Melbourne Women's Group

In January this year a new women's group was formed in Melbourne.  I am new
to the Nonviolence Network and this is the first activist group I have been
involved with, so I am very excited about the project. In a sense, however,
this group is new for everyone involved, as we have decided to experiment
with an 'alternative' structure which combines both personal growth/support
and organised political action. Because of this we felt it would be useful to
share some of our experiences with people outside the group.

The group was initiated by a member of the Melbourne Nonviolence community,
Margaret Pestorius, who brought together interested individuals.  She said
about the process: "I gradually introduced everyone to each other until we
knew each  other a bit, and then we had an evening to talk about what we
thought the best way to start a group would be. After this, we decided to
start the project by spending considerable time and energy (two full days)
turning ourselves from six individuals into a group.  I took responsibility
for working out an appropriate agenda for the first two days with the
intention that, after that, my role as initiator would be over."
  
The original impetus for the group came from the suggestion made at last
year's Australian Nonviolence Gathering that the Network should be based on
affinity groups. This could mean various things - for example, a two part
structure, with long term affinity groups on the one hand and short term
activist groups on the other, or short or long term groups which combined
both personal support and political action. We decided to experiment with a
short term group that combined both personal support and political action. 
All six of us  felt very strongly that this was the 'right' way to go - our
previous experiences in activism and/or other organisations left us feeling
the need for a more integrated approach to work and life.

The group was formed with an emphasis on process, with the expectation that
creating a strong sense of group in the initial stages would lead to easier
decision making in the longer term. We therefore began with only a vague
sense of what the group might like to achieve, and spent the first day-long
workshop sharing stories of our backgrounds and interest in women's issues,
sharing our hopes and fears about the group and dealing with issues such as
safety within the group. At the end of the day we were able to define our
general aims in a very short time - it seemed that the 'group first' strategy
had been successful!  The aims we decided on are:
1) To take steps towards stopping violence against women,
2) To support each other in developing and integrating our personal,
political and spiritual lives, and
3) To honour the power and strength of ourselves as women and to use this to
make real our vision of a feminist and nonviolent community.

Our second day long meeting began with personal sharing and a very enjoyable
'sound massage' of one member who was feeling a little 'disconnected', and
then we went on to deal with the nitty gritty of agreements, objectives,
meeting formats and time lines. Once again we achieved consensus in a
relatively short time, with much discussion, questioning and clarification
but no 'bad feeling'.

An important decision we made was that the group should be closed, while
encouraging others to become involved in public actions that we organise.
This was not an easy decision, but we realised that, for the group to be
truly supportive of each member and to be most effective in terms of planning
and organising actions within a short time frame, each person had to be fully
involved in the group process. 

It became clear during discussion about our objectives that we were not yet
ready to decide on specific public actions. We felt we needed time to discuss
terminology, share information on women's issues and look at strategies for
action. This was for two reasons - firstly, so that each of us would be
coming from a similar knowledge base and therefore be able to contribute more
fully to decisions; and secondly, because we want to choose actions that will
fit into a longer term campaign context, and so hopefully ensure that we
organise  actions 'appropriate' for our time and place, leaving us with a
feeling of achievement and possible future direction.

The format of our meetings (limited to four hours a week now that the group
is set up) was designed with the theme of integration in mind - we laid out a
basic structure which includes opening and closing rituals, some expression
of spirituality, personal sharing, further support for one person who feels
they need it each week, a physical activity, and discussion, decision making
or working on tasks related to public actions. One member will take
responsibility for facilitation of each meeting, including deciding on
specific rituals and physical activities, so that all of us can gain
experience and confidence in leading a group.

Because of members' prior commitments,  our group will finish in late April.
This is a very short time in which to fit all our process and public action
objectives, but we are looking forward to seeing how our experiment turns
out. We hope that, near the end of the project, we will be able to pass on
our experiences and learning to others in some way, and perhaps reform the
group with the many other women who have expressed interest since we began. 
 Anita McKone