The Advisory Committee Annual Meeting will take place on Thursday 2nd September at 10am at 34 Mt Vernon St, Cambridge MA 02140. All TOP participants are welcome. Please bring your lunch and be prepared to take all your trash away with you. The TOP Board Annual Meeting will be held at Liz and David's home in Wellesley, from 10-2 on Friday 20th September. Please bring your own lunch and drink. Ice tea will be available. All members of the Advisory Committee are welcome to attend and there will be opportunity for non-board members to contribute. Planning the Spring 2011 series, STANDING ALONE ON A SEE-SAW: Balancing Vulnerability & Security, is progressing. Can you think of more speakers? We need several suggestions for each topic. Do you want to volunteer to focus any of these topics? Go to Spring 2011 and print out the topics come up with so far. Bring your ideas, your lunch and yourself to the next planning meeting at Liz's. The meetings run from 10am to 3pm on Thursdays. Check with Liz (781 235 5320) for the next date.

Donella Meadows Award. On 3rd June 2010, at the Spring Garden Party honoring their service to TOP, Elizabeth and David Dodson Gray were presented with the Donella Meadows Award by the Club of Rome (USA).   Donella Meadows was a pioneering American environmental scientist, teacher and writer and is best known as lead author of the influential book The Limits to Growth. She was a long-term member of the US Association for the Club of Rome, which instituted "The US Association for the Club of Rome Donella Meadows Award in Sustainable Global Actions" in her memory . This coveted award is given to a highly outstanding individual (or individuals) who created actions in a global framework toward the sustainability goals Donella expressed in her writings.   Both Elizabeth and David were members of Carrol Wilson's team in the Sloan School of Management at MIT working on a multi-year seminar on "Critical Choices for the Future," an anticipation of today’s energy concerns and global climate issues. In 1973 they prepared with another MIT colleague the staff work for ten days of Congressional hearings in the 93rd Congress.   For the twenty years from 1975 to 1995 Elizabeth was away two or three times a month lecturing in the U.S. and in Canada on campuses, at regional and national conferences, and in church-related settings, as an outgrowth of this work.   Elizabeth Dodson Gray's first book, Green Paradise Lost, asked why we ever thought we could get away with treating nature so badly. It is now viewed as one of two classic eco-feminist texts.   The presentation was made by Bobbi Gibb who, herself, forged new ground for women by, in 1966, becoming the first woman to complete the Boston Marathon.

Spring Garden Party. On the afternoon of Thursday 3rd June 2010 TOP held a Spring Garden Party in honor of Elizabeth and David Dodson Gray on the occasion of their retirement from thirty-two years of inspired leadership.

Announcing a new Coordinator. The selection process has finally reached its conclusion and the Advisory Committee announces the election of Muna Killingback as the new Coordinator. After 32 years shaping TOP into what it is today and facilitating the planning process Elizabeth Dodson Gray will join the Advisory Committee and become an ordinary participant. Muna will begin as Coordinator on 1st August 2010.

TOP of My Mind, TOP's Blog.   In October 2009 Cheryl Suchors took on the task of writing a blog on the topic of the week, starting with how we might respond to bullying. This was followed by postings on the stereotyping of women and the evolving meaning of feminism. We are hoping to stimulate a lively discussion around these issues and that the blog will provide a forum for the women of TOP and the wider community. So please add your two bits to what Cheryl has said — simply post your comments on the blog and add your voice to the dialogue. As of Spring 2010 Cheryl is stepping down as TOP's regular blogger to set up her own blog. If any of you would like to take on the position of TOP Blogger, or if you would just like to publish the occasional post, please let us know! In the meantime Cheryl has generously agreed to let us repost some of the posts from her multi-faceted blog (five blogs in one), starting with a fascinating article on what we can learn from hawks.

On 29th October 2009 Michael Luck, a retired professional philanthropic fund-raiser, discussed fund-raising with the advisory committee. This replaced the regular planning meeting.

At the Board meeting on Friday 31st July 2009, Elizabeth Dodson Gray announced that she and David will retire on 31st May 2010. They will continue to attend TOP as ordinary participants.

For more information: TOP, 351 Atherton St, Milton MA 02186 • 617 285 7408 • Coodinator.TOP at gmail dot com

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The planning for the Spring 11 series began on the first day of the Spring 10 series.

11th and 18th March 10: Each person present in the Advisory Committee put forward a couple of issues currently on her mind.
25th March 10: The Advisory Committee discussed the issues that had been noted, possible topics and possible themes.
8th April 10: The Advisory Committee decided on a working title of, Reimagining Our Balance and Our Wealth: Vulnerability, Security and Justice for the theme.
15th April 10: Eleven possible topics under this title were identified. These are:
      1. Valuing Women's Work: Reaching for Justice
      2. Changing the Playing Field: The Meaning of Wealth
      3. Our Vulnerability to Being Manipulated and Exploited by Fear Mongers
      4. Responding to Vulnerability: A Woman's Perspective
      5. Standing Alone on the See-saw: Balancing Vulnerability and Security
      6. How Can We End Our Era of Self-Centeredness?
      7. Feeling Empathy for the Earth: Owning the Damage We Have Done
      8. Getting Angry, Staying Friends (or To Know Our Anger Frees Our Love, To Free Our Love Reveals Our Rage)
      9. Every Day, Where Do I Invest My Energy?
      10. Reinventing Our Shifting Sense of Self During Transition
      11. Joy is Like a Wild Turkey - You have to Track It and Grab It
Print out out these topics, and see how you can change them and rearrange them.
22nd & 29th April 10: The Advisory Committee interviewed three candidates for the coordinator's position and discussed their merits.
6th May 10: Normal planning resumed. The title of the theme was changed and major changes were made to some of the topics. An order was suggested and names were suggested for focussers and a couple of speakers. Do we still want to consider How Can We End Our Era of Self-Centeredness? Which topic would we sacrifice?
13th May 10: Two topics were merged to bring the number down to ten. The titles of the theme and many of the topics were tweaked. More focussers and a couple more speakers were suggested. Can you think of a better title for the theme - one that captures the tension between vulnerability and security, justice and wealth? We want a good juicy title to attract a bigger audience. Can you think of more speakers? We need several suggestions for each topic. Do you want to volunteer to focus any of these topics?
8th July 10: Planning resumed at Liz's with a very productive meeting, attended by eight people. We now have speakers suggested for each talk. We need several suggestions for each topic. We also need more people to set the issues.
22nd July 10: Planning continues after one week's break. We have speakers suggested for each talk, but we need multiple suggestions for each topic. Can you think of any more speakers? We had another volunteer to set the issue, but we still need some more people to set the issues. Would you like to volunteer for any of the topics which don't have focussers?
12th August 10: Seven women met for a low key planning meeting at Liz's. More talking than planning was done! We now have more than half the slots filled. Some speakers have accepted, but we are still looking for more (see below), especially for Risking Anger, Staying Friends. Any ideas?

This program is empty. Watch this space to see how a series evolves.
The planning for the Fall 11 series will begin on the first day of the Fall 10 series.