More than 20 women gathered throughout the course of the day on November 10 to participate in a livestream of Marianne Williamson’s Sister Giant gathering.  We are thrilled that current and new YES& women attended and participated in learning, sharing and connecting around women+politics+spirit.

A few potential action items that stood out from the conversations and can also be found in the Citizen Activation notes:
· Setting up a panel of women leaders to educate other women who are interested in running for office in this county and/or serving on committees.
· Mentoring women who want to run for office or sit on committees. Training/mentoring interns and assistants for women in office.
· Supporting Hilary Bryant with her abundance of emails, research, mail etc.

Meeting
We are setting up a quick meeting via conference call for anyone who thinks they might want to work on some of these initiatives or would like to stay/get involved.  At that meeting we will create the agenda for a longer meeting in January for those interested in staying in the loop (regardless of your commitment).  We are planning to host that call on Thursday, December 6 at 4pm,. We will be using this conference dial in:  712-432-3900 access 926191# moderator 107238.  If you can’t make it and are interested in staying connected, please drop us an email and we will send you out an update.

Access to More Sister Giant
Sister Giant still has live streaming available of Saturday. We already paid for it, so if you are interested in hearing any of the content again or want to share it with others, this will be a great opportunity. Please contact me (Julie)  and I will send you the password. Only one login at a time, so if there are multiple requests, we will spread them out over a few days.

We also hear that Sunday was amazing and are looking into that download. I (Julie) watched the panel on Saturday night with representatives from the political parties and found it to be an interesting dialogue. Sister Giant is also working on getting the speaker on “Prisons as a Growth Industry” to all of us who were not on site.  Thank you to Jessica for stepping up and giving us such great insight into our local issues.

UPDATE from Marianne- Her Letter To Sister Giants
Here is the update from Sister Giant http://sistergiant.com/sistergiant/letter-to-sister-giants/

Marianne & Sister Giant Follow-up Meeting
Via Sister Giant “Our first monthly phone call – dealing with the issue of the current conflict in the Middle East — will be held on Wednesday, December 5, 2012. My guest will be Rabbi Michael Lerner (www.tikkun.org) , whose new book is titled Embracing Israel/Embracing Palestine: A Strategy to Heal and Transform the Middle East. I have also written an article for Huffington Post called “Israel, Palestine, Love.” Dial in details for the call will be emailed and will be available on our site.  Our second call, to be held on January 2nd, will be on the topic of poor air quality in America’s public schools.”

Your Contributions
Thanks to the generous sponsorship of Diane Lamotte and the contributions from attendees, we helped fund one girl in the Mini Mermaid Running Club! We also dropped off $70 to Friends of Parks and Rec for the Youth City Council program. Together we contributed  a total $140 of donations from our event.  Thank you to everyone for your generosity!

Hey Sister Giant!!
We will be reaching out to Sister Giant to let them know that SC is listening and interested in staying connected and informed!

We are honored to have, once again, curated a conversation and possible actions around a topic that has deep resonance with women and our local/global communities.

Since the success of “Miss Representation,” we have continued our quarterly meetings where we support each others work, network and discuss that different projects, life goals and intentions we all have for our lives, our work and our community.  We will continue these quarterly meetings with the next one scheduled for Wednesday, December 5 at 7:30 pm. at Center Street Grill (immediately following the 100+ Women Who Care Meeting)

A New Project has Begun!

Recently, we learned of an amazing event taking place in Los Angeles and decided to see how we could participate.  Sister Giant is being produced by spiritual & political activist and best selling author Marianne Williamson in partnership with The Women’s Campaign Movement at Yale University, Sister Giant is  a non-partisan symposium dedicated to empowering women to run for political office, with an emphasis on the intersection of spirituality, consciousness  and politics.

The stated goal of the event is to promote gender equality in political leadership at a time when the number of women in congress comprises only 16.8 %.  Non-partisan, unabashedly spiritual and progressive, the day will focus on three topics specifically including:

• Child Poverty
• Prisons as a Growth Industry
• Democracy Imperiled by the negative impact of Citizens United.

During this election season, we have seen so many women’s issues discussed in the most arcane, inappropriate ways, it’s important for us to refocus, reframe and reclaim the political conversation in America.

SO, we are planning another event that connects great content with great conversation.

During the all day, Saturday November 10 event, we will be listening to:

• Marianne Williamson: Symposium Hostess; Author of 13 books on spirituality and culture.
• Lisa Bloom: Author of:  SWAGGER: Ten Urgent Rules for Raising Boys in an Era of Failing Schools, Mass Joblessness, and Thug Culture
• Adam Winkler:  Professor of Law at UCLA and author of:  GUNFIGHT: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America.
• Patricia Russo: President of the Women’s Campaign School at Yale.
• Jean Houston: Author, philosopher and leadership consultant to the United Nations Development Program.
• Sara Jane Rose: 
Founder of Sally’s List
• Deb Sofield
: Past President, Women’s Campaign School Yale University; Executive Consultant

In addition, we will be sharing our reactions, creating alliances and connections, and using breakouts to empower more women in local, regional and national politics.

If you’re interested in helping, email: sandy@communications4good.com.  Please register and come to the event!  http://yesandsistergiant.eventbrite.com

We had our quarterly meeting today and made great progress in getting clarity on our shared purpose, how we can support each other, agreed to next steps, and scheduled our next meeting for Thursday May 24 at 6:00 pm (location TBD).

PURPOSE:  We are change agents for Santa Cruz County, developing the leadership we need to make our world better.

WE WILL:

• Have regular gatherings where we connect and network
• Support one another as needed
• Participate in full circle learning and professional development
• Mobilize and evangelize on behalf of each other
• Bring visibility to what others are doing in our community

RESOURCES, ACTIONS AND NEXT STEPS

1. The web site will include a regularly updated directory of each member’s bio so that we can reach out and leverage the skills, talents and connections of this powerful group of can-do women (Sandy Skees and Mary Talpas will update the site)
2. A Facebook Group will give us a way to stay connected in real time with updates, events, requests and posts that keep everyone informed and in touch (Lori Butterworth will create and invite everyone on the current google.doc list)
3. We will meet quarterly in a more informal evening gathering to network and connect.  The flow of our two hours together will be:  Short introductions to the entire group.  Random selection of three participants to tell the story of their journey and give all of us a glimpse at how we got to today. A Reciprocity Circle of intentional sharing of requests, non-financial support or asks that will help us get done what we need to get done (Jennifer Astone agreed to show us how to conduct this effective resource-sharing practice)  We meet on Thursday, May 24 at 6:00 pm at a place Heidi Boynton will confirm.
4. At least once a year, we will host a guest speaker and invite our youth, giving all of us the inspiration or tools needed to be leaders.
5. We will recruit new members to our YES-& change agents group, taking care to bring into our group all of those who are committed to making Santa Cruz and our world a better place by empowering leadership among a broad range of people.

Feel free to add a comment here or post an idea to our Facebook page

We are on our way!