REGDAY A BIG SUCCESS IN BAY AREA

San Francisco Bay Area's enthusiastic response to " Reg Day 96" -the second annual International Adoption Search Registration Day held on November 16 - exceeded the organizers wildest expectations. Despite bad weather,1250 people came out to sites in eight cities from Sacramento to San Jose to register with the International Soundex Reunion Registry (ISRR) and collect information about adoption search, reunion and open records. In Berkeley, more than 400 people lined up in the rain to register, and many stood in line again for a chance, often their first, to talk to other birthparents, adoptees and adoptive parents about their experiences.

Reg Day was organized over the Internet by a coalition of adoptees and birthparents, with the goal of organizing visible events across the nation to help everyone who is searching sign up with the same registry, the free, nonprofit ISRR. According to a coordinator of the national effort, Reg Day was observed at 41 sites in 16 states, and more than 2000 registration forms were given out.

In Northern California, Reg Day was the right event at the right time. The demographic bulge which is hitting the adoption reform movement - baby boomers and their children - was graphically clear to us on Reg Day. Our crowds were about 60% adoptees, most of them between 20 and 40, and 30% birthmothers, many of whom had never talked of their relinquishment openly before. The other 10% included birthfathers, adoptive parents, grandparents, siblings, foster parents and friends. While the majority of our visitors were Caucasian, there were many African-Americans, Asians, and Hispanics, and a significant portion of biracial adoptees.

A number of things contributed to Reg Day's success in the Bay Area: first was many individual triad members' immediate positive response to my initial query. Jane Calbreath of PACER provided critical early assistance by inviting me to the quarterly support group facilitators' meeting, which yielded five site leaders, Merrill Hunn in San Rafael; Deb Schwarz in San Francisco, Linda Crouch in Danville, Coco Brush in Walnut Creek and Cynthia Calkin in Sacramento, as well as many other volunteers from the PACER networks.

Teams were set up right away in eight cities, and almost all team leaders had email and Internet access, which was invaluable in communicating among ourselves, with the national effort and with the media. Damsel Plum of Bastard Nation insured that cyberspace was fully informed about Reg Day in the Bay Area, which added to the 'buzz' about the event. We formed cooperative working relations, although many of us belonged to various groups and were just meeting each other for the first time.

We ran a very vigorous media campaign, which included faxing 195 press releases, then relentless follow-up by a team of experienced, eloquent people. Our press releases featured "real people touched by adoption,' who were willing to share their stories and be interviewed. We found allies in the media, including several reporters who are birthparents, and many adoptees, which assured us good coverage. Adoptive parents opened doors at college newspapers and other media outlets. One TV assignment editor, an adoptee denied his records in another state, sent a camera crew to cover Reg Day.

The week before Reg Day saw coverage in every major Bay Area newspaper, most TV and radio stations, alternative papers, community calendars, the Catholic Voice and the Jewish Bulletin. It climaxed in front page photo articles in the San Francisco and Oakland papers on Saturday, the day of the event. All this produced a flood of people eager for our information. We were swamped, so we briefed large groups of people at once and moved them down the line to pick up literature. I asked one group, "Who are you looking for?" and several of them chorused "Mom!" At that point another birthmother turned to them and cried "Son!" and we all burst out laughing in the pouring rain.

Our teams of "talkers" included all triad positions, therapists, professional searchers, author Carol Schaefer, biracial support group leaders, movement veterans and brand-new people just beginning to search. We tried to provide as much information as possible, so our tables included ISRR forms, booklists, schedules of support groups, lists of Internet resources on adoption, fliers from groups dealing with interracial, international and open adoption issues, lists of local and national advocacy organizations, reprints of articles on open records, and referrals to friendly people in other states.

We accepted donations to pay for copying, and people were very generous, in addition to thanking us, hugging us, and at times blessing us for what we were doing. Several of our sites were held at Borders Books, which was very friendly to Reg Day nationally (maybe because every store seemed to be staffed by an adoptee), and sales of adoption-related books were hot. Positive ripples are still spreading from Reg Day, in the Bay Area (including one local match already) and across the country. We will definitely be doing this again next year, and hope many more cities will join in. America needs this event!

Laura Ingram coordinated Reg Day in the Bay Area and may be reached at LcIngram@aol.com, or at 510-653-4637. The national campaign coordinators were Janice Brewer, jbrewer@cris.com, and Vicki Rummig, vrummig@wolfenet.com. The official Reg Day website is at RegDay Homepage.

Laura is a native of Mississippi who has lived in California for the past 25 years. She is a political activist and cornmunity organizer who currently works as a private investigator, and is searching for the son relinquished in Tennessee in 1967.