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The Gather the Women idea began to emerge in my consciousness in November
2001 when I started receiving a series of phone calls from WOVA members
who felt drawn to share their visions with me. This in itself was an
unusual occurrence -- rarely do I get phone calls of this nature. So
when I got three calls within a period of a few weeks from WOVA members
who did not know each other all using the same words to express their
vision, I knew I was supposed to pay attention. The words each of them
used were: "It's time to gather the women... it's time for women's wisdom
to come forth."
It was these calls that prompted me, on November 12, 2001, to register
the domain name "gatherthewomen" feeling that this action
would help to ground the energy of these women's visions. On November
20, I sent an email to the WOVA Board of Directors telling them about
the phone calls, about my feelings that it was important for WOVA to
help ground this energy and to advise them of the action I had taken
in registering the domain name.
I was at that time in the throes of preparing and coordinating the Feminine
Face of Leadership Conference and the Leading Without Limits Leadership
Institute that took place on January 31-February 2, 2002. The GTW domain
name and idea just sat on the back shelf until after that conference
and the flurry of activities it generated including formation of Global
Action Forum (GAF) committees that where to follow up on the two action
ideas that came out of the FFL conference: one to create a network of
networks and the other to create a Global Call to Prayer (GCP).
The Gather the Women idea came alive again in March 2002 when I started
receiving phone calls from women who were not WOVA members about their
vision to gather the women. I told these women that I had registered
the domain name and asked if they might be interested in becoming WOVA
members and serving on a steering committee to explore what we could
do with this vision. They all enthusiastically agreed.
I checked in with the WOVA Board to see how they felt about creating
a steering committee to explore a Gather the Women project and they
gave me the go-ahead to continue to form the committee as long as committee
members were WOVA members and the activities were overseen by the board.
Board members, Three board members agreed to be involved: Veronica Wolfe
and Carolyn Douglas both agreed to sit on the committee and Kimberly
Pfeil agreed to design a logo. I continued to work on building a Gather
the Women steering committee and helping to coordinate the Global Action
Forum committees.
The committee charged with creating a network
of network Global Action Forum met a couple of times and then disbanded
when a group of programmers from PlanetWork Consortium agreed to start
working on the idea and help develop the technology tools needed. At
the same time, the Global Call to Prayer committee was encountering
some stumbling blocks, so I called two committee members to see how
they felt about the idea of trying to morph the GCP into the Gather
the Women project. They both got excited about this possibility and
volunteered for the GTW steering committee. The GCP committee then disbanded.
About this same time (March 2002) I had the opportunity to read a book
entitled "Birth of the Chaordic Age" by Dee Hock, founder of Visa International
that served as the inspiration of how we could actually gather hundreds
of thousands of women throughout the world. Each gathering would be
self organizing and WOVA would provide the Gather the Women website
as a hub for connection.
Between March and June I continued to build the Gather the Women steering
committee. I invited those women who had called me and also WOVA members
who had attended the Feminine Face of Leadership Conference. I also
called WOVA member Lili Fournier from Toronto because we had had many
previous conversations about her idea of planning a major event on March
8, 2003 in Madison Square Garden. I suggested that we might want to
collaborate. WOVA could, perhaps, provide the grassroots gather the
women movement (whatever that would look like) in conjunction with Lili's
planned Women of the World concert. We agreed that the two would remain
mutually exclusive events. She was thrilled with the idea and agreed
to be placed on the steering committee in order to explore what a collaboration
might look like.
In total 15 women had agreed to serve. Although many members lived in
the San Francisco Bay Area, we had several members from Southern California,
one member from Massachusetts and Lili from Toronto. Most committee
members did not know one another. I was the only one who had been in
contact with each one personally. How were we ever going to work together
on a project like this when we were operating at long distance? We'd
use the Internet, of course!
On June 21, 2002 I asked my husband Victor to set up an email list for
our newly formed steering committee and the first messages were posted
on June 22.
I asked each steering committee member to post to the list a short bio
and a statement as to why they said "yes" to being on the committee.
I felt this was an important step for us to get to know one another.
On the 4th of July we started working on our first task: an opening
statement for the website. The only thing we had agreed on was that
the date of the event would be on March 8 to coincide with International
Women's Day and Lili's event in New York. On July 7 we began planning
a date and location for our first "in-person" meeting (which occurred
on September 13 in Corte Madera, CA). On July 8 I took a two-week "leave
of absence" from the committee to complete some WOVA tasks that needed
my attention. I instructed the group to continue exploring the opening
statement and to try to come up with a unified vision.
During my "leave" I met with WOVA Board Member Kimberly Pheil who had
agreed to design our logo and we began exploring what symbology would
be appropriate. I felt the Flower of Life was important to include and
she felt the universal symbol for woman was important. During our animated
discussion, she put her arms up in a circle surrounding her head and
I all of a sudden I saw the symbol -- women's arms creating the circle
for the symbol of woman while surrounding the flower of life. Kimberly
got so excited, she jumped to her feet saying "I've got to go NOW!"
and left immediately to work on the design. The finished logo was ready
on July 18.
On July 21 I returned to my email and was a quite overwhelmed to see
that 97 messages had been exchanged on the list in my absence. Following
is the email I posted to the list on July 22:
Dear Sister Gatherers:
I had a remarkable experience this morning in meditation. Last night
I took all your visions and opening statements to bed with me and re-read
them just before falling to sleep. This morning I awoke at 5 am, took
all your visions and opening statement suggestions into our meditation
room, lit the altar candles and surrendered the event to Spirit asking
to be shown a picture that would incorporate all the many inspirations
that you have shared over the past couple of weeks. What was shown me
was so grand and unexpected that I hope I have the words to adequately
share the vision.
Someone received guidance that the number 3 was important. Someone else
posted a message that said she saw the event beginning on the third
day of the third month of the third year of the millennium--03-03-03.
(That date, by the way, had been originally chosen for our next Feminine
Face of Leadership Conference). When I read this post, I immediately
went into a "Wow, that's great, but the event needs to be on March 8--
that's the date we all decided on and Lili has much invested in holding
it on that date. "
With that in mind I kept asking to be shown how we could incorporate
the two dates. All of a sudden I saw the story of creation-- 7 days
beginning on Monday, March 3-- with each day adding to the energy and
momentum that culminates on the sixth day-- March 8 -- with the physical
gathering of women (and on the 7th day we take our queue from God/Goddess--we
rest!)
Each day starting with March 3 (day 1) would have a particular focus
that would prepare each participant for the culminating event in March
8: For instance (and these are just ideas I'm suggesting as a starting
point -- I'm sure you all may have more inspired suggestions):
Day 1 (March 3) A Day of Prayer and Meditation
(Let there be Light)
Day 2 (March 4) A Day of introspection, reflection and contemplation
(A Day of Learning)
Day 3 (March 5) A day of Healing and Forgiveness
(Joanne's healing circle ceremony)
Day 4 (March 6) A day of connection
(Sharing from the heart, story telling, listening & being heard)
Day 5 (March 7) A Day of Mindful Action
(Being the Change we wish to see in the world)
Day 6 (March 8) The Day of Gathering: We let our Light Shine
(Celebration, Inspiration, Seeing the World through Women's Eyes)
Day 7 (March 9) A Day of Rest, Nurturing and Gratitude
Every day builds on the previous, preparing participants and the planet
for the infusion of love that will embrace our Mother Earth as women
gather on March 8 in every town and village throughout the world to
weave the Flower of Life. This is Harmony's Way. It is the way of the
Feminine. The Time is Now. Let the Gathering Begin.
Let me hear your thoughts. I'm certainly not tied to this idea and if
the consensus of the group is that we stick with the one day event on
March 8, I would fully support that. However, if you all resonate with
the idea, then I have some ideas to share about what we could do with
the website.
Only Love Prevails,
Carol
---- end email message ----
From that point on the committee worked on wording and vision and content
for the website. We met in person twice: once in September (see photo
below) and once in November.
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