GGMG was founded in 1996 by a group of San Francisco moms. We are a completely volunteer-run organization (we are all moms too!) who work hard to support each other and build community.
Nurture ourselves, our children, our partners and our community. Create an environment of support, information sharing and connection. Learn, teach, create, have fun and provide balance in the lives of our growing families.
We are a work in progress...
In the beginning, Wynn McClenahan Burkett, mother of an 8-month-old, had a vision. She imagined a group of first-time moms getting together and creating a community of support for each other. Wynn, like most of us, found first-time motherhood a little overwhelming. She did some research and found that groups like she envisioned existed in a number of Bay Area communities, but not in San Francisco. The most prominent example was a Marin group that had already been in existence for a number of years. Her research also turned up the name of Katie Hopke, a woman who had extensive experience facilitating the start of mothers' groups. So....
Wynn called a number of friends with babies, some of whom called their friends, and on April 18, 1996, 14 San Francisco moms met for the first time to explore the idea of creating a mothers' group. Wynn engaged the talents of Kate Hoepke as a facilitator. Kate helped the group to define a mission and form a Steering Committee. The values, guiding principles, organizational structures, and transition processes that GGMG uses today evolved from those initial meetings. The Steering Committee met through May and June that year to create programs and structure. Finally, on June 27, 1996, the first General Meeting of the GGMG was held at St. James Church. Nearly 50 moms, who had heard about the meeting via word of mouth, attended.
Now, over 20 years later the group has grown to over 4,000 San Francisco moms and many of the original steering committee members may not recognize the group they founded, but they would be proud to know that the guiding principles and statement of values remains the same.
