As a legal secretary in Miami working all day long in an office, Tia Broadway was looking for ways to enjoy the outdoors on her days off.

She enrolled in last weekend's ``Becoming an Outdoors Woman'' workshop put on by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission in northwestern Palm Beach County. Along with about 50 other women, Broadway had a wide choice of sessions to attend, including wilderness cooking; bass and pan fishing; map and compass; reading the woods; shotgun; handguns; and archery.

Her first choice: archery.

``I'm going to do my first hunt in March for turkey,'' she said. ``I'm really excited. I feel like I know what to do to leave here and go do it tomorrow.''

But why bow hunting -- perhaps the most difficult shooting sport?

``You have to be much closer, much quieter,'' Broadway said. ``It's so much more intense. And whatever you take down, you've got to eat.''

The program began in 1991 through the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. It was adopted by the Florida Game and Freshwater Fish Commission in 1994. The workshops, held in Palm Beach County, Ocala and Tallahassee each year, strive to teach women new to the outdoors a variety of skills and activities in a nonthreatening setting. Men are allowed to attend as students, and there are male instructors, but the weekend-long sessions are a lot like Girl Scout camp for adults.

``This is a bonding girl weekend,'' said first-time attendee Mary Gayle Martin of Bradenton.

Martin's adult daughter Patricia Rice -- fresh from paddling class with instructor/former space shuttle engineer Greg Mikkelson -- said she enjoyed learning outdoors skills minus the pressure of a husband or boyfriend.

``There are a lot of women who watch their men be outdoorsmen,'' Rice said. ``To go out with your husband who's an avid outdoorsman is intimidating. This is very warm, very inviting; absolutely no criticism of any kind. At no time have we felt like outsiders in any way.''

Colene Beckett of West Palm Beach volunteers as an instructor in the camping/backpacking session. Beckett, a 73-year-old great-grandmother, is a veteran of hundreds of kayak/camping excursions and has hiked the Appalachian Trail several times.

Beckett displayed several light, portable cooking tools for use in the wild, such as a Sterno cup filled with denatured alcohol and a folding stove that works with a fuel tablet. To laughs from the students, she demonstrated the ``Lady Jane'' -- a compact toilet adapter.

``If you're in your tent and it's raining and you have to go, the last thing you want to do is pee in your tent. It's so disgusting,'' Beckett said.

Some of the workshop participants were avid outdoors-women, already experienced with fishing, hunting and camping, but eager to perfect their skills.

April Wagner, 30, of West Palm Beach is studying to become a crime scene technician and said she wanted to learn more about firearms.

``I've always liked being outside -- hunting, fishing and guns -- so why not learn the proper way of doing it?'' she said. ``In the handguns, it's just more about being comfortable and proper handling techniques.''

One of the most popular sessions was wilderness survival, taught by firefighter/ paramedic Anne Keller and assisted by Miriam Donohoo, a bass fishing pro from Palatka. In one three-hour session, women learned how to build a solar still and cut grapevines to make drinking water in the woods. They made their own fires using drier lint and palmetto fibers as kindling lit by a broken hacksaw blade scraped against a magnesium bar. And they watched as Keller made a crude sundial compass by driving stakes into the ground based on the movements of the sun's shadow.

``Sort of like going to a tasting party for survival,'' Keller said.

Jacksonville homemaker Denise Rahmes has attended eight workshops as a student and instructor aide.

``Even if I've taken a class six times, I learn something new,'' Rahmes said. ``Nobody in my family goes outdoors. This is my runaway-to-camp every year.''

For more information about ``Becoming an Outdoors Woman'' workshops, visit myFWC.com/bow or call Lynne Hawk at 561-625-5122.