The future of the national Pantsuit Nation group is up in the air these days – after its founder, Libby Chamberlain, announced  she had signed a book deal, sparking a major backlash.

But here in Colorado, members of the secret Facebook group that was formed in the days before the presidential election are trying to keep its spirit alive.

Prior to Nov. 8, the group – which currently has over 3.9 million members – encouraged women to rally for Hillary Clinton by “pantsuit-ing up” when they cast their votes. After her loss to Donald Trump, it became a place for collective mourning, a “safe space” for posting anecdotes about their experiences and fears as the Trump era approaches.

But even before founder Chamberlain – a 33-year-old based in Maine – announced that she had signed a book deal, many members had already grown frustrated with the group’s focus on swapping stories.

“Those of us who are more interested in impact and policy, we wanted to keep the movement alive,” says Jennifer Dulles, who works in PR in Denver and lives in Broomfield.

So Dulles created her own group, one that has already laid out a specific plan of action: advocacy focusing on “protecting those who might become disenfranchised under the Trump administration, and environmental protection,” says Dulles.

For now, the group has more than 300 members and is called PSN Inspired Broomfield.

Why not just “Pantsuit Nation Broomfield?” That’s where it gets tricky.

When Chamberlain announced her book deal, she also announced she was forming two nonprofits. And, she applied for a trademark for the name “Pantsuit Nation.” It was those actions – as much as the book deal itself – that raised questions about what exactly Chamberlain’s plans might be. “What had once been a space of solidarity started to feel like a branding machine,” said one member, in the Huffington Post.

After news of the trademark, many of the local subgroups and offshoots started leaving the “pantsuit” out of their names.

In Colorado, there are at least a dozen such groups. It’s impossible to know the exact number, because many are choosing to remain “secret” on Facebook.

The state-wide Colorado Action Network aims to maintain the “power in numbers” of the Pantsuit Nation group to “leverage themselves around certain issues.” That’s according to a Boulder-based facilitator of the group, who requested that we not use her name because she fears professional repercussions for her political activity.

“There’s a lot of worry about Trump’s agenda and his appointments, and a lot of concern about Planned Parenthood,” she said.

The Colorado Action Network says that, despite the group’s obvious bent to the left, it’s interested more in issues than in adhering to party lines. Case in point: when Colorado’s Republican Sen. Cory Gardner joined other senators in demanding a probe into possible Russian hacking of the election, the facilitator says, we contacted his office “to encourage him to stand fast.”

Meanwhile a group with some 400 members in the western suburbs of Denver says its aim is not direct action, but rather supporting existing advocacy groups. “There are a lot of great organizations in place doing the work that needs to be done – we need to start showing up for them, networking with each other and communicating,” says Sarah, a work-at-home mom who founded the group but has chosen to not reveal her last name or the name of the group. “We are getting trained up in ‘Activism 101’-that will be the topic of our January meeting,” she says.

Like many of the chapters inspired by Pantsuit Nation, Sarah’s group is a work-in-progress – but that hasn’t stopped its members from getting active in their communities. They already organized an outreach visit to the Islamic Center in Golden, and Sarah says “the room was packed.”

And how do Sarah, and other leaders of Pantsuit-Nation-inspired groups in our state, feel about Libby Chamberlain?

“She provided us with a ready-made network, and now I’m standing up and doing what needs to be done,” she says.

That’s a sentiment shared by Jennifer Dulles: “I don’t fault Libby… In our group, we have no issues with her.” After the announcement of the book deal, she says, “we just looked at one another and said, how are we going to move forward?”