>> Hello and welcome to Prime Time on this Friday evening.

>> I know you were might be disappointed.

Bruce Haines usually hosts the show and he is a wonderful job.

Unfortunately he can't be here this week so he asked me to fill in.

I'm Jennifer Blomquist.

Normally you see me on the HealthLine program same set just a different show.

So I'm glad you tuned in.

And just like HealthLine this is a live show and you could call in any time during the program.

We have a certain group with us tonight.

We're going to be talking about this organization, all that it offers for the community perhaps maybe how you might want to get involved with it or help them out.

In the meantime, there's a phone number and it's going to stay on the bottom of the screen through the show it's (969) 27 two zero.

If you're outside of Fort Wayne it's still a free call.

Just put an 866- in front of there and we welcome any questions you had the show runs until eight o'clock so you have a couple of options if you kind of a shy person you don't want to ask the question live on the air that's perfectly fine.

They don't just throw you on the air when you call you'll talk to this call screener and you can either ask it live.

You're welcome to do that or they can get the question from you and then I can pose it to our guests.

So take advantage of of learning all you can about this organization and any time.

>> So let me go ahead and introduce we have three guests I'm used to just having one guest on helpline, usually one physician.

>> So have to make sure I get everybody's names correct.

So sitting next to me is Fate Van Gelder and faits we're talking about a group called A Vow which is advancing voices of women.

But these you know, people they all have real jobs too.

So I'll tell you what in real life what their job is.

So faith Chief Officer of marketing development for Girl Scouts, Girl Scouts of Northern Indiana and Michigan and sitting next to faith is Patty Hays.

>> Patty is the CEO of the Anthony Lane Services Foundation.

And then sitting next to Patty is Marilyn Birand Townsend, my coffee shop buddy.

We used to run into each other all the time at a coffee shop in town when it was still dark in the morning.

So many people I'm sure seen Marilyn.

She's been very active in the community over the years.

You are the co-founder, chairman and CEO at See See Communications.

>> So thank you so much to all of you for joining us tonight.

So the anachronism of your organization that you've formed is a vow a V o w and like I said, it stands for Advancing Voices of Women.

What how did it start?

You guys did you just all get together?

>> It started five years ago but tell me the history of it.

Well, Maryland is actually working on this topic as far back as twenty sixteen because if you recall the election of that year it was very uncivil I guess you would say and it became very vitriolic and a lot of people noticed and thought, you know, what is the problem here?

Why can't we talk to each other in a civil fashion?

So three of the four founders of Avow were participating in the women's march in Washington DC in January of twenty seventeen and we came back and wanted to keep that momentum and energy and enthusiasm going in our own community and the four of us got together and said hey, let's do something.

Let's do something local that advances women, makes them not afraid to raise their voice and wherever that leads them in the political process or just being on an appointed board or commission or just taking part in a civil conversation on an important topic too many times women think I'm not an expert, I can't speak up.

My opinion doesn't matter.

They'll only run for office if they're asked and part of that was the momentum was to give women that power to have a voice to publicly use it and we know women can be very civil and work across the aisle on conflict issues.

So that really drove a lot of the three pillars that we have and we were really disappointed with what was going on in Washington at the time but we were resolved to the idea of our creating an environment in Fort Wayne that would spread and we really do believe that you can change things locally and then you can change things globally but you start local and it's been very rewarding this five years and I didn't want to forget there there is a fourth founded the group I did not want to neglect to mention Hershey that is Rachel Tobin Smith.

>> So she's not with us tonight but definitely wanted to acknowledge her.

So I I think you know and we are living in to me I feel like we're in a toxic environment and now with all this cancer culture, people from whatever your political background is, they're afraid to speak up and that's not America.

>> You know, that's what I think makes our country great is freedom of speech and saying what you feel and being able to express yourself.

So it sounds like this kind of reaches out to to women in particular who you know and in general there usually tend to be more men serving in public in the public eye.

And so I don't know if you want to if one of you wants to address that is people are a little timid today we we see less than 20 percent of elected offices in the state of Indiana currently held by women.

So can definitely improve with that for sure.

Yeah.

And that's why we got started with the women's campaign Institute almost as soon as we began as an organization where we identified what were the needs that we could really identify and address as a as an organization.

And when we looked at the political scenario we saw as Patty pointed out that it really was a scenario that involved both a lot of civility and not very many women.

>> And so we really decided this was an area where we could help women gain that confidence if they were waiting to be asked, we were going to ask them to run for office and we were not only going to help them get elected but we were going to teach them the kind of civility that once elected they would reach across the aisle and get things done and not make this about only their party.

And that has been the most rewarding thing for me to see in the institute is that after we put women through about 27 hours in three days to learn everything that they possibly can about running for office at graduation, the recurring theme is before I came here if you had said to me that I should maybe consider knowing a Democrat or a Republican I would have told you no way and I certainly wouldn't have thought about helping them.

>> But I have an entirely different opinion now that I've been through this and we've seen it before.

>> People from different backgrounds can work together in harmony and respectfully.

>> And so it's a it's a shame that that's kind of been lost.

I know faith we were they brought up the slide about your mission and I neglected to ask you when we were done talking about history what what is the mission?

>> It's very simple.

It's our acronym Advancing Voices of all women in the public in public life and it's important to remember like Marilyn said that we are nonpartizan and so we want to attract women of all parties or no party affiliation and we don't take we don't support any candidates in particular either .

So going from our mission statement then we had three values that we really hold true and dear.

One is of course courageous civility.

So you we want people to be able to get together, sit at tables and talk about really controversial topics but do it respectfully and you don't have to agree with somebody who holds a different opinion but you have to listen respectfully and allow them to share and and just try to come to an agreement.

OK, I understand where you're coming from.

The second thing is inclusiveness.

So we value all women from you know, whatever religion or political affiliation or gender or or you know, country of origin doesn't matter.

And the third thing is just integrity and just making sure that we educate people about what is truth and what is what are facts and then just try to bring them along so that they know the difference between what's the truth and then what is like hyperbole that they might be seeing on social media.

>> And you know and I'm glad you touched on social media.

I people have accused me of living a sheltered life and it's kind of true because I primarily stay home with my six children.

I freelance here.

I'm blessed to have done this for thirteen years.

I was a full time journalist so when you could still call them journalists I guess it's the field has changed quite a bit but social media does play a huge role.

I don't personally use it in my personal life but it is amazing that how much of an impact it has had on the entire world and so I guess there can be good and bad.

So do you help the women who get involved to know how to use it as a as a solid and good platform?

>> I guess it was a real feature in this year's Women's Campaign Institute where we both addressed how you think of social media, how you use it effectively as a tool but also how you make sure that you can scrub your social media of the things that are perhaps said or written about you that are not true.

>> Yeah, yeah.

There's a lot of so there was a huge interest in that subject this year and it just continues to grow year after year.

>> Well if somebody and I want to encourage people to call Lank because I know this was a very new topic to me this group I wasn't really very familiar with it.

So if you want to learn out, find out more.

I have a particular question for our guests again, the phone lines are open.

Nobody has called in so we could get you on right away.

You wouldn't have to wait at all.

(969) 27 two zero is the number to call.

Like I said, we're going to keep discussing this group but feel free to interrupt us at any time.

So if somebody is watching right now and they're thinking this sounds like something that I might be interested in doing, how does that even start?

Because you guys it's a nonprofit so you and you don't have a physical office space.

>> So how how does it all come together?

Probably one of the best opportunities is an event that will be coming up this week on Wednesday night we have a civil conversation coming up one of our three pillars bringing together women at no cost in a neutral space to listen to a panel about a controversial issue and to actually practice a skills of civility this week Wednesday night at First Press at five thirty in the Keys down first press downtown of the community room we will be covering civility in times of covid we have seen a lot of uncivil behavior not just nationally but also in Fort Wayne how to have an opinion figure out how to express it, how to share it, how to talk with people in a civil fashion rather than just avoid too many of the times what we choose to do is surround ourselves with like minded people never hearing the other side surround ourselves on social media people that have similar opinions all the media I read I watch so similar opinions we need to hear the other side listen and then seek some common ground.

We've covered issues around immigration, gun control, legalization of marijuana, not light issues and still have some common ground we can reach at the end of each civil conversation.

People get nervous talking about some of these things that they're just going to get pounded, you know, for for their for their belief or their stance.

So I don't know if you want to reiterate it's a safe and kind of environment.

>> That's what you're promoting.

Well, we have an expectation coming in and we review the ground rules.

We see a demonstration of civility by having a panel of experts engaged and then you have an opportunity to practice.

We've been doing this since our inception through generous underwriting by Journal Gazette and even during times of covid we had several conversations.

We assume we're trying to keep it going outside.

We did a little in the summertime at our street market.

We want to keep it going and it's about time we talked about it and it's a perfect time because as we're approaching Thanksgiving there are an awful lot of people who have great trepidation about how they're going to go to a Thanksgiving table where it may not be civil even in their own families.

So I would really encourage them to come to this civil conversation this week and gain a lot of insights about probably some of the hot topics are going to be talking about over Turkey.

Yeah, yeah.

>> And it's a shame it's you know, which is why this program is so great.

I've just seen so many families fall apart in the last year in particular, you know, and it is a difficult time I there are a lot of things going on that people feel very strongly about one way or the other and who could have ever imagined something like covid like what it has done to our society especially you know, here we see images from other parts of the world and then and then we've got many issues here too.

So I'm glad to hear it.

I want to and we'll remind everybody at the end of the show, Patty, about about that program Wednesday.

Great time and everything you don't have to do you have to sign up online or anything.

>> It's wonderful if you do we want to make sure we have tables and chairs set for you going to the of our website a v o w f w dot com I looked for information it'll flash there it is and registration's available there.

>> OK, perfect.

All right.

Good to be prepared.

I know Patti, you talked about the civil conversations.

Is there anything else you want to say about that before because Maryland has a couple of topics that we haven't touched on yet so I'll jump in in Maryland there still though is that every week the civil conversation oh God no.

>> I didn't think so.

I did that it would be exhausting.

We try and do six year OK. >> All right.

Yes.

Yeah but you could do one every week I guess I'd be pretty exhausted but Jennifer, we do have another way that people can get involved that does happen every week and in the Sunday Journal Gazette every week there is an op ed written by a local woman and it's not labeled a women's writers series but that in fact is what it is.

And so we would encourage any woman in our community to please let us know if there's they should go through you and then put that together and we'll tell them how many words they're allowed and give them some other guidelines on writing.

Not bad.

And if they if there's an issue that is close to their heart that they are knowledgeable and we have had a whole variety of of OP Ed's they've been every every Sunday for five years now and we're seeing now away from that Sunday more women writing letters to the editor.

More women are doing guest opinion pieces.

They are realizing they have an opinion they and it's worthy of being expressed well and I think women bring some unique qualities to the table too.

You know, they definitely see the world from a little bit of a different perspective and being a stay at home mom.

I was there was one time there was a guy on TV and he said, you know, I think a stay at home moms see like they could be good CEOs.

People don't think about that because it can be sometimes in your home when you're changing diapers and you're scrubbing the floors and you're thinking, OK, I did go to college and you feel like you don't have a voice but no matter what your background is, you know you're managing a family, you're managing your finances at home, you're managing all sorts of stuff and sounds like a future, you know, gastroparesis shout out to a lot of women out there who feel like yeah, they can't do it but you know, look at your own life and all the things you manage and you know, you can apply it on a bigger platform so very much and I didn't want to neglect Marilyn.

Did you want to talk profiles and or sure.

>> There are two primary ways that women can get engaged in public service in government realms and the first we've talked a little about and that is preparing women to run for office to manage campaigns to get involved in working those campaigns as well.

And then the other is what we call profiles in public service.

We recognize that many important decisions are made by appointed not elected officials.

And so we wanted to prepare women to seek those appointments and to understand what all of the opportunities are, what the responsibilities are and to be prepared to really contribute once appointed.

So we serve in both the role of talent scout finding women who wish to seek public appointment and a bit of matchmaker to match those women to advocate for them with typically elected officials who have those appointment opportunities.

And so it's really turned out to be just a great way to engage women who don't really want to run for office but do want to serve and we have wonderful women in both the local appointment areas and then regional and state as well.

>> It's really important.

So what you do is that again you go to a vow F.W.

Dotcom and look up profiles in public service and when you go there you'll find a very simple one page form to fill out just really easy submit a resume.

We contact you and then talk about more about what it is that you'd really like to to be engaged with.

And then once we've done that, as I said, we advocate for you to be able to serve and and we hold a lot of educational training sessions throughout the year to prepare those women to serve.

So it's an ongoing continuing education for women to get involved and I just want they just told me the time card so we're down to probably close to about six, seven minutes which is plenty of time for questions.

I told you guys go fast and I told them there were no commercials.

They looked at me like oh but it does go very quickly and what ends up happening sometimes is somebody does call right at the last minute but we can still squeeze in a couple of questions.

So please call us (969) to seven to zero like I said in the meantime we'll continue talking about a ball but feel free to call.

We've still got a few minutes left in the program.

So you guys started five years ago.

I mean humble beginnings and are you continually trying to grow it?

Are there things that you're maybe wanted to do in the coming year?

>> Are there things that people watching could do to help you achieve that?

Well, I would encourage everyone to start by looking at our website and look for where there is an intersection for them.

Marilyn talked about profiles, courage.

Every single woman listening here should either apply or talk to a friend that they know to apply.

There is a fit.

There is an opportunity.

Yes, you are able to do this.

You need to step up.

You need to get involved.

Don't keep thinking it'll happen another time.

>> It'll happen in the future when my kids are grown up well that's you know that's hard when you when you're juggling a family and maybe a job as well.

But but we're seeing it happen .

I mean look at all this you know, all the hubbub about the school boards all over the country.

We're seeing people that I can't tell you how many people I've seen on TV men and women that say I didn't think I could serve on a school board but I was getting concerned about things that were going on.

I wanted to be able to have a voice and they did it.

So I mean we've definitely seen that recently no such thing as just the school board.

>> Yeah, well you never know what that I look at the school boards now are making and breaking families schedules, work environment, the labor force.

Yeah I can be a big major decisions definitely very much faith.

>> Were you wanting to say something sorry I didn't mean to cut you off.

No you when you when you mentioned about encouraging women to raise their voice and get involved I just had to smile because we all all four of us recruit women to write op ed because we need and every week and we really need some in reserve in case somebody backs out at the last minute and so there literally have been some people that I've, you know, really pestered for years before they actually put pen to paper and and they do a great job and for many people it's the first time they've ever seen their name in the paper or or been published.

So it's just a wonderful entry to a vow and as well as coming to a civil conversation, we don't expect that everybody wants to run for office.

>> But there are just so many ways to get involved and to serve well and with that op ed is it proof read I mean do you guys I mean I think that's the one that concerns people is oh I want I want somebody who knows if I've done this in an OK fashion.

>> Faith is absolutely fabulous this and so she serves as the editor in chief of the individual OP ads and provides great input for that.

>> So it's wonderful.

Yeah.

You know and the other thing too, you know you guys have been talking so much about political campaigns.

I know one thing I've heard people say oh man how would I ever raise the funds?

How would I you know you can't although we've seen people do on, you know, very little money.

>> I think the truck driver out in West Virginia or I can't remember I mean I think he spent one hundred fifty three bucks sixty of it was at a donut shop to pay for his so but I think the money aspect does scare people away so it does but we have we have master of faculty for the Women's Campaign Institute and I'll do a particular shout out to Brenda Gerber Vincent who who has put together so many wonderful fundraising strategies for so many winning campaigns and she comes and shares all of these terrific secrets and is just fabulous.

We have the executive director of the Women's Campaign School at Yale University who comes to serve as faculty.

Former Mayor Paul Helmke comes to serve as faculty the head of Sally's list of Oklahoma comes to serve as faculty.

We have a program that includes speed mentoring where women can ask all the questions that they think perhaps are stupid.

Of course there is no stupid question and they can ask everything that they want to know and and get Fabia less respectful and very useful information from women who've been there done that in speed mentoring and many of the other kinds of programs that we bring.

>> I mean that's just what people need is they need a little confidence boost.

They need to talk to people who can point them in the right direction because if it's something you've never done before, you know, you you just wouldn't know any of that.

So we only have about a minute and a half left.

But if we can bring up I wanted to bring up the Web address again and also want to remind people about the meeting this coming it was Wednesday, Wednesday, November 17th.

I'm five thirty till seven at first press on Main Street downtown civility in times of covid I think that is a very excellent topic and there it is about a v o w w dot com and Patty has said before if you're interested in going on Wednesday be a good idea to preregister so they can be prepared for you.

So it will be socially dist.. That's one of the reasons we're looking Performing Arts Center usually hosts us first prize has a larger room so I share we are concerned about everyone's well-being and we're choosing that space because we can socially distance and then we have a program on December 4th that will be via zom and this is for women who want to seek public appointments and it's a speed mentoring so you'll be in different Zoome rooms with women who have served virtually every public government committee or commission in the area and learn everything you want to know.

>> So they're giving me the wrap sign.

That's where I've also Marilyn Marad Townsend, Patty Hayes and Faith Van Gelder.

Wonderful to hear about a vow.

Check it out ALAO Avio WSW Dotcom I'm Jennifer Bloomquist.

>> Bruce will be back for next week's show.

Take care.

Have a really nice weekend and try to stay warm