New Year Feminista

Last Wednesday was the first kentfeminista meeting of the year and I wanted to send a mail out about what was discussed and suggested as there were quite a few people who were unable to make the meeting but who I know are keen that we don’t lose momentum after our pretty impressive first few months together.

Before the meeting it was suggested that we needed to capitalise on our successful campaign around the regulation of lapdancing clubs in Ashford and the great local media coverage that the campaign brought us. However, it was also felt that we needed to talk a little more about how we wanted to define ourself and our aims so that we could be clearer in choosing our next actions. I think that this need for a clearer self definition is becoming more apparent as we have had at least four women, who are hopefully reading this mail, who have contacted us to ask about getting more involved with us.

At the meeting we discussed two main ideas that we would really like some feedback on.

Firstly, that part of the vision in starting the group was to emulate earlier consciousness raising groups that aimed to bring women together to share stories, ideas and experiences. We felt that ideally this group should aim to be as broad and as representative as possible of Kentish women. We felt that an evening week day meeting might not be the best way to encourage busy women along to this group and that we should think about the prospect of also having a bi-monthly Sunday social, aiming to create a laid back, friendly atmosphere with maybe cake, music, books, crafts, kids activities and maybe a bit of a ‘talk’ that could link the event to our current campaigns.

Secondly, we talked about how important it was to have a constant campaigning front and that maybe an additional evening meeting on the month when we don’t have a social, could provide a space for planning the campaign and working out how we can best provide opportunities for women who come to the socials to be engaged with these campaigns. It was felt that the biggest current threat to women in the UK at the moment were the cuts. We discussed joining with women against the cuts (check them out on Facebook) and joining together for the TUC organised march against the cuts on the 26th of March, maybe with our own Kentfeminista banner.

If people like these ideas, then we might want to think about a planning meeting in the second week of February, a Sunday social in the second week of March with a guest speaker on the cuts (Hannah is going to contact Melissa Benn) and the aim to encourage women to march with us at the end of March.

We’d love to hear back from any of you who couldn’t make the meeting about what you think of these plans and whether you could make a meeting on the 9th Febuary for a bit of self definition and planning work.