Women's History Month in Australia - some background

[gillpolack]

Given that the public side of WHM in Australia is officially past and the committee has stood down from public events, it's probably not a bad idea to write about the early history. Most of the public sites contain errors. They have lost either two years or three years of the celebration. It worries me when the event that's celebrating women's

Comments

[anonymous]

Thank you for posting that. I find it incredibly disappointing that none of the "senior" women can remember the back-up from the earlier years. In those years I did the website, it seemed to consume my life for months, and that was nothing compared to the amount of work you did! As far as I was concerned, it was thankless work, not because I expected thanks, but because the attitude from the committee (as I perceived it) always seemed to be, "OK, so you did that (with the website), but it should be like this (list some new standard from some agency or whatnot) so go and add that too" without ever acknowledging all the work I'd already done or the time I'd already spent, and without having the faintest idea of how much more time or effort it would take to accomplish what they were asking. And there was no team, or money; there was just me and my donated web space, and my donated skills, and time. Not one person offered to help. Well, except to critique. There were plenty of offers to "review" the site and make suggestions. The final straw was having a web class (or whatever it was -- can't remember -- a student? instructor?) from the university (was it Monash?) do an official critique and send approximately 20 pages of "improvements" that needed to be implemented. You could stick a fork in me at that point because I was quite done. Obviously, it wasn't easy to keep that going with anyone because I see that there isn't really a dedicated WHM website any longer. It has been incorporated into a general WH site. I think it was and remains a worthy endeavor, I was just frustrated about the way that certain things unfolded as it grew. I'm still pleased to have been involved and that it survives.

LJ says I am Anonymous, but I am Tamara

[gillpolack]

I suspect that it was a *lot* more than 500 hours... and that was just my end. The two of us made a fine team, but yes, there was a dearth of other help for the web side of things. It really was a very small team, to do such a big job - far too small, I think. And you did all that from Louisiana, too! I still think you're an honorary Australian, because of what you did those three years. One day I shall send you some ugg boots...

And I remember that critique! They were trying to be helpful, but they got it very wrong. They didn't ask the basic questions. And it would have been really handy to have had that work as actual help! Those website critiques and government standards were very fashionable back then - they helped keep me as far from web design as I could get.

You'll be pleased to know that a 17 year old complained at question time on Wednesday about the vast government resources that were poured into WHM (did I say that, in the post?). For three years, those vast government resources were our time and your publishing house, under the auspices of NGOs. As I said to the new Chair, if it looked that impressive, then we can't have done half badly.

The work you did had consequences beyond WHM. Without you, for instance, Flycon wouldn't have happened for I wouldn't have had the skills to be recruited into it. The very first online international SF convention is all your fault...

It might have been thankless, but it changed things. Still, it's nice to have some time for our own projects, just for a change. And I'm glad you noticed the post - your work is preserved by Pandora and in the archives, but it still needs saying, upfront, where people can see it and celebrate.