WOW - Women on water
WOW was set up in 2004 by a group of offshore women with the aim of building offshore social networking and friendship for women of all ages living offshore on the island on in the bays. All offshore women are welcome to attend WOW regularly or infrequently to fit in with their lifestyle commitments such as school holidays, travel, work, artistic pursuits.
What we do
We make new friends, catch up with old ones, chat, have lunch (everyone brings a plate to share) and a drink (it’s BYOG but tea and coffee are provided), have “notices”, which are a bit like show and tell at kindy, letting to let each other know what offshore events are planned. We then discuss the topic of the month. Initially these were women-specific topics, such as the glass ceiling, women’s health, women and ageing, how women are portrayed in the media, and women in politics, but over the years the topics have broadened to just about anything members of the group may be interested in. We try to have a range of “hard” and “soft” topics (ie contentious and non-contentious ones).
When we meet
WOW has recently been reformatted to meet four times a year, once for each season.meets on a monthly basis, on the second Wednesday of the month, at 12:30pm and usually finishes about 3:30pm.
Joy Purvis has volunteered her house this Autumn.We will hopefully enjoy some autumn tones with nuts and berries featuring on the menu.
Imagine Winter WOW around an open fire with warm mead perhaps or marshmallows toasting! We need a willing WOW member to volunteer an appropriate winter house.
In Spring we will hopefully enjoy an outdoor WOW in someone’s lovely garden surrounded by cheerful flowers or on a deck overlooking many colourful blooms. Who thinks their house might fit the bill?
Xmas WOW will be at a local restaurant as usual and our food choices and clothes might also reflect the seasons in some way perhaps?
The tentative dates are as follows:
- AUTUMN WOW
- April 6th at Joy Purvis’s House
- WINTER WOW
- August 10th Who has a lovely open fire?
- SPRING WOW
- Oct 19th Who has a colourful flower filled garden or deck looking onto a garden of blooms?
- XMAS/SUMMER WOW
- Dec 14th
If you think you house might be perfect but you need to tweak the date, that’s fine.
Where do we hold WOW and how do we choose the topic
WOW rotates between people’s homes and the host is the person who chairs the meeting and determines the topic which is announced in time for people to think about it before the meeting. Sometimes people do a little background reading but it is not necessary and most people tend to “wing” it.
How can I join or find out more
WOW has had a couple of coordinators over the years and the current coordinator is Nila Chambers. The coordinator emails everyone telling members where the next WOW is being held and what the topic is.