Member Portal
POSTED: June 13, 2017
The embarrassing statements made by President Trump regarding the role BAKERS played during the cold war and calling us “traitors”, and “housewives with aprons” while a setback has only firmed up our resolve.
We are working toward a new reunion date and location.
Keep the faith BAKERS!
Mary
POSTED: JULY 4, 2016
From the time we started this website we have operated in cyberspace, and behind the MEMBERSHIP door as well. In some ways the secrecy of these things are almost like our days meeting to “bake” or passing a recipe card to a fellow BAKER or to our Project Commander while looking over our shoulder.
Well in May 2017 we will be in Washington for our first physical get together. Representatives of The State Department are working toward a recognition of our efforts and we are hopeful for an announcement in the next month.
If you have been considering becoming a MEMBER this is a good time to do it. All the details are posted on the MESSAGE BOARD.
Mary
POSTED: MAY 7, 2015
I have been asked a few times, why I only do a post once per year?
Well its because all the action is “behind the wall” in the MEMBERS section.
Our history is something that because it was a secret some of us can only share privately and quietly. Others are out and talking about our experiences but we have the problem today of some BAKERS who are very concerned that simply acknowledging knowing a BAKER or having participated in a Baking Club would not be received very positively in some families.
So this Public side of the website I dutifully update once per year, while very actively working on the various message board, discussion forums, mentoring groups and outreach programs we have in the MEMBERS section.
Mary
POSTED: April 3, 2014
Our first year has been an eventful one. From only a handful of members initially our membership continues to grow at a very healthy pace. Unfortunately some BAKERS pass each year ad most of us are now in our 70’s. But with age many are also choosing to share their experience with family members for the first time.
If you are not ready to have the conversation with a family member about your history as a MEMBER you can participate in one of our webinars that are run by BAKERS who have gone through that experience. You may still chose to not disclose your past but will have some tools if you change your mind at one point.
All it takes as a starting point is to initiate the registration process on the LOG- IN tab above.
Dame Mary
So what is the BAKERS PROJECT and who are the BAKERS?
During the COLD WAR in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s the United States military had the added burden of many in its ranks who did not agree with the role the country was playing in international affairs and the dangerous escalation of the arms race with the Soviet Union. Their solution was to share with the Soviets classified information. While this was a matter of conscience for most it was a financial endeavor for some.
The problem with finding these individuals was that most military personnel followed protocol and would report any concerns in this regard to their superior officer, who might also be providing information to the Soviets. After several internal attempts to rectify the problem it was concluded that only an external group could address it properly and ideally one that would not follow rank or the various divisions of the military.
A small group of British communications and coding experts who had gone back to the private sector after the war but still were bound under the Official Secrets Act were recruited to operate outside the conventional chain of command, to design and execute a network of operatives in several locations in the United States to collect, analyze and share information on these informants and to then provide their information to this small oversight group in England. The findings of that group were then in turn shared with the Americans through political channels not military channels and actions taken accordingly.
The operatives for this mission, which lasted from 1959 to 1965 were military wives. Some were Americans but most were the spouses of allied personnel seconded from the British, Australian , Canadian and New Zealand forces.
They met in their homes for baking clubs. Some were married to more senior officers, some to those in lower ranks, and by virtue of being linked only by the common interest of baking, they also crossed many different branches of the military. Each BAKER was very active in many military wives clubs or kids activity clubs and report back to the group the “unfiltered ” comments of a spouse.
Coding for the sharing of information was, even for the times quite rudimentary, but with a simplicity that also ensured its difficulty in detection. Each BAKER had a favorite book and the local Project Commander had her own copy of each of those books. Pages and names were linked to recipe cards so even when they were not meeting they could transfer information openly at public events with these innocent cards for brownies or scones.
Many of those women never shared their experience with their families or spouses, initially because of the secrecy involved, and often later because of not knowing how it would be received by a spouse to learn they had been kept in the dark for so long. Many divorces and worse events occurred for the women who did eventually share their stories. Others have gone to their grave with their secret lives intact.
For the BAKERS or their descendants who do want to share, and be celebrated, we have created this website.
POSTED: March 5, 2013
After many decades we are finally able to come out from the shadows. Some of us may choose not not to take that step. For some it is too late. But for the rest of us who are proud of our accomplishments its time to reconnect with our fellow BAKERS and relish in what we achieved.
This website is at an early stage of development, and the Public portion will always remain quite modest as the real action is occurring in the MEMBER section, once you are logged in. So if you are a BAKER or if your mother, grandmother, or sister shared her secret with you and you would like to become a MEMBER, go to the Log-in section and follow the instructions.
Dame Mary Hicks OBE
If you have stumbled upon this website expecting to learn about baking you are in the wrong place.
This website is a members only portal for a specific group of bakers who during the late 1950’s through to 1965 were instrumental in identifying spies in the U.S. military and communicating their findings to a special unit of the British military.
To read more about the work of these remarkable women go to the ABOUT tab.
If you are a Baker or are a descendent of a Baker and want to participate in the discussion forums and other aspects of the portal please go to the REGISTRATION & LOG-IN tab.
As some of our members have not shared with friends or family members their involvement as a BAKER, our registration and membership is a very controlled process.
WHO CAN BECOME A MEMBER
If you were a BAKER, simply send us an email and we will begin the process to confirm your identity.
Similarly if you are a relative of a deceased BAKER, send us an email and we will start a process that is similar to that above but will involve a few more steps.
email: register@bakersproject.com or for general enquiries: bakersproject@bell.net
LOGGING IN
If you are a member you must log in from the location you identified on your original registration unless you have made special arrangements for contact from other locations as the first step in our security restrictions are to identify where you are located.
LOG IN STEP 1 DENIED
Our scan has indicated you are either not a MEMBER , or are a MEMBER not in your designated location.