371 lines
8.7 KiB
HTML
371 lines
8.7 KiB
HTML
<HTML
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><HEAD
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><TITLE
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>Introduction </TITLE
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>HOWTO Encourage Women in Linux</TH
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CLASS="sect1"
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><H1
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CLASS="sect1"
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><A
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NAME="AEN28">1. Introduction</H1
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><P
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>At the 2002 Ottawa Linux Symposium, I hosted a LinuxChix Birds
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Of a Feather session. During the BOF and throughout the conference, I
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heard the same set of questions:</P
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><P
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>"My girlfriend hates Windows, how can I encourage her to use
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Linux?"</P
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><P
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>"Almost no women attend my local LUG. How can I fix this?"</P
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><P
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>"Why aren't there more women in open source?"</P
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><P
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>Clearly, people in the Linux community would like for more women
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to be involved in Linux, but most people don't know why so few women
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are involved or how to change that. This HOWTO is an effort to
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summarize the explanations, recommendations, and opinions of the women
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who already are interested and active in Linux. This document began
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with the verbatim recommendations of the women who attended the
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LinuxChix BOF, and was added to by many more women in the months
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following the original BOF. In other words, this HOWTO represents the
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feelings and opinions of real women involved in Linux. While we
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represent the women who "made it," we still have fairly important
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insights into why other women left or never entered the Linux
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community, as well as being keenly aware of the pressures which are
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currently pushing us out of the community.</P
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><P
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>In this HOWTO, we'll talk about why women stay out of computing
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in general, why they stay away from Linux in particular, and what you
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can do to help encourage women in Linux. We hope that this HOWTO will
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result in more women using, installing, and developing Linux.</P
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><DIV
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CLASS="sect2"
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><H2
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CLASS="sect2"
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><A
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NAME="AEN36">1.1. Audience</H2
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><P
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>This document is intended mainly for the male Linux enthusiast
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who would like to see more women involved in Linux. Its secondary
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audience is both men and women who have been too busy having fun with
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Linux and computers to sit down and think about why most women don't
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share their interests. We hope you'll come away from this HOWTO with
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some understanding of why women stay away from Linux and with a few
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ideas about what you can do to reverse that trend.</P
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><P
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>This HOWTO is not directed towards people who aren't concerned
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about the lack of women in Linux, or think that women are better off
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staying away from Linux. If you don't already believe that women are
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being driven away from Linux and computers by external causes, this
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HOWTO probably won't convince you otherwise (although it may give you
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some interesting avenues of research to follow up on).</P
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><P
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>This HOWTO is definitely not intended to help male Linux geeks
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find female Linux geeks to date. The central paradox of women and
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Linux is this: often, the people most anxious for more women in Linux
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are also the people most likely to accidentally drive them away.
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Frequently, men who want more women in Linux solely so they have a
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better chance of finding a girlfriend end up acting in ways that end
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up driving women away instead! This HOWTO will try to explain which
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behaviors drive women away from Linux and which behaviors encourage
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them.</P
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></DIV
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><DIV
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CLASS="sect2"
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><H2
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CLASS="sect2"
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><A
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NAME="AEN41">1.2. What problem? Sexism is dead!</H2
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><P
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>A sentiment I hear frequently: "What problem? There's no
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problem! Sexism is dead! Women are staying out of Linux because they
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want to!" If you feel this way, you may change your opinion by the
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time you finish reading this HOWTO. I also used to believe that
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sexism was dead. Shortly after joining several women in computing
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mailing lists, I realized how wrong I was. Week after week, women
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have new stories about how they were discriminated against and
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insulted because they were women. These stories aren't decades old,
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nor do they involve people who grew up when sexism was more
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acceptable. These are day-to-day experiences of today's women, in
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modern settings, who are being driven out of their chosen profession
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by sexism. This isn't theoretical--many women actually leave the
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field of computers entirely because of blatantly sexist incidents
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involving superiors at work or at school.</P
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><P
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>Read the links below for my favorite example of modern-day
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sexism: </P
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><P
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>Initial post to the Sydney LUG mailing list, by a woman:</P
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><P
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> <A
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HREF="http://lists.slug.org.au/archives/slug-chat/2001/October/msg00286.html"
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TARGET="_top"
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>http://lists.slug.org.au/archives/slug-chat/2001/October/msg00286.html </A
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></P
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><P
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>Follow-up posts diagnosing the problem as "over-stressed female": </P
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><P
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><A
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HREF="http://lists.slug.org.au/archives/slug-chat/2001/October/msg00290.html"
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TARGET="_top"
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>http://lists.slug.org.au/archives/slug-chat/2001/October/msg00290.html</A
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></P
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><P
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><A
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HREF="http://lists.slug.org.au/archives/slug-chat/2001/October/msg00312.html"
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TARGET="_top"
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>http://lists.slug.org.au/archives/slug-chat/2001/October/msg00312.html</A
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></P
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><P
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>Gee, surprise, these two responses are enough to drive her away: </P
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><P
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><A
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HREF="http://lists.slug.org.au/archives/slug-chat/2001/October/msg00313.html"
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TARGET="_top"
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>http://lists.slug.org.au/archives/slug-chat/2001/October/msg00313.html</A
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></P
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><P
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>Hysterically funny and heroic response from another woman: </P
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><P
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><A
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HREF="http://lists.slug.org.au/archives/slug-chat/2001/October/msg00317.html"
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TARGET="_top"
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>http://lists.slug.org.au/archives/slug-chat/2001/October/msg00317.html</A
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></P
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><P
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>Despite the pointed sarcasm, obnoxious man still doesn't get it: </P
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><P
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><A
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HREF="http://lists.slug.org.au/archives/slug-chat/2001/October/msg00319.html"
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TARGET="_top"
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>http://lists.slug.org.au/archives/slug-chat/2001/October/msg00319.html</A
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></P
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><P
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>A perfect response from a man who does get it: </P
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><P
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><A
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HREF="http://lists.slug.org.au/archives/slug-chat/2001/October/msg00321.html"
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TARGET="_top"
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>http://lists.slug.org.au/archives/slug-chat/2001/October/msg00321.html </A
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></P
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><P
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>Sexism is alive and well, and it is driving women out of Linux.
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You can argue that the Linux users joking about "over-stressed
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females" in the above posts are ignorant, or stupid, or well-meaning,
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or should in some way not be labeled sexist, but the result of their
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actions is that women are leaving Linux, something we would like to
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prevent.</P
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></DIV
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><DIV
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CLASS="sect2"
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><H2
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CLASS="sect2"
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><A
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NAME="AEN66">1.3. About the author</H2
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><P
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>Val Henson is a Linux kernel developer, an active member of LinuxChix,
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and female. Her interests include operating systems research, women
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and computer science, and fine beer. Many other women collaborated
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with her to produce this HOWTO, including:</P
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><P
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></P
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><UL
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><LI
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><P
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>Raven Alder</P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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>Suzi Anvin </P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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>Poppy Casper </P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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>Claudia "Texchanchan" Crowley </P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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>Steph Donovan </P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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>Joy Goodreau</P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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>Telsa Gwynne</P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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>Amy Hieter </P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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>Hanna Linder </P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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>Anna McDonald </P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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>Marcia Barret Nice</P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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>Miriam Rainsford </P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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>Carla Schroder </P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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>Jenn Vesperman </P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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>Jenny Wu </P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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>Megan "Piglet" Zurawicz </P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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>Safari </P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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>And many others who wish to remain anonymous.</P
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