I've been pondering my options since the Uppity Women meeting in May, during my very busy summer. I realized after talking with a relative who has produced a local quarterly publication that producing regular print issues is not feasible without a collective of women sharing the load. It would be more demanding than working a second 8 hour job when you include finding advertisers, billing and collecting funds from advertisers, producing their ads, soliciting and editing the work of contributors, layout, my own contribution, printing, distributing...the list goes on. I would like to enjoy my marriage, which is only in its second year, and time with my daughter who recently moved back home. I'd also like to find more time for my friends.
I preach the sermon of setting boundaries and finding a sustainable level of effort for activism that can be maintained over time. I need to practice what I preach.
That does not mean, however, that there won't be print issues of Uppity Women. What I would like to do is have occasional fundraisers and print ad-free issues on an irregular basis and a smaller scale. I may work on one this year as time permits. I'd also like to continue to have social meetings of Uppity Women readers and writers to promote community among women in this town. There will be as part of these two projects some open mics on our side of the hill, inspired by Fierce Miri.
If several women were to come forward and want to work on publication, I would reconsider the option of regular publication. Let me know if you are interested in such work, even tentatively.