GRCA Midterm Board Retreat

Dear GRCA Community, 



Greetings from São Paulo! We are excited to share the inspiring work we accomplished at this year's midterm board retreat. Over the past five days, we reflected on our shared values, adapting to challenges, and strengthening our movement despite the ongoing struggles for liberation worldwide. We found strength in each other, sharing both frustrations and hopes.

 

This year marks a significant milestone with a majority Abya Yala Board of Directors, and we chose São Paulo as a gathering place to honor Girls Rock Brasil’s history as the first camp in Abya Yala. Our retreat focused on movement building, membership engagement, and expanding leadership opportunities. We are planning for the year ahead, including a future conference and creating more opportunities for members to connect and lead.

 

As we move forward, we must reflect on the lessons from the past four years. The pandemic underscored the urgent need for more decentralized and inclusive movement building and a bigger collection of leaders.

 

This year, we invited our Nominations Committee members to the MTBR to explore ways to deepen engagement with our community and expand leadership opportunities for our members. We established key priorities for the upcoming year and will soon offer opportunities for members to join committees and projects that are essential to our work in 2024-2025.

 

During this retreat, we:

 

  • Connected with organizers from around the world who are interested in hosting future in-person conferences and began collaborative planning for our next event.

  • Reviewed the membership of the GRCA Community Space & Toolkit (Mighty Network) and created a plan to enhance its use for building community.

  • Developed strategies for increasing our financial resources to recover from the impacts of the past few years and rebuild the budget for a member-hosted conference.

  • Reviewed the member survey to ensure that your voices are prioritized in our planning and incorporated your thoughts and dreams into our discussions.

 

Together, we are the GRCA and we are so excited to build with you all again this year. 

 

With love and solidarity,

The GRCA Board of Directors

Girls Rock Camp Alliance