Still from Tatyana Mamonova: Russian Feminist, by Amelia Productions

It was unrealistic to attempt to expand in response to the demand because the network of skills and resources didn't exist.

I guess there was an element of "fools rush in where angels fear to tread". Intellectually I understood the problems but I thought they would change within a year or two. Really what we needed was six paid staff to do the work involved, but what do you do? You can't stop dead in your tracks, knowing the terrible need for what is developing. If I did it over again, I would work more on the support side to develop a structure and slow down on the creative side.

The Women's Studies Program at the University of British Columbia developed simultaneously with WIF but because they were part of an established institution they had a structure and resources available. In fact, WIF became a resource for their students. We had a flood of phone calls and visits from students who were just beginning to develop their own knowledge and skills. It was extremely time-consuming to respond to this demand and it became a terrible drain on our energy and resources. Here we were providing an educational function as well; a non-funded group being used as a resource! Universities and colleges have funding and they could have been renting or buying our tapes to equalize the exchange.

GAEL: What kind of organizational changes were put in place to facilitate the expanding role of WIF?

SHARON: I became president of WIF after Marion. The only thing consistent about WIF is that it is in a constant state of flux. I think that a lot of women's organizations have that as their trademark. In the case of WIF it has been a matter of funding, board involvement, committee involvement, member involvement, specific issues, as well as the fact that we have tried to be all things to all disciplines. During the time that I was president we went from project- oriented funding to trying to build some degree of stability for the organization. We also investigated self-generating funding. That's when we split into two arms -- one for administrative functions and one for distribution.

The second, and probably more important structural thing that I tried to facilitate, was to get more active members involved in running the space, setting its policy. We set up approved committee structures so that for production there would be women producers involved, for the gallery committee other women artists involved, and so on. These committees would then present their plans and budgets to the board.

We were also under some scrutiny from the women's community as there was a sense that we were not as accessible as we had been. My personal mandate became to open the space up and say to women, "If you're not happy with what's happening here, then get down here and participate in changing it."