The History of Witchgrove
It’s a strange notion to be writing a history of a
yahoo group. Normally histories involve
big, world-changing events, dead people and leaders with weapons enough to kill
a large number of people. Even with a
Socialist hat on, which proclaims that the histories of the ‘little people’ are
more important than those of kings and queens, it feels faintly ridiculous to
be contemplating writing about a three-year-old mailing list. But four nights ago, I was driving home
with another Grover in the car. We were
discussing the effort that goes into maintaining a group like this and I said
to her, ‘But, at the end of the day, it’s just another yahoo group, isn’t it?’ ‘No,’ she replied, ‘it’s much more than
that. There have been times that it’s
saved my life.’ I concurred. It’s worth a history.
2002
Witchgrove was born on March 22nd, 2002,
at 7.00pm (GMT). For both Cerridwyn
Morganne (Cerr), the creator actually pressing the relevant buttons in order
for it to exist, and Chelle, the first person to enter the Grove after Cerr and
subsequent joint list-owner, it was just after 11am on a Las Vegas
morning.
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‘Witchgrove's
birth was something of an emergency c-section if you will.....that was quite
a day - see, many of us started together on another list which went down
under *very* confusing circumstances. The listowner delisted 300 members
without warning and then less than a week later sent the mods (including
Chelle and myself) an email saying the list would be deleted, so long. Chelle and I, being on the phone as this
was happening, decided to try to keep everyone together because that list had
truly meant something to us and I know to others as well. Chelle tried to pull together email addys,
so we could invite the members while I created Witchgrove. It was that
fast, truly, took maybe 20 minutes all told to get the Grove set up, addy's
entered into the invite function....at a certain point both Chelle and I were
in looking at addys and clicked "Next" and got the message "this
list does not exist." *sigh* It was
devastating - we knew it was coming any minute but the reality of it
was....erhm....what's the word......there isn't one, so I'll just say it
again: devastating. So we sat huddled on the phone together and finally started
letting out breath as people started to accept their invitations…’ Cerr, list
mama http://www.witchgrove.org/Cerrinterview.htm |
So what happened that day? Who were the first Grovers and what was the atmosphere like? This can be reconstructed. For a start, we know that Cerr set the clock
to European time, because those are the times presented in the archives and on
the messages now.
Here is what that first day must have been like for
Cerr and Chelle. Between 11am and 10
past 11, Cerr was writing welcome documents, which are more or less those which
are still automatically sent to newcomers today, and setting the group policies
and access features. At 8 minutes past
11am, Chelle joined the Grove and was immediately made list-owner. We can suppose that the next half an hour
was spent getting the invitations out, because the first member, bstiles,
joined at 11.36am.
Anna joined at 11.57am and was made a moderator at 24
minutes past 12. By then, Osran
(11.53), Aella (11.55) and Minerva Ravenwing (11.56) had already joined. A steady trickle of members entered the
gates of this brand, new Grove thereon.
Seishina (12.18); jakedefannon (12.23); Blind Owl
(12.30); Wolfdreamer (12.39); Rhiannonsolana (12.40); Thorney (12.55); Georgia was
in at 1.11, followed by Bella at 1.18pm; Dantalian and Morganna
Skye were together (1.29pm); ajbauer
(1.49); rljardine (1.51); witchywm (2.23); njwills
(2.39); 2.54pm: Pixie arrived, followed by taotegreen
at (3.19) and Faithweaver (3.25);
Shewolf was in at 3.57; Jeninia
(4.19); Ariana was in at 5.16pm, followed by Mab at 5.24; Epona-bri
(6.31pm); Cailleach (6.55), followed by Moonstone Catseyes
(6.56); Moondust (7.02); beateat (7.09); Lady Kenco
(7.18); Angel (8pm); Genhorrall (8.09); mrsswar1966 (that
you BudoftheRose?) (8.32); Flightless Angel wandered in at 10.18pm. 47 minutes past midnight, in walked Aisha;
Hermwtch (1.43am); Ladydragonfly at 2.20, followed by Sylvie
at 2.24am; Chelle was up at 5am approving Mab’s work e-mail address and Missy’s
application to join; Patti (6.07am); the reflecting god (6.27am –
Chelle was still up to approve him); then Bella joined AGAIN at 6.59am. Those were the 43 members of Witchgrove
here a full day after Cerr had first created the group; anyone else who tells
you that they were there on day one, feel free to raise your eyebrows…
The next few weeks brought another trickle of
members, amongst them were Mikey, Cabochon (who was immediately made British
mod), Rhiannon Astara, Blind Owl, Saoirse, Mgk Girl, Sara Jean, Laurie, Niamh
Onara, Saoirse, Ivy Wolfmoon and Ocean, who are all still members now.
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‘The early
days of witchgrove... hmmm I remember thinking how things were new and
exciting, things had changed suddenly but with the love and determination of
you all, we are still here and fiestier (is that a word? LOL) than ever.
Love, one of 43
Witchgrovers who joined in the first 24 hours ‘Oh I sure
remember. I first felt scared that witchlight was gone. Then I got the
invite to witchgrove, and I was so relieved. You see for
many years, I was such a solitary witch. When I first got my computer
and discovered witchy groups, I was happy. Then found most of them were rife
with fighting about the right way to do it. This group..... witchgrove
and a couple others are in the few where we rarely fight. Witchgrove is my home.’ Minerva Ravenwing, one of 43 Witchgrovers who joined in
the first 24 hours ‘I was
checking emails when the other list disappeared. I immediately in a
panic emailed Shonna asking what happened. She told me a bit and said
they were working on the invites.’ Georgia, one of 43
Witchgrovers who joined in the first 24 hours |
‘The Early days of Witchgrove, I remember the days BEFORE
Witchgrove, and what actions and decisions were made that in essense brought
death to one group and, from this death, birth was given to a new group,
Witchgrove. I remember feeling chaos, at the death of the one group, fear
that we would not all find our way back to each other and then extreme relief
with the birth of Witchgrove, all in a matter of a few hours! I remember in the first days it was a haven for those that had
lost much with the death of the other group; Witchgrove was different, but we
were still together. I remember watching and participating as the group changed and
evolved in a short amount of time to become even better then the old group
that it was given birth from. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, better,
stronger, more solid, more magical then before, this is what Witchgrove was
then... but it is even MORE NOW!’ Shewolf Silver Shadows, one of 43 Witchgrovers who joined in
the first 24 hours ‘I remember the Early days as starting out a little hectic and then
settling down into it's own skin. It was a safe place to fall and
regroup; still is. :-) It's a friendship, a community but mostly it's what
I've come to looks at as my extended family.’ Jeninia, one of 43 Witchgrovers who joined in
the first 24 hours |
‘Well one of
my main memories of WG is that there were many friendly faces.
Great friendships were made very fast. We were all thrown together in a
weird old way, but got along so very well. The list
helped me through VERY hard times back then, and so I dont have many memories
of the happy times, but I am grateful for the help that many did give.
The list as I remember was very loving, always willing to help in any way
they could and a great place to learn and share what we think and feel. I would like
to wish WG a very Happy 3rd Birthday, and hopefully the list will continue
through to many more birthdays. Love
to all of you, and pass on my love to anyone that still remembers me on
list.’ Love and
Light LadyK, one of 43
Witchgrovers who joined in the first
24 hours ‘I remember
the grove as a place that I could turn to
Patti, one of 43 Witchgrovers who joined in the
first 24 hours |
There were 69 members by the end of March 2002; during the next seven months, the membership
remained in the mid-to-high 70s, before rising to the 80s during November and
December 2002. The posts frequently
topped the 1000 mark for the first five months, then, from August 2002 onwards,
gradually began falling away. But the
friendliness of the Witchgrove community remained and a wealth of information
was posted, through posts or some of the earliest ‘features’, like Chelle’s Herbal
Hutch, Genhorrall’s Into
the Unknown, Anna’s Rune
of the Week and Spirit
Talks, Aisha’s The
Crystal Grove, Pixie’s Pouches
and Mab’s The
Second Seeing. Meanwhile, Cerr was
busily filling the files,
photos and art
gallery and Friends
of the Grove.
Then, on September 21st 2002, Chelle
stepped down as owner and moderator of Witchgrove, leaving the group in the
very capable hands of Cerr, Anna and Cabochon.
|
‘Happy
Birthday WitchGrove! Although I
stepped down as Moderator in 2002 to open The Herbal Hutch, my love &
support remained with all of the mods and owner. I am so proud of all of
them for the work and love they have put into this group to make it
absolutely the best group on the net. Shonna, Jo, Anna, Georgia and Roxanne,
all my love.. job well done!’ love Chelle |
2003
Witchgrove peaked at 86 members in January 2003,
before slowly declining to only 67 members by June 2003. The posts continued to fall and, in
February 2003, only 295 e-mails had passed between the group – a quite
respectable amount for a group like this, but not when compared to all that
early enthusiasm. They briefly picked
up again by May, but were steadily falling again during the summer of 2003.
Also, on February 2nd 2003, Cabochon
stepped down as a Witchgrove moderator.
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‘At the
time I was doing one of my famous disappearing acts. I wanted to be out there and doing rather
than in the Grove talking and discussing.
I found that Witchgrove was a good springboard, but if I hung about
too long, all I was doing was bouncing up and down on that springboard. I wanted to dive off, then do all the
things that I’d been inspired to do rather than just talk about it.’ Cabochon,
original Witchgrove moderator. |
Eight days later, a very shocked and suddenly
terrified Mab was asked to take his place; she accepted, then spent the summer
being afraid to moderate in any way, shape or form without asking Cerr and
Anna’s permission first… the words ‘neither use nor ornament’ applying very
nicely there.
Even a casual glance at the ‘statistics’ page on the website
will indicate that something happened during the late summer-early
autumn of that year. Suddenly
membership was rising in increments of 10 people a month, then in ever greater
numbers. By October 2003, there were
just over 100 Grovers. Even more
startling, there was an influx of posts which took everyone by surprise. In that same month, 3132 e-mails passed
between a group, which had become used to counting them in the 100s and for
which 1000 e-mails had been viewed as ‘very busy’.
So what happened in the summer of 2003 to turn it
all around? Anna and Mab might have a
few charges to answer on this score:
Anna: Are we going to tell the true story then?
Mab: Well, Anna and I were in chat, discussing
how quiet the Grove was. We disagreed
on one fundamental point. I said that
at least the group we had all contributed; Anna thought that it was a dozen at
most, each posting a lot, while everyone else lurked. Me being me, I had to look at the evidence and make some
lists. The result was the October Pie-Chart;
and I was right! 80% of the Grove contributed,
while only 20% lurked. Janice, a member
at the time, told me that the norm for groups like ours are those figures
reversed. The thing was that I started
the chart after only one week into October;
it caught people’s imaginations so much that I ended up keeping it going
until the end of the month. Individual
Grovers got really competitive, trying to keep their position within the chart,
and we were all screaming for people to de-lurk just to push the percentages
up. It ended up with folk posting any
old **** because of this. But I made
my point! LOL
Thing is, though Anna didn’t push her view, I knew that she could have argued that the pie chart itself affected the figures. Which was true. That wouldn’t have been accepted in an academic sense. So, in the December, unbeknown to anyone, I did the chart again… and received the same results beyond all expectations! That’s what happened in October 2003.
Anna: I’d say that it was the weekly
discussions – they started in September 2003.
Then you had listed us on Witchvox around that time, which brought a lot
of people in. Let’s face it, you were
practically dragging people in off the streets at one time. The website…
Mab: That
was September 2003 as well, because it coincided with the weekly
discussions starting.
Anna: Check the Anniversary
piece that I wrote, that will tell you about those.
Mab: So you’re saying that what happened
in summer and autumn 2003 is that I finally got off my backside and went from
doing fuck all to actually doing something.
Anna: I’m saying that Witchgrove has
growing pains. It grows and grows,
sometimes it stops and baggage falls off the cart, then it carries on
moving. And, on a personal note, I want
to add that my skills, with runes and spirit guides, would not have improved as
much as they did if it hadn’t been for Witchgrove. I wouldn’t have had the place to do it in.
Cerr: What happened was that I was cranky
and so our lovely and talented Mab went on a membership drive. Suddenly we were everywhere on the
internet. I wish I could have theme
music for this. I think that Mab’s
membership drive should have theme music.
Mab: And we had a competition in October 2003 as well.
As a result of all of this activity, the mods became
so utterly overwhelmed that the decision was taken to get more help. Though
there were several people who could have been asked; ultimately Georgia and
Roxanne joined them, on 9th November 2003, because ‘they feel like
home. Roxanne’s sense of humour keeps
us on an even keel; while Georgia’s got a great sense of humour too, but also a
really straight-forward attitude,’ explained Cerr. She was in her first month of pregnancy and extremely
ill. For a few weeks, the Grove was
almost entirely handed over the other four, though she was always there for
advice and comment in the Mods’ Lounge.
‘I know I can trust the Mods and we work together well. We have each other’s backs and we call each
other on our shit… quite often, in fact… but I would trust every Mod with my
family and my sanity. I have.’
|
‘Personally I
was quite tickled by being asked. It's
different from being a member in that we have to try and make everything run
smooth. Try to keep feathers from being ruffled. Keeping people
feeling wanted and loved. BUSY!
I've learned a lot of about human interaction. I've learned to tune
into emails and feel what the person is trying not to say but wants to.’ Georgia,
Witchgrove Moderator When they
asked me to be a mod they said I had to wear this outfit, if it wasn’t for
the shoes with bells and the use of multi colored satin I would have said no…
but I was swayed by the odd fashion sense of it all and assured by the
existing Mod group that it was normal and considered proper for new
moderators. The hat is
alright, but the bells hanging off the end have whacked me in the eye and
caused a bit of trauma on occasion.
To this day I’m still a little freaked out by the Fimo likeness of
myself that Shonna made for me and put on this stick for me to carry around. I’m still
trying to figure out when the other girls will be wearing their outfits… I
mean, I’m not complaining or anything but, I’ve been here for a while and I
still have to taste Shonna’s food before she eats it. What can I
say… it’s a tough job… but somebody’s got to do it. And I don’t care what they make me wear… I love being here. Roxanne, Witchgrove Moderator. |
While much has been made above of the role played by
the Mods, Witchgrove was and is much more than the seven people who have
volunteered for that position during its three year history. Cerr considered why it has been so
successful,
‘The key
thing is the people. We’ve had
psychopaths from time to time, but we haven’t had as many as most lists. I think this is due to the mutual respect
people have for each other and their traditions. Egos really are checked at the door. The decision to keep mainstream politics off the Grove has had
the knock on effect of keeping Pagan politics off too; and people really do try
to contribute without the need for power trips. One person’s gifts will complement another’s, and there’s no need
for everyone to have the same gifts. We
truly are a community. Yes, we are a mailing
list, but call it a cacklefest, a moot or whatever, we’ve proved that on-line
communities do work. And there’s real
magic in our community.’
Those within the Grove don’t
need to be told this; but for those outside, nowhere is this more evident than
the website, which had its genesis in
2003.
|
‘The website
was mainly Ivy
Wolfmoon’s fault. It was around
the May in 2003 and she posted that it would be great if Witchgrove had a website. A quick question in the Mods showed
that none of us knew the first thing about it, so I went scutting around the
freeserve site and discovered a fairly
idiotproof one. It had boxes to
fill in text and another to stick a picture in. That was the first site, but it was very limited compared to
the ideas that the Grove had for what they wanted putting in it; also it
wouldn’t allow the code necessary to protect Jeninia’s artwork, so never
officially went live. In the
October, I had a crash course from two of
the www.friendsoftheheroes.co.uk
members on what an ftp server
was and how a web-page should look. I
sat there using google and searching things like ‘html + image’ and by the
end of October 2003, we had the second site. I remember that month, I was so stressed. Warriormail Mike interupted me three
seconds after I’d just accidentally lost a page that had taken me forever to
create. I nearly bit his head off and
had to apologize profusely afterwards.
The computer nearly went through the window. But, as time has gone on, I’ve learned enough skills to keep it
running without the minor nervous breakdowns on my part. Even that
site outgrew what we wanted for it; and a year later, Dani bought the server
which now houses our third (and hopefully final!) site www.witchgrove.org, which went live in
January 2005. Until then, I was the
only person with access to it, so became the website mod by default; but now,
Pixie and Dani both have access and there is a team of people who all have much
more experience than I have, who could help out.’ Mab, Website
Moderator |
The website was truly a collaborative venture. As well as the content, which has been
freely submitted by hundreds of Grove members, there were unseen
contributions. In 2003-2004,
Faithweaver created the link to the shopping mall; Howard found the sparkling
stars, which make up the background of every page; Jeninia and Draig created
the banners, which other sites can use to link back to us; Pixie created the
raffle ticket image and its page, while also changing the wording to alert
people to an upcoming raffle; Kate the Bookshop found the map, which pin-points
where Grovers are all over the world; while Jeninia submitted two Witchgrove
pictures, one of which has constantly lived on the front page; and Jodi
produced the photograph of all five Mods, despite not all five having been in
the same place at the same time... (magic)
Other than the weekly discussions, only two other
‘features’ were introduced and collected into the Witchgrove files, these were
Mab’s Tarot
Tales and Simon’s Science
Space.
2004
For the entire of 2004, posts were frequently
topping the 4000-5000 mark and the membership continued to grow. By January 2004, there were 150 Grovers;
four months later there were just over 200; and this figure has risen slightly
thereon, until today, there are nearly 250 members of Witchgrove. Everything should have been wonderful and,
by and large, on-list it was, but off-list was sometimes a very different
story.
An extremely difficult and worrisome pregnancy
rendered Cerr’s participation in her group to a minimum, a situation which left
her miserable, feeling very guilty and occasionally prone to prescription
drug-enduced paranoia. On March 11th,
2004, Mab was involved in a car accident, which not only left her in agony for
much of the spring and summer of that year, but also shook her brain severely
enough to render her emotional, paranoid and with a marked lack of
concentration. Also, between April and
August 2004, five of her friends died or were killed. As neither of them
particularly recognized their highly altered outlook on life, the onus fell on
Anna, Georgia and Roxanne to keep both the Mods’ Lounge and Witchgrove itself
calmly and smoothly running. Less
physically debilitating, but perhaps more emotionally destructive, Georgia was
also going through her divorce and Roxanne’s sister-in-law was diagnozed with
cancer.
But it wasn’t all paranoia. In May 2004, a member became upset and
started flaming on-list. Immediately
moderated, he turned his ire towards Cerr in a series of threatening
e-mails. Seven months pregnant, Cerr
laughed off being called ‘a skanky whore’ (now her affectionately meant
nickname in the Mods’ Lounge), but the incident shook Roxanne to the core. Reassuring her that this happened
occasionally wasn’t helped when another member publicly questioned Cerr’s
suitability to be list-mama a few days later; followed by a third incident, in
June 2004, when a political row on Kindly Ones got carried over onto
Witchgrove. Mab got caught in the
cross-fire this time as the member, not realizing that she was the list-owner
of Kindly Ones, e-mailed her with the torrent of abuse which he’d expected to
go privately to Cerr.
All five Mods found their inboxes frequently bulging
with daily off-list Witchgrove-related e-mails, caused in part by their
increased circle of friends, but also as a direct result of the growth of the
group and the visible, but unmoderated presense of the blogs. Members could flame each other with
impunity in those privately owned forums, which caused tension mostly off-list,
but sometimes spilling into innuendo on-list.
The decision was taken early on that a) no attempt would be made to
interfere with blog/live journal content; b) as long as the individual was a
member, their blog would remain on the list unless its owner requested
otherwise; and c) the blog list would remain in the Private Members’ area on
the web-site. Consequently, all five
Mods constantly found themselves forced into a conciliatory position, which
might have been easier to adapt to had the remit simply been to keep trouble
off the Grove, but unfortunately they usually involved their friends too.
One particularly distressing incident involved a
Grover being stalked
by another member. The result of this
meant that all applicants were traced by Mab and if their location matched that
of the stalker, then they were not automatically approved; also new applicants
became moderated until they had posted to prove they weren’t the stalker
lurking for more information. The
(moderated) or (unmoderated) tag after their name also defines them as a member
who has joined since ALL of the stalker’s known identities had been removed
from the Grove. This policy has not
only twice intercepted the stalker whilst attempting to re-enter, but also
stopped a troll using his first post to flame.
August 22nd 2004 devastated the
Grove. Warriormail Mike had first introduced
himself on October 7th 2003 and had since become one of the more
universally beloved members; but had suffered an accident at work on August 21st
and the next day, Cerr, in touch with his family, made the tragic announcement
that he had died aged only 26 years old.
Twice the off-list flaming actually hit the list in
a big way. The first time, in September
2004, resulted in Cerr announcing an official break
from the Grove. Two days later, despite
the best efforts of Mods and members alike, the flaming continued to such an
extent that Roxanne announced drastic action
– the Grove would be allowed to war all it liked until Monday, then anyone
still doing so would be either moderated or removed. In effect, for two days, the Mods became members only and, by the
Monday, it was all over.
The second time off-list flaming spilled notably
on-list, in November
2004, it was Mab who was forced to step down for a while. A year of intense pressure (mostly not
directly Witchgrove-related) had finally taken its toll and she was going a
little strange. Trying to research and write an MA
dissertation, while also holding down a full-time job, sort out the website AND
be a Witchgrove moderator during a time of flaming resulted in Roxanne and
Georgia trying to keep her talking while her mind went into some very weird and
dangerous places. Next day, Mab took
the gentle suggestions to take a break more literally than they were
intended. Instead of simply switching
herself to no mail on the Mods group, while Georgia asked the Grove to post her
rather than Mab with any off-lists, Mab started demoting herself, with a view
to leaving Mods entirely and becoming a member on the Grove. Halfway through the process, Draig Athar
‘phoned her and was met with a very tearful Grover. That ‘phone call is the main reason that most of the Grove didn’t
know that Mab wasn’t a mod between Nov 2004-Jan 2005.
|
‘I was crying
all over Draig and she was trying to calm me down, saying that it would all
be alright in the end and everyone was just worried about me. I was still sitting in front of my
keyboard and suddenly there’s an e-mail off Cerr going ‘NOOOOOOOOO!!’ She
stated categorically that I’d got the wrong end of the stick and she did want
me to back away, but not go completely.
She created a new title for me ‘Mod on Leave’ and poor Draig was in
danger of having her eardrum perforated by me screaming down the ‘phone at
her. After that,
the website got handed over to Pixie and Dani; and I became a member of the
Mods’ group (which I still am). I
was a member of the Grove in all but name, though I still had all the extra
buttons to play with. I think that
people pretty much did know what was going on, because whereas I averaged
300-odd e-mails before, they just dropped off very quickly and those who did
e-mail me tended to be telling me how wonderful the world was these days…’ Mab,
Witchgrove Moderator ‘It’s not
always been the case on other lists, but on Witchgrove I think that the
number of Mods has saved us. We’ve
kept each other breathing; watched each other’s backs; and if one person is
starting to fall down the cracks, then the others are there to pull her out
again. It’s a beautiful thing and
it’s got me back before. Mab isn’t
just a Mod. She’s a soul-sister and I
wasn’t prepared to lose her.’ Cerr,
list-mama |
At the end of July 2004, Mab, Pixie and Dani had
discussed moving the website fully to a paid server, which they were each
prepared to contribute to the payment of.
This idea solved the issue whereby, if Mab was removed from the
equation, the website would be inaccessible.
There was also the fact that the maintenance of the website was, by now,
a huge undertaking which needed more than one person doing it; particularly
when that person was due to start writing her MA dissertation in the
November. The idea was that, at that
time, the site could be fully handed over to the others.
Within a week, they were all ready to go. Dani had identified a server and an
enthusiastic team of web-site savvy Grovers were filling a dedicated Yahoo
group with ideas about how to develop it.
Unfortunately, the combination of a delay in the decision to go ahead at
Mods level coupled with a series of huge events on and off list distracting
them away from a response, meant that it took a persuasive trip to Vegas, in
October 2004, by Mab to secure the permission to move the website.
Immediately Dani bought the server and Pixie bought
the domain name. Then proceedings
halted again. A template for a new-look
site, voted as favourite by the entire of Witchgrove, didn’t turn up. In the meantime, Mab moved the old site onto
the new server, which effectively closed the site to updates. Further disaster struck when Dani’s mother
passed over followed by other major personal troubles, which, understandably,
took her away from the helm. By
November 2004, responsibility for the site effectively passed to an
increasingly worried Pixie. Without any real information about what was
intended with it and a lack of communication from Mab and Dani, there wasn’t
much she could realistically do and so, except for brief bursts of updating,
the site remained closed until 2005.
|
‘So Pixie put
on her little purple kimono and said "Little dreadheaded
grasshopper, good things come to those with
patience". Then wandered off through the Grove with her
funny Japanese shoes clunking against the floor and dribbling chai down the
front of her silk robes, hollaring for someone to find the bottle of
Jameson's Irish Whiskey.’ Pixie, one of 43
Witchgrovers who joined in the first 24 hours; now it’s Treasurer, website
moderator and general heroine |
2004 wasn’t all doom and gloom. Even in the midst of that, the mods slowly,
but surely learned the valuable lesson that they weren’t solely responsible for
the smooth running of the Grove. It’s
members proved time and time again that they too would leap in to calm ruffled
feathers, in sorrow,
despair, fury and just
plain letting
the Mods know. Increasingly,
members also had the confidence to organize things themselves, for example,
Draig’s Card
Swop and Pixie’s ‘Strengthening
Your Psychic Muscle’. It had always
been true, it just took a while for it to sink in. ;-)
And there was a lot to celebrate. This was the year of Grove meet-ups:
Georgia came
to Wolverhampton, then Glastonbury, in August 2004
A massive gathering of
Grovers took place in Vegas, in October 2004 – as well as the local people, Mab, Pixie,
Bella, Georgia and Anna all made it there.
Draig Athar
went to Vegas in November 2004
Also
Branny flew
to join the Black Country gang in Glastonbury and Wolverhampton in November
2004.
A great many other causes for celebration
have already been documented in This Month in the Grove.
2005
Membership of Witchgrove rose from 226 people to
nearly 250 on its third birthday; while the number of posts started falling,
but the group still generated an average of 107 e-mails a day. In January 2005, Mab finished her
dissertation and immediately corrected all the links on the website in order to
relaunch it. While she continues to
handle the bulk of the up-dating, Pixie has frequently lent a hand or taken
over whole projects, like the raffle.
Andrea Wakely became the Grove’s fundraiser in
February 2005; while Pixie became its treasurer. The site was paid for originally by Dani, Pixie and Mab, in
2004, but all three were paid back by the proceeds of a single, successful
raffle, organized by Andrea, with many Grovers purchasing tickets. At the time of writing, another raffle is
in the process of being held, the proceeds of which will (hopefully) pay for
the website for another year.
The Grove goes on.