WAM! begins...

The first meeting of the Madison-area Women's Autonomous Movement (WAM!) saw some two dozen activists and participants in women-focused community and campus groups and businesses come together to discuss what a unified local women's movement might look like.

The overall goal with WAM! is to provide a forum for women's groups and individual activists to network; to share information on issues and upcoming events; and to support each other with information, advice and action. WAM! is not a group in and of itself, but a venue where we can come together, share our strengths, and avoid isolation and needless duplication of efforts.

At our first meeting, we set two goals. The first is to recruit more women and women-focused organizations to attend our second meeting. That's set for Monday, January 30, at 6:30 pm on the UW campus (Memorial Union, TITU).

Women for Peace will be making postcards and other materials to promote the meeting. Please stay tuned to our website, come to a Women for Peace meeting before then, and/or make some phone calls and send emails to your friends and colleagues to help us grow our local women's movement!

Our other goal is to work towards having local women's groups well represented at the International Women's Day celebration on Wednesday, March 8 (time and location to be announced). If you would like to help plan that event, the next meeting is Monday, December 12, at 5:30 pm at the office of the Wisconsin Coordinating Council on Nicaragua, 122 State St (5th floor, suite 507A).

Some possible long-term goals were also discussed at our first WAM! meeting, including holding a state-wide summit of women's groups -- perhaps as a grassroots alternative to WI Lieutenant Governor Lawton's WI Women = Prosperity.

If you have ideas, connections, or just want to help unify and strengthen women's voices in the greater Madison area, join us!