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All
Meetings
We
have a rota of facilitators, two to oversee & chair each
meeting
All
our meeting start with a letter writing group, in which members
can propose lobbying letters to be written from OFN on subjects
relevant to women, but particularly on older women's issues
Tea
and coffee is available and we all take food to contribute to the
communal buffet lunch at about 1pm.
The
afternoon session starts with a general meeting at which, reports
are made and upcoming events and reminders are flagged -
detailed information is tabled for those who are interested.
After
a break, we entertain speakers and/or have one or more workshops,
in response to suggestions from members.
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Selected
items from past meetings:-
January 2998
Member Leonie Grayeff
has written a play entitled 'The Women Question' and the first item on
the day's agenda was in discussing the synopsis, allocating parts and
distributing scripts ready for a reading of the play next month.
The play considers such questions as:-
-
What is the
essence of being a woman?
-
Has feminism
served the interests of all women?
-
What does the
future hold for
feminism?
Should be fun. more
next month......
Items on the
information agenda were the upcoming Women's day events, The Million
Women March and Capital Woman. And anyone interested in Mental health,
the proposals in the new legislation on requirement for treatment and
conditional discharge.
The rest of the
meeting was a workshop session on recollections of people and events
that have shaped members lives and attitudes, and made them feminists.
Learning the lessons is important if we are to progress and if we
ourselves and each generation in turn are to make use of these
lessons.
December 2007
Lots of members and
friends joined the annual seasonal celebration party with the usual good
food, drink, entertainment from members and friends, reunions and banter.
And a great time was had by all.
You can hear Velvet
Fist on their website, link below
November 2007
We had a most
interesting talk from Kate Hudson, national chair of CND. She gave
us a brief but admirably clear outline of the recent and current work of
the organisation and its links and cooperation with other peace
organisations around the world, excluding unfortunately Iran where
presumably there is no possibility of voices to be heard dissenting from
a nuclear free Iran.
It would be
invidious for me to try to outline her outline, but would urge any women
who are not familliar with CND policy and activities , and that of the
many other peace organisations in which women play such a prominent
part, to look up their websites. Many of which can be seen as links here
The meeting was
delighted to have Astra back from her unfortunate experience in breaking
her hip in the summer. Plans were made for the winter celebration party
in December, at which we hope to see members who cannot otherwise get to
meetings.
I must appologise
for not putting anything here about the October meeting - it did take
place and was as interesting as always.
September 2007
This month we had a
break from our usual format.
Responding to a
suggestion from Marj. in July - we had decided to hold a general
discussion on the theme "Is Feminism Still Relevant?" to which
we had invited guests. See brief
report below.
We were also
wonderfully entertained by Velvet Fist, an extremely talented
feminist a cappella group who sang feminist and 'freedom' songs - some
of which were arranged for us to take part in.
You can read about
them on their website below, on which there is a link for anyone with
broadband to listen to excerpts of songs from their latest album
'Pulling No Punches'
Velvet Fist
- http://listen.to/velvetfist
"Is
Feminism Still Relevant?"
As you might expect
the theme of the meeting provided the basis for a wide ranging
discussion on many aspects of feminism - the positive gains - successes
that once they become the norm are forgotten and the campaigns run
mainly by women activists slip from memory - the Abortion Law
Reform campaign , the campaign to allow parents to be with their
children in hospital whenever possible, the Greenham Common campaign and
many before and since.
But important as it
is to remember our successes, this meeting was not an exercise in
nostalgia.
The main thrust of
the discussions was on how best feminists can pick up and
promote ideas and attitudes that will counter the problems of women as
employees, as parents of children and young people, as women,
young and old in today's manipulative commercial capitalist society.
As well as the
important individual campaigns by feminist groups - against
violence and exploitation, unfair treatment in employment pay and
pensions, the problems of juggling the employment/family balance and
economic dependence we also have to look at the bigger picture. We have
to be aware of the attitudes that underly women's inequality and
consider why people play lip service to our demands for autonomy and
equality without committing to the solutions.
More on this when the
newsletter comes out.
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