The Los Angeles Women’s March

My writing life has gone by the wayside for a while. I was asked a couple of months ago to lead my local resistance group’s, South Bay Cares, trip to the Los Angeles Women’s March on January 20, and I happily accepted.

At first we thought this would be simple. This second Women’s March couldn’t possibly be as popular as the Women’s March was last January 21, the day after the presidential inauguration. And WOW!, were we wrong! Last year we filled two 50-seat buses. This year we filled five with almost twenty people on a waiting list, waiting to pounce if someone cancels.

In the meantime, I’ve given the wait listers instructions for taking the metro in case they don’t manage to get on a bus. They will be able to meet up with the bus riders once we all get to downtown Los Angeles.

What is South Bay Cares?

South Bay Cares was founded by two women in the Los Angeles South Bay community after the election of Donald Trump. Their intent is to Educate, Empower, and Engage. It was founded as a source of education and to be an arbiter of positive action so that its members can be the change that we want to see in the world. Its first major event was last year’s Los Angeles Women’s March.

When I joined, there were twenty members. Now there are 1,322. It is now a certified 501(c)3 non-profit organization.

Here we are marching for science last April. I’m the second from the left, next to our Congressman, Ted Liu.

What does being the lead of this event mean?

Well, it’s turned out to be almost a full-time job: ordering the buses from the rental company; managing bus ticket sales; responding to people wanting me to add more buses; figuring out the logistics on getting people on and off the bus both going to and coming back from the march; planning sign-making parties; regularly communicating with all the people attending; gathering five bus captains and co-captains, and answering the many, many emails, texts, and phone calls I receive every day. Sometimes I’m emailing and texting and talking with the same person at the same time.

As a result, I’ve had to put all my management know-how onto this job. Right now, I think it’s going well – especially since I’ve slowly gathered some terrific help. I’ll let you know after the event is over.

Any lessons learned yet?

One lesson I’ve already learned is that I shouldn’t have assumed this was going to be a small job. I should have planned for a huge success and created a committee to help me right from the start.

Also, it is something else to write about.