Scots Women Meet Again
EDINBURGH: For a number of reasons the women’s meetings had become restricted in numbers and activities over a period of time.
Members of the previous women’s committee had departed leaving the Secretary to keep things going on all fronts. The meeting place in the lounge bar of an Edinburgh hotel imposed limitations and inconveniences detrimental to the active functioning of the group. Communications with Scottish Minorities Group Edinburgh were slow, infrequent and vague, leaving the women’s position in the Edinburgh Branch ill-defined. It was not clear whether the women thought of themselves as being part of the SMG Edinburgh or of SMG as such, whether they thought they were affiliated to either or merely considered this a nominal connection. With the election of a new Convenor and Treasurer who can support the valiant efforts of the Secretary, a start was made in midFebruary to activate the group and to provide once again a meeting place for women. To clarify the whole situation and to allay any fears by those women who do not wish to be involved in a very formal organisation, the following policies have been adopted:

The women’s group will operate and advertise as SCOTTISH MINORITIES GROUP EDINBURGH BRANCH (WOMEN), but meetings will be open to all women whether they are SMG members or not.
The women will be kept informed of the policies and programme of the SMG and particularly of the Edinburgh Branch, but no one will be exhorted or compelled to join SMG, if that is not their intention.
The Convenor, the Secretary and the Treasurer of the Women’s group will be SMG members as will be those women who serve on the National Committee or on the SMG Edinburgh Branch Committee.

The newly-activated women’s group was given an excellent start by Sharon Murray of the North Eastern Women’s Group who gave a very stimulating and highly enjoyable talk to SMG Edinburgh on “The Position of the Homosexual Woman” on 18th February. Since then the women have organised a theatre visit and set out a programme for the next three months for their fortnightly meetings, which includes listening to and talking about two ‘Sappho Tapes’, darts and music, a discussion about gay books, invitations to the Women’s Liberation Workshop and the Glasgow Women’s Group as well as bowling and other social events. It has also been noticeable that more women now participate in the social events arranged by SMG Edinburgh and some have become regular attenders at the Monday meetings.

The women’s group can now be contacted in a variety of ways which should also help to keep everyone informed about what happens, when, where and why. The quickest contact can be made by phoning the Convenor at 031-556 9473 at any reasonable time, or the SMG Edinburgh Telephone Befriending Service at 03 1-332 9149 on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays between 6 and 9pm when women will answer the telephone as often as not, there being as many women as men involved in keeping this telephone service going. Written enquiries can be addressed to the Secretary, 11 St Colme Street, Edinburgh EH3 6AG, or to any other contact address published by the Scottish Minorities Group or SMG
Edinburgh Branch. Scotswoman