The Girlfriend Club

So what is the Girlfriend Club all about?


We all know women we love. Women we have formed a connection with, are attracted to as friends and who we enjoy being with. These are our girlfriends.

It doesn’t matter what time passes between our meetings, when we get together there is that special something that has the friendship wow factor. These are the ladies that can speak honestly to us and we may sulk for a little while but we will not be deeply offended. We may have our differences of opinion, but underneath there is a deep love and respect. They are a strength in our lives and fill our emotional tanks with fuel for the future.

The Girlfriend Club is about drawing strength and giving strength, to and from our girlfriends. It is about celebrating our relationships with our girlfriends and creating new friendships with women that we are drawn to as well.

If I may share a little story of my journey, it may help you to see where I am coming from.

As a people person, I have always met and instantly formed a connection with many women over the years. Women from my different work situations, from different churches I have been involved in, from within the performing arts community, and even older women I’ve met socially that I just loved instantly.

Finding the time to “service” these relationships was difficult. With four small children under five going through a time of financial hardship, there was a stage in my life where our phone was cut off and I went through severe post-natal depression. My ability to draw strength from my most rewarding energy source was severely impaired. I had only limited contact with my girlfriends and in this time I came to realize just how precious and valuable these relationships really were to me.

Further, there were some women I’d met in my journey that I just knew we would one day put our hands to the same plough of endeavour. These women were Rani, Jill, Nola, Darielle and Deanna, the women I am working with on our committee. These are women that I really love from the heart and I am energized by their interactions in my life.

In 2006, I decided I wanted to take action about this part of my life and I started the concept of the Girlfriend Club. I organized with my husband to cook a meal for us and to take care of the children. I invited six ladies to come to my home and enjoy a special Girlfriend Club meal with me. I asked them to bring a treasure that they could share with the other ladies, as a talking point. That night I brought women from all the spheres of my world - my work, my church, my extended social network, together around the table for a meal and it was really special. This is where the Girlfriend Club idea was birthed.

Then in 2007, my best friend from school contacted me unexpectedly after 20 plus years and said, “I’m coming to Perth next week, have you got any time to spare.” I was so thrilled and she came and stayed with us for a week. Well, the instant she was in the front door I immediately was taken back to our years growing up together and I realized why she was my best friend, because the connection was still there, despite the fact that we’d had very little contact for over 20 years. This strengthened my understanding of this connection we form as girlfriends and fueled my fire for Women Can International Inc.

The vision for our events comes out of this understanding of the importance of these relationships in our lives and out of this heart connection. The Girlfriend Club is an opportunity for you to create space and time in your life for your girlfriends. Why not invite and bring with you, a table of women from your world that you really enjoy, but may not have the time to see in your normal life. The women you invite don’t have to be from the same parts of your world, as if you are anything like me, you have so many worlds that you have been in involved in. Why not gather women from all parts of your life and let them connect. You never know what a difference it may make in their lives to have someone you respect and love enter their world.

As women, we are very busy. Getting time away from children, our work, our parents and our obligations can be difficult. However, being with our girlfriends is energizing. These interactions help us to flourish and give us energy to do those things that are not as exciting or rewarding.

Also, the opportunity to meet new girlfriends is also so important. Just at this last breakfast I had the opportunity to meet so many quality women that I am having a hard time deciding whom I will try to sit next to at the next breakfast! J You just never know who you are going to meet and how your life is going to benefit from the connection. There is power in our union together, as we share our knowledge, our wisdom and our abilities.

Through our Girlfriend Club program we also want to start to build our “Little Dragon/Old Bald Eagle” (request a copy of the fable here) types of relationships. This will be our mentoring part of our Girlfriend Club program. So if you feel you are a “Little Dragon” looking for an “Old Bald Eagle” or an “Old Bald Eagle” looking for a “Little Dragon”, I would encourage you to send me an email to let me know so that I can facilitate a connection.

Become a member of Women Can International Inc today and gain access to the Girlfriend Club’s invitation only social network on Ning.com. This is where many of our mentoring partnerships will find their wings.