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sample introductory event

Hosting a Mothers Acting Up introductory event is a terrific way to invite your larger community to get in on the Acting Up and build your community through food and fellowship, both of which are essential for growing a mother-led, mother-fed movement.

Please read through the recipes for Building Community, Potluck Social & Salons and Playgroups for ideas and to set the tone and tenor for your event. Warmth, welcome and an atmosphere free of judgment are critical to your success. For your introductory event, you'll also be utilizing parts of the MAU Now! recipe, making your introductory event a kind of minestrone, or gumbo, if you will. By all means, use what works for your community by using the following recipe verbatim, or simply as a jumping off point from which to add your own special flavor.

MAU Now! Bring the Family Potluck Social & Salon — an introduction to MAU

Ingredients:

  • MAU Community and family members
  • Community leader(s)/organizer(s) to facilitate and host
  • A neutral, comfortable and inviting location that is also child friendly
  • Potluck dishes from your members & attendees
  • MAU Handbooks, sign up sheets, MAU swag, paper and pens, banner (if you have one yet)
  • Nametags
  • Mothers Acting Up: the movie (DVD) and a means to view it (laptop, TV / DVD player combo)

Optional ingredients:

  • Door prizes
  • Big memo pad or dry erase board and pens
  • stilts

What: Potlucks are fun. They nourish the body and the spirits and as a monthly (or quarterly) gathering for your MAU community and they offer consistent opportunities for fellowship as well as Acting Up. Gatherings, such as potlucks and playgroups, create community cohesion; which makes it easy to gear up for a Mother’s Day parade. If you can, use real dishes to serve and eat from. Set up of tables, chairs, linens and dish washing becomes community work, thereby fun. Even the kids get in on action.

When/where: Two-hour blocks generally work well to include set up, eating and a program component, plus breakdown and cleanup time. Good staging areas for Potluck Social & Salons include: community centers, Friends Meeting Houses, church basements or gyms or, if you prefer, a private home. Holding the event somewhere other than a private home may promote greater ownership and investment from all participants.

Introduction: It’s a good idea to have everyone — even the children — wear nametags. Whenever your community gathers, display your community created banner and have sign up sheets for adding new attendee’s names. Once the food is set up and all guests have signed up, donned nametags and gotten a door prize ticket, the community leader(s) will want to welcome the group and encourage everyone to fill a plate. Socializing comes naturally when friends both old and new break bread together.

Gifts: If you can afford to, have a few door prizes for your event, or ask local merchants to donate them. Some communities give door prizes at each of their monthly or quarterly Potluck Social & Salons, giving a ticket to each adult and child attendee. (Inexpensive and recyclable playing cards torn in half make great tickets; fun door prizes include MAU Handbooks, gift certificates for massage or local bakeries, books for adults, children or families on community building or peacemaking.) Place Handbooks and other bits of MAU swag (bumper stickers and downloaded pamphlets) around the tables or eating area.

Presentation: As the meal comes to a close, the community leader(s) will introduce herself and ask for all present to do the same. It may serve you well to have written out a questionnaire simply asking attendees their history of civic and political involvement, their hopes for a MAU community and the barriers they perceive to be addressed on the way to that desire. A brief introduction of Mothers Acting Up is in order, followed by MAU the movie – an excellent overview of the movement. Watching the movie and going through key parts of the handbook together can inspire! Ask one of the participants to read MAU’s principles aloud and see if you don’t feel the energy in the room warm up!

Asking the gathered mothers (and others) about their experiences and desires for building community and moving from concern to action can be powerful. As with telling our birth and adoption stories, sometimes when mothers (and others) speak their piece on activism and community building, it is emotional. The investment we have in our children and the hopes, dreams and fears we have regarding our own mothering is deep stuff. As the facilitator, it is up to you to keep the space safe for honest sharing and the possibility of tender feelings, laughter and possibly tears.

Giving names to the obstacles and barriers to mother activism is one of the touchiest subjects, so tread gently and without judgment. Err on the side of kindness, always, and do affirm that you hear mothers when they speak of barriers to activism, i.e. overwhelm with childcare and homemaking, juggling work with mothering, lack of confidence in knowing the issues and how to approach them. When possible, seek to address these obstacles, first by affirmation, and secondly, by having the group offer solutions to their ownbarriers. Mothers don’t need to be rescued; they need simply to be granted safe space to speak honestly and to find their own voices and their own solutions.

Taking Action: These two pieces (experiencing MAU via movie and principles, then speaking of barriers) should inspire questions and discussion and perhaps planning(!) about building community, taking on parade organizing or putting together a Girlcott or field trip — it may be helpful to write ideas on a big memo pad or a dry erase board. This may also be the best time to talk about MAU’s trademark appearance on stilts and to step up on them, offering other mothers the opportunity to do the same. Walking on stilts is a perfect symbol for MAU as it addresses a very common fear in becoming an activist: BEING PUBLICLY VISIBLE. You are never so visible as when you are on stilts, but the great thing, is it’s not terrifying, it’s exhilarating. Possibly end with a great quote or two, something Stacey Carkonen (MAU Heroine), said the morning of her first Mother’s Day parade: “I am so proud to be standing tall, speaking loud, and getting down with all of you. Whether there are 2 people or 200 (at our parade), there is no way to fail when one person raises their voice to bring dignity to another. We, my friends, are indeed a force to be reckoned with! “

Clean up: Make sure to factor in cleanup time. If you meet at a public place or a borrowed room or meeting hall, you’ll want to leave it cleaner than you found it and make friends with the building hosts. In our experience, Potluck Socials & Salons are something families look greatly forward to, and enjoy with gusto. Your introductory event sets the stage for all that follows.