« From the start, this bicoastal collective work proved to be less than easy. Not only was long-distance communication challenging, but the women of "Iris West" (Reid, Stevens, and Zheutlin in LA) and "Iris East" (Biren and Farmer in DC) also barely knew one another and had to quickly develop methods of rectifying as much. Long-distance phone calls were expensive and letters were limiting, so the group soon began to supplement these more traditional forms of communication wich audiotapes that they mailed back and forch with their letters. These tapes allowed them to communicate more thoroughly and provided a more personal way to get to know one another. »