Welcome

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Sybil Crouch on April 7, 2010 at 9:07

Hi everyone

I am on the Fellowship Council & am also part of a "Gang of 4" Fellows charged with getting RSA Wales/Cymru up & running. This is proving to be no mean task with under 500 fellows scattered across a big country - with a concentration in the South East corner. Bit like trying to run England as region! Anyway I have done a very crude analysis of gender split and find that overall just 21% of Fellows in Wales are female. Worse is that in the largest Fellowship group by postcode (Cardiff & area) just 18% are female.

I would really welcome any help, ideas, support etc - and to learn from you as to how we can turn this around.

Permalink Reply by Kieran Williams on April 19, 2010 at 22:04

I left the event on March 30th feeling that a lot of positive energy may be lost if we didn't start meeting regularly for challenging and stretching discussions. How about regular events at the House, possibly with an introductory speaker and facilitated discussion ?

Permalink Reply by Laura Billings on April 21, 2010 at 10:01

Hi Kieran - I agree that a regular face to face is the way to keep moment going on this.

The House is run as a commercial enterprise, to support the charity, so we get internally charged for room hire - I'm afraid we don't have the budget to hold a regular meeting here. However, there are plenty of Fellows networks around the UK and internationally that happen in public meeting spaces.

Does anyone have a suggestion of where group members could meet? Is anyone willing to help facilitate or speak?

Permalink Reply by Dr Gill Kirkup on July 14, 2010 at 12:46

Hello,
I am a very new Fellow - just got myself an online Fellowship identity , and the first group that caught my eye is this one. I have been involved with women's education and gender and technology - as an academic and researcher - all my professional life. I do have another life that isn't professional and it involves a lot of dancing, reading novels and going to music festivals - but that might be for a different group:-)
I went to the new fellows evening event last night and met a couple of women who had been invited to join at the same time as me and who also has a background in working for women's issues- I'll encourage at least one of them to look into this group.
It looks as if we might not have reached critical mass here yet in this group, but maybe soon.
best wishes
Gill Kirkup

Permalink Reply by Laura Billings on July 20, 2010 at 12:05

Hi Gill
Welcome to the Fellowship, and to this group. Fantastic that you want to share some of your experience in working on women's issues. Some thing you may be interested in hearing more about that has just gone out in the Fellows newsletter is the development of a Womens Speaker Network.

Fellow Louise Burfitt-Dons FRSA is interested in setting up a network of women speakers within the Fellowship, with the aim of sharing more opinions and expertise, and supporting those involved to participate in speaking events and debates to inspire more women. You can read more or get in touch with Louise here

Permalink Reply by Victoria John on October 18, 2010 at 16:41

Hi there, I am V and my theatre company, Velvet Ensemble has a focus on telling women's stories. At a time when Equity are trying to address the gender imbalance in Theatre, TV and Film, we are doing our bit to put this into action. We are 2 years old this year and are now getting ready to go into rehearsal for our first full production, which The Wales Millennium Centre are co-producing. We are holding a fundraising event called CLASSICAL WOMEN:REWORKED. We have asked 5 playwrights to take one classical stimulus (either a theatrical speech, political speech or letter from a published collection) and use it as inspiration for a brand new speech. This work will be performed at The Rag Factory, 16 Heneage Street. London E1 5LJ on 31st October 2010 at 8pm and at Gwdihw, 6 Guildford Crescent. Cardiff CF10 2HJ on 7th November 2010 at 6pm. Please come and support our work by joining us for an evening of chat, wine and new work. In these times of austerity, the nurture of new theatre needs your support more than ever! If you have any questions, please ask here or email me on v@velvetensemble.co.uk
Look forward to hearing from you!
Vx