WHAT SHOULD WE UNDERSTAND FROM THE RESPONSES?

Obviously, the Vancouver conference represented our first occasion to discuss the topics in such a context. Many women had never before participated in an all-woman, unstructured conference. We challenged ourselves to think and act in a way that was both exciting and fearful to us. Not everyone had a positive experience and we need to acknowledge that. But most women lived an important moment in their lives and we should celebrate that!

The issues that women brought up are varied and diverse. There are two main themes we can draw from these responses and which can give us direction for the future of FLWN:

SO WHAT WILL WE DO NEXT?

At the founding meeting, eighteen women volunteered to be the on-going steering committee of FLWN.

A smaller working group took on the task of meeting regularly by teleconference phone calls. This group represents six regions of Canada: the North, British Columbia, the Prairies, Ontario, Quebec, and the Maritime. The goals of this group over the past few months have been: .

• to work on follow-up reports, and

• to develop on-going communication strategies, including a newsletter.

CCLOW continues to support us by coordinating our mailings and meetings. We are very thankful for their support and encouragement. It has enabled us to keep the dream of a feminist literacy network alive.

Coordinating a national organization is a challenge, especially in our land. Our differences are enormous, however we try to keep reminding each other of our common ground; we want to improve the learning and working conditions of women involved in literacy programs. We want to overcome the barriers women face when they decide to return to learning. We believe that by talking about our issues with each other, we can find ways of working toward solutions.