For those that attend network meetings

[earthgirl]

I would like to know, for those that attend local birth/doula meetings:

• How often do you meet?
• Is an agenda set forth before every meeting?
• Is a fee charged in order to maintain the group?
• Do you feel things get accomplished at these meetings?
• Do you feel a sense of community support and activism by attending them?
• Do you frequently contact your local congress as a result of some of the meetings?

[DouLaura]

I belong to a fabulous group of doulas. It is a membership based group, 40.00 a year but you do not have to be a member to come to meetings or be on the yahoo group. Members are listed on the group website and the fees go to pay for promotional activites we attend.
We meet once per month, alternating Monday evenings and Saturday mornings. We try to plan a topic for each meeting with everyone contributing or someone scheduled to do a presentation.
We are truly a group of friends and all work together toward the same goal-educating the public on doulas and birth. We are there for each other for back-up and support.
our website is www.charlottedoulas.org if you want to check it out.

[DoulaYvonne]

Quote:

Originally Posted by earthgirl How often do you meet? about once per month Is an agenda set forth before every meeting? not usually Is a fee charged in order to maintain the group? there is really no maintenance so, no. We are in the process of buildiing a website so we will all pay a minimal amount for the hosting. One of our doula's dh is setting it up fr us so there is no cost involved on that end. Do you feel things get accomplished at these meetings? Yes, but with more off topic chitchat than I'd like Do you feel a sense of community support and activism by attending them? Yes, it helps me to feel reinvigorated Do you frequently contact your local congress as a result of some of the meetings? No, it's mostly for support of each other, though we often have guest speakers such as birth photographers, etc

Hhope this helps!

[MothertheMother]

check out BirthNetwork National. You can join as a chapter in your area and the start up stuff is pretty much done for you. You have suggestions for meeting agendas, they maintain the members lists and handle the $$. Once you are set up you can even use their non-profit status to help raise $$ for your chapter (so local businesses can take the tax credit).

[mamasara]

I belong to a group in Kansas City: kcdoulas.org

* How often do you meet? Once per month except Dec. for 2 hours. Non-members can attend. We also have 2 yahoo groups; one for business related to members only and one general forum.

* Is an agenda set forth before every meeting? Yes, and we usually invite a guest speaker to present for 45 min at each meeting. Topics have included life coach, hynotherapy, baby boot camp, baby wearing demo, Happiest Baby demo, etc.

* Is a fee charged in order to maintain the group? $25 per year to be a member and $25 to be listed on the web site for referrals.

* Do you feel things get accomplished at these meetings? Yes, VERY much! We hold a conference once per year (last year we had Dr Newman as presenter, VERY popular), provide lots of community education through attend many health fairs, etc, track impending changes or new laws that affect the birthing community, and share resources.

* Do you feel a sense of community support and activism by attending them? Absolutely.

* Do you frequently contact your local congress as a result of some of the meetings? I would say that we track what is going on so that members can make their own decisions about who to contact and when.