New Year, New Plans | Here’s to Brunch and More in 2015

Inspired by the Batgirl team and their commitment to improving, GGB rolls out the #GGBDoBetter* Campaign

REFLECTIONS

2014 is over and 2015 is shaping up to be a great year for Geek Girl Brunch. We’re launching chapters in cities all over the world and we could not be more excited! Giving ourselves the opportunity and excuse to make IRL friends with fellow passionate geeks was our genesis, after all! But we also want to make sure that Brunch is not just Brunch. GGB is about creating a community, providing a network and establishing a safe space for identifying Geek Girls to talk to each other. We can’t ignore the problems we have all been faced with over the past year, as individuals, as a community, as a city, as a nation, as citizens of Earth.

Last year, when it rained, it really poured. It was a tragic mess of sister vs sister. Brother vs brother. Gamer vs gamer. And a tale as old as time: women, minorities, LGBT vs everyone. Together we’re fighting a never-ending war on ignorance and intolerance. We’re fighting for equality and acceptance. We’re fighting for safety and security, so that it doesn’t feel like the only way out is taking your own life.

COMMITMENT TO CARING & IMPROVING

In an effort to leave as much of this mess behind us and in keeping with GGB HQ’s January theme of DC Comics, we’re going to roll out another theme for the entire year inspired by the Batgirl team and their commitment to caring and improvement. To echo their words: “We will do better.”

Running GGB has been a major learning process for us. We’ve made mistakes along the way because when we started out we had no idea what we were doing. We learn as we go. We learn by doing, and this year we will do better. No matter how big or small the mistake, we want to always work towards being a better version of ourselves.

One of our goals with GGB is to inspire and empower. You see this directly with geek girls all over taking on leadership roles and starting chapters in their cities. Something we could never have predicted taking off the way it did. That is an incredible achievement for us in and of itself, and one we’re immensely proud of. But it doesn’t end there.

DOING BETTER WORLDWIDE

#GGBDoBetter is a campaign for good, where we’ll go out into the world, give back and share our stories, that we may all inspire and empower each other. And while we will make efforts to create those opportunities for you, through partnerships with charities, volunteering, etc, we’d love for you to go out and find them yourselves. And we encourage you to look within yourselves to do better for you. Because that’s where campaigning for good starts. What you can do for others is sometimes obvious. Feeding the homeless, helping an old lady cross the street. But we encourage you to be more abstract in your thinking, and more importantly, don’t neglect yourself. Doing better starts with you. So it may mean choosing not to have one more drink. Choosing not to say something hurtful. Running for 5 more minutes. Doing better for you.

Aside from that, we’ll be planning special events throughout the year where we’ll partner with other organizations with a focus on doing better; and culminating in a worldwide #GGBDoBetter event. Last December we took a break. This December …there won’t be a break. Instead, during brunch we’ll be collecting coats, toys and canned food to donate to local shelters, orphanages, food banks and more. And EVERY. CHAPTER.  IS.  PARTICIPATING. We are nothing if not ambitious. That’s girl power for you. Here’s to doing better on a global scale. Here’s to us. Here’s to brunch.

Cheers!

The Founders

Yissel, Rachel, Jamila

* Originally called the “We Will do Better” Campaign, we decided as of 1/13 to change it not only for brevity’s sake, but to encourage an immediate call to action, which is entirely the point of this ongoing project.