Why our geographic focus?

Every now and then, the planning team is asked why this event is in Holland/Zeeland instead of in Spring Lake, for example. There are a couple of reasons. In the first few years, all of us on the planning team worked at the Holland/Zeeland Herman Miller facilities, and understood that employees come from the north and south and east (not the west so much, but only because of the water). Holland/Zeeland seemed to be the common ground, with the advantage of having enough active agencies to assure that we had enough places for volunteers to work on the same day. When we had a half-day event, it also made it convenient for most people to pop into or out of the office. And because one of our objectives was to give women an opportunity to connect or reconnect with lots of other women, we wanted to be able to bring everyone together for part of the event--lunch or, this year, breakfast--so we didn't want people spread too far around the area.

This year we've decided to extend our network more deliberately beyond Herman Miller employees; for the planning team it still feels right for us to center our efforts in Holland/Zeeland--this is also the common ground among the seven of us on the planning team.

While our own ambitions haven't called for developing events in other geographies, we certainly understand and applaud the desire from other folks to contribute in their own communities. We'll happily share our experiences, planning documents, and expertise to give anyone who'd like to plan a comparable event in another place a head start!