Sometime during the 1977-78 period we began using the term "networking" to describe how we functioned and at the same time I became more intimately involved at the national level through the Self-Training Committee. The Self-Training project was an innovative skill development model for members of CCLOW networks. We devised self-training kits and designed workshops on Persuasive Skills, Organizing for Support and Survival, Alternate Learning Models for Women, Advertising and Public Relations, and Political Action Skills. The Self-Training Committee also functioned as the Congress Planning Committee for Banff 1979 and the workshops were incorporated into the founding congress.

How do I convey the intensity, the passion and the vision we shared at Banff? It remains a highlight in my personal journey and I believe it was the central event in the evolution of CCLOW as a feminist organization. We met for five days in the clean crisp air of the Rockies. We had decided to found an organization based upon feminist principles and to use a feminist process to design it. We blended workshops and organizing sessions with "down time" for informal talk and exercise. The down time may have been informal but it was also intense and powerful.

On the first day we saw that we needed to collectively clarify our personal ideologies in order to identify and agree upon an ideological basis for our organization. Greta Nemiroffs opening address sparked dialogue that continued through the day, over . breakfast, while hiking in the meadows, over lunch and dinner and through the night. Our task, as it is reported in the minutes of the Banff Congress, was to "formulate CCLOW; to give it further definition with clearly identified elements, relationships, purposes and functions." "In order to attain this goal," the minutes continue, "a process was designed first to establish a common ideology (if possible);" second, agree on the purpose and functions of CCLOW and third decide on an organizational format." We used the skills and talents of our members to lead us through this process. We gave authority and responsibility to a planning team who met daily to monitor the process and the progress. My role was process manager.

We generated shared belief statements and then worked to identify how learning opportunities for women could be used to further these beliefs. Next was to design an organization that would reflect our beliefs and further our goals. Our plan was for a group that would support fledgling as well as flourishing local networks; that would have a central core without depositing all power, authority and responsibility in Toronto; that would be a source of mutual support for women educators and learners and a powerful advocate for women's learning opportunities. By the end of the five days we had approved a structure, elected our first national chairwoman and established our first national committee.

Ten years later I think we can still celebrate the creativity and commitment of the women who gathered at Banff. We also have ten years of accomplishments to celebrate: briefs, research, publications, the resource centre and, most of all, the networks. They are still our strength. They ebb and flow through periods of intense activity and burn-out but they are tenacious.

In Toronto in February I heard women from across the country struggle with and agonize over issues similar to those we faced ten years ago. Who are our members? Do we need a lot of members? Does CCLOW include and represent women learners as well as the women who design and deliver the programs? Does CCLOW define learning as all learning activities, not just institutional programs? What is the relationship between "national" and the "networks"? What is a network? Where is our support? How do we reach out?

I take pleasure and satisfaction from those conversations because it says to me that CCLOW has not become a calcified shell of an organization. It is still vital and dynamic, questioning and challenging our identity, our commitments and our passions. In ten years time I expect to be able to say the same thing.

Lynn Fogwill was a founding mother of CCLOW and is currently the network coordinator for the Northwest Territories.