A Meeting In the Ladies Room

A few months ago, I was invited to join a women’s networking group.  There are periodic gatherings in person, but, for the most part, our contact with one another is via emails and “the boards,” a virtual bulletin board where we can access any and all info one could think of having to do with the entertainment industry.  I wasn’t expecting much.  I have, however, become completely enamored with this wellspring of intelligence, insight, and can-do-ism.  Members will often post a note that they are looking for a contact for a specific company or person, but it goes deeper than that. 

 

In these most difficult of economic times, there are many women in the industry who are having a really tough time keeping a roof over their heads.  One of our members, new to Los Angeles, was days away from being put out of her apartment, with no where to turn.  She posted that she was looking for a service-for-trade situation.  She is now, thanks to leads from our membership, living with an elderly lady with a home with room to spare, for whom she cooks dinner and does errands, in exchange for her room and board.  This has allowed her to keep her industry job in the early mornings.  All thanks to a continuum of women.

 

I responded to a call for members who might be interested in a “brainstorming group,” even though I wasn’t sure what that would mean.  Much to my surprise, and pleasure, I met with three other women the first night at a health-food restaurant in Hollywood.  We were, respectively:  a stand-up comedy sketch artist/graphics designer; a marketing person for an online greeting card company; a television/music producer; a writer/director/filmmaker.  The ground rules were that we would each bring a project or idea that we were working on, at any stage of development, to share with the group and receive feedback regarding how to expand and further it.  In the span of two hours, we traded stories, each allotted five minutes to introduce our project, five minutes to receive feedback, and five minutes to then discuss.  At the end of each our time allotments, we each came up with what we would pledge to accomplish by the following meeting.  We each also told the others exactly what we needed from the others in terms of encouragement and support.  One woman was so clear on what would feel best for her, she gave us a kind of script:  “When I post on our page that I have done X, it would really feel good for you guys to say Z.”  We laughed about the fact that all of our relationships in our lives could be served by such frankness and clarity.  Even though I walked in with the start of a nasty migraine, I left feeling buoyant.  The genuine care that we all showed for one another’s passions and journey was so refreshing.  As women, we are often pitted against each other, or choose to see ourselves as such.  In this town, and in this time, where so many view their little corner of the universe as a zero sum game, here I was in a place that was only to support and nurture me.  And that’s the way it was…