The Making of a Women's Space

It's an exciting day here in Trieste. At the Associazione Italo Americana we are getting ready to welcome the Consul General of the US Consulate in Milan to help us officially launch the Women's Space Book Drive. The book drive will last until May 31st when we celebrate our first ever Founders Day. We will consider anyone who donates a book  (in English having something to do with women) or money to buy a book, a founder. We thought it would be meaningful to have our community come together to choose the books and create the space.

At first we wanted to call it a Women's Library. We changed our minds for a couple of reasons. 1. It implies that the American Corner Library here is somehow For Men Only, and it is not. 2. The word "library" is too limiting. It is difficult for a lot of people to imagine it being more than a place that houses books. Actually, I really wanted to call it a Women's Corner, but I realized (just in time) that it would be abbreviated as W.C.!! Could not have that!

Want to know what goes into creating a Women's Space? Well, after a lot of conversations in my office, in the classrooms, with our friends, the idea came together (original brainstormers: Denise, Marina, Erin, Janine, Karry, Sheila, Maureen, Grazia, Leonardo, Judy), Denise and I wrote a letter to the head of the American Corners for the US Embassy. Then we forwarded it to our friends for more feedback. We got lots of great feedback from everyone. That meant we were on the right track. From there we got to organizing the book drive and the EVENT we are having today.

Here are the steps we took to prepare today.

step 1: Create a special Women's Space "Tag" in our library database. This same tag has info on who donated the book and when. Done by our volunteer Eryn.
step 2: Update information on our current American Corner library to have on hand for journalists, members, etc. Done by my colleague Denise (found all of our numbers increased significantly this year even though we moved from one apartment after 44 years to another. Also found that we have 60 active volunteers now, not 50, which is what we usually tell people.
step 3: Ask Grazia to create a logo.  Like lighting, she did. Awesome.
step 4: order a cake
Then, invite the Consul General, work the date around when he can come (cake delivery also dependent on date, of course), do a mass mailing to members, friends, etc. Do a Press Release and send to the paper.
Days leading up to the event:CLEAN LIKE CRAZY.
Beg interesting people to speak. Some say yes, some say no.
Put up a ribbon.

Now we wait and hope people show up. But not so many that we have a fire hazard.
Wish us luck.