media?

S: I think I probably started using social media in about 10^th grade. I was sort of late to game. I got a Myspace and as soon as I got a Myspace everyone else was like, “Facebook!” I didn’t get a Facebook until my senior year of high school and there were still a bunch of bitter college kids who were really mad that it was open to high school students all of the sudden. So, yeah, I’d say I’ve been using social media since about 10^th or 11^th grade. I’m honestly not sure when RU12? started using social media. They were already using it when I started there. I know that they’ve had the website for a while. I think the Facebook page is relatively new, maybe the year before I started there and they are really just now starting to branch out, I think. Like I said, they still don’t have a Twitter I don’t think.

R: Anything else you’d like to add, maybe how people can get involved with RU12? if they’d like to?

S: Yeah. They can go to the web site RU12.org and contact Brenda Pittmon. She coordinates all of the volunteer work.

R: Alright, well thank you very much, Sheila. I appreciate you taking the time to speak with me today.

S: Thank you!