History

YBRT -- Part One -- In the beginning...

Five years ago - in June 1998 - several people who belonged to another non-bpd group, decided that we'd like to meet each other and to meet face to face as real people. We met at the ranch of the parents of one of our members in Brenham, Texas. Most of us stayed at a Bed & Breakfast just down the road, and we gathered at the ranch to meet.

The gathering had an incredible and lasting impact on all who met in terms of bonding, friendship, inner peace and hope of a better life. We were 12 people and some of us brought their children. The average travel distance to the gathering was roughly 1200 miles. The least traveling distance was 60, with the most at 5500 miles.

By the end of the weekend, we were family... and unlike the one to which we were born, it was a voluntary family. We shared tears and laughter, anxieties and courage. We parted with the feeling of a very exceptional enrichment in our lives... way beyond what everyone could have expected, wished or even hoped for.

Later, we - the Brenham group - began calling ourselves the "dirty dozen". Next year, we repeated the effort by combining resources within the group to facilitate another gathering, this time in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. We were able to welcome 40 people to that YBRT 2.

As we started to inspect such issues as size versus intimacy, providing a service versus everyone sharing, the "dirty dozen" decided to create the mailing list LandOfOz (LOO), a website, www.ybrt.org and a non-profit corporation, YBRT Inc, which sponsors LOO and the website.

We named the incorporation YBRT, because it is the acronym for Yellow Brick Road Tour. This transpired form an analogy Elyce has created and used for a long time in which she refers to people closely involved with people with strong bpd traits as living in OZ - an analogy from the story of "The Wizard of OZ".

We've used the "Oz" theme throughout our years of working together. Elyce's nickname "Glinda, the Good Witch" is another embracement of the Oz analogy. As a show of our affection and thanks to Elyce for coming to the Brenham meeting, we brought notes and folded them into little ruby slippers, which we then gave her to open and read.

Another yearly tradition was adopted from the idea of one of the dirty dozen to bring along enough t-shirts for all to the initial Brenham gathering, which had printed in a spiral on the chest. YBRT's "logo" was designed consisting of a yellow brick spiral which has been printed on t-shirts for every YBRT since.

Our main objectives were (and are)

• to maintain a self support mailing list (LandOfOz),
• to maintain a website (www.ybrt.org) offering valuable resources for people affected by a relationship with someone with bpd and/or other disorders,
• to keep alive our annual meetings, open for all who are interested to meet personally in a safe place.

Each year since Brenham in 1998, we've had a "tour" in Wisconsin, Colorado, Florida and Virginia.

Seven of the original dirty dozen are still on the YBRT board and we were lucky in having Jeff Carter join us in 2002.

With each passing YBRT, we've gathered others who have become "old-timers," who join us when they can, year after year. To our dismay we lost Cody, a good friend and coworker of Elyce before he could join us on the board. We now have a memorial fund in his name which is the "Cody McBride Memorial Scholarship Fund". To us, the most important person -- who is the centerpoint, our glue that keeps us together -- is Elyce, who has stayed with us all along the way. Elyce provides our group and LOO with sane, sometimes funny, advice to help keep us on the yellow brick road to Kansas.

Today, at this point through our brief YBRT history, the board consists of Cate, Elyce, JeffC, JeffM, Kathryn, Leigh Ann, Sherri and Wulf.

Stay tuned for Part Two -- Call for Proposals for YBRT6!