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	Female FYI November 2000 "POWER UP" Womens Group Creates A Buzz & Offers Support By Samantha Coleman The three women sat around a patio table on a pool deck in the Hollywood Hills, brokering a deal. They excitedly brainstormed -- encouraging each other's ideas, fueling each other's creativity, and respecting each other's opinions. When this meeting of the "girls club" was over, the trio shared a vision that this is the way it should be in the "industry." They envisioned POWER UP, a network of gay women of ideas and power, working together to create and accomplish projects, free to express themselves as gay women, and reaching up to help themselves and help others to achieve their full professional and personal potential. Just six weeks later, an ad in Daily Variety's "Gay Hollywood" special issue announced the formation of POWER UP (Professional Organization of Women in Entertainment Reaching Up), and founders Stacy Codikow, Amy Shomer, and K. Pearson Brown found themselves fully immersed in an endeavor that has created a resonating buzz in Hollywood's lesbian circles. As POWER UP's leaders prepare for their star-studded launch party December 5th at Ciudad in downtown Los Angeles, they feel affirmed and bolstered as the membership applications, calls, letters, and e-mails fill their office that they share with Codikow's film company on Beverly Boulevard. "Clearly there was a need for a group like this. POWER UP is a place where gay women can get the tools they need to grow in their careers in a comfortable, supportive environment," said Codikow. Among the career-building resources and events that are available through POWER UP are a resume bank, a membership directory, a mentoring program, networking socials, seminars, and grants for filmmaking. The group's official mission statement is to "promote, encourage, and support the visibility of openly gay women in the industry," and membership is open to anyone, women or men, gay or straight, who supports the group's mission. Members include producers, directors, writers, studio execs, actors, artists, and a variety of personnel in the entertainment and media industry. There are silver and gold sponsorships available to organizations, companies and individuals who want to support the mission but may not be in the business. "We are all about integration, said Shomer. "Although our membership base is primarily gay women, the idea is that we help each other into positions of power where we all work together to change the old "boys club" way of doing things. We're not into shutting anyone out, we're into bringing everyone to the table." Obviously, the POWER UP philosophy has found appeal with some influential folks in Hollywood including Joan M. Garry, Executive Director of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), who believes the work of POWER UP complements that of GLAAD "POWER UP focuses on providing a network and career-building tools for gay women in the industry, and GLAAD works with these individuals to help promote fair and accurate portrayals of gays in the media" said Garry. And the group has attracted a prestigious board of directors including producer Jan Oxenberg (Chicago Hope, Once and Again), director Lee Rose (Truth About Jane, It's a Girl Thing), producer Andrea Sperling (But I'm a Cheerleader, Prozac Nation), Jehan F. Agrama (Vice-chair, Bold New World; President, Harmony Gold), director Jamie Babbit (But I'm a Cheerleader, Popular), Marcus Hu (Co-President, Strand Releasing), director Debra Chasnoff (Deadly Deception, Academy Award winner), executive producer Leslie Belzberg (Coming to America, Honey I Shrunk the Kids), Roberta Bennett, Esq. (Partner, Anderson & Bennett) and Bill Melamed. Their activities, seminars, events, and membership information will be posted on the group's Web site at www.power-up.net and requests for membership applications can be obtained at joinPOWERup@aol.com . Putting POWER UP together has been a labor of love for Codikow, Shomer, and Brown, who met last year while assisting on the production of the 2000 GLAAD Media Awards. They each came with their own unique background and talents to contribute to the group. Codikow is a producer/writer (Under the Hula Moon, Fatal Instinct, Hollywood Heartbreak), Shomer is a live-event and commercial producer, and Brown is a publicist/producer. "In a way, we are perfect representatives of our membership: We all have been successful and accomplished in our careers, and we all want to continue to grow and branch out in our careers, so we have joined together to make it happen for ourselves and in the process we will be helping others, and that's what POWER UP is all about," said Brown.
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