Daily Archives: November 2, 2016

President’s Message by Nancy McCabe

President Nancy McCabe

President Nancy McCabe

On October 22, our board of directors and interested members attended a Strategic Planning session with Sandi Gabe and Dawn Johnson, both from AAUW California’s Leaders on Loan program. They are both state officers and leaders in their respective Mariposa branch. We spent time doing a SWOT analysis of our branch: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. While our branch concerns are important to our members, we were assured that we have a lot in common with other branches of our size.

We spent most of our time looking at concerns about the way we do business, and we received quality guidance about how to further our branch mission. We will be starting to formulate plans at our next board meeting and will continue working on this until we have completed our plans. Look forward to hearing about how you can help at your interest groups and upcoming meetings

You will probably notice that there is no branch program for November. As there is no program director, we are dependent upon groups or individuals to step forward to plan our monthly events. Our next event will be our Holiday Luncheon which was planned by our Funds Co-Director Donna Holmes. Look for reservation information in this newsletter. The January event is the IBC luncheon on January 28 which is sponsored by the Capitol Counties IBC. Cherril Peabody and I are your representatives to this group, so we have been involved in the planning. We hope to see you at these AAUW-sponsored luncheons.

To paraphrase John Kennedy, Ask not what AAUW can do for you. Ask what you can do for AAUW.

 

Love, Talk, Read by Donna Holmes and Marty McKnew

lovetalkreadAt the September Showcase, our second-year Kit Mahnke Scholarship winner, Christina Ibarra, introduced us to the nonprofit Love, Talk, Read. Christina, a Speech Pathology major at California State University, Sacramento, and the CSUS Speech Pathology & Audiology Department, are leading a major book drive for this program, which provides children’s book to low-income families.

Since our branch supports education and selects a local group to help at our holiday party, we have selected Love, Talk, Read and partnered with CSUS to collect books. This is a team trifecta: our branch, our university partner, and our scholarship winner. To learn more about Love, Talk, Read go to lovetalkread.com.

We will have book collection boxes and flyers at our holiday luncheon, and Christina to tell us more about the program. Of course we will be happily collecting money for our own programs, as well: Funds, Speech Trek, Tech Trek and Scholarships!

Hope to see you on December 10th!

Donna & Marty

Interest Groups Updates By Cherril Peabody

Anne Rhodes & Lisa Carpenter at Halloween Scrabble

Anne Rhodes & Lisa Carpenter at Halloween Scrabble

The Showcase meeting was a big success. Members tell me they appreciated learning more about our outreach programs. They also enjoyed learning more from our guest speaker, Reva Wittenberg, about how the rising number of sexual assaults on college campuses and their effect on women students are being addressed. Many thanks are due to Sharon Norris and Jane Cooley who brought refreshments and to all the people who helped set up for the meeting or helped clean up afterward.

Quite a few women signed up to participate in interest groups, but it’s not too late to add your name to the list of one of the groups that is seeking more members. These are Board Games (day or evening), Couples Dining Out, Cultural History, Great Decisions III (day), Readers’ Theater, Scrabble Just for Fun and Walk-to-Lunch.  Three other groups have plenty of members but can take more because most members don’t attend on a regular basis, and they don’t meet in members’ homes.  They are Art and Architecture, Film Fans and Singles Dining Out. You can find descriptions of all of these groups in your 2016-17 Membership Directory and Handbook.

We tried to get several new interest groups going and had mixed results. Three of them – Charades, a couples dining group for Millennials and Gen Xers, and an additional evening Great Decisions group – did not make the cut. Opera Buffs and Women of the World had several sign-ups each, but none of the women who signed up expressed willingness to be the leader of either group, so these groups cannot proceed. The Opera Buffs group would attend Metropolitan Opera screenings together at local theaters, and the Women of the World group would hear presentations from women who have experienced other cultures.

If you are interested in participating in one of the interest groups that is accepting new members or if you might be willing to chair either the Opera Buffs or Women of the World groups, please contact me at capeabody@comcast.net or 916-973-0821.

Save the Date, Read Book Group Calendar and Interest Groups

calendar-clip-artSave the Date!

Mark your calendars and join AAUW member and presenter Karen O’Hara as she shares valuable tips on how to organize your documents and important information so that loved ones know where to locate important information they might need in case of your incapacitation.

February 4, 2017;  9:30 a.m. – noon;  South Natomas Library

  • To read your book group calendar, click here
  • To read your interest group calendar, click here
  • To view printable articles, click here

 

Voters’ Rights Update by Jo Reiken

voting-imageSince the Supreme Court ruled on the 1965 Voting Rights Act and diminished the scope of Section 5, many Americans have found registering to vote challenging.  Section 5 identified states with histories of racial discrimination and required federal oversight to any changes in their election laws.  Following the 2013 Supreme Court case Shelby vs. Holder, the federal oversight was relaxed.

Fourteen states have enacted new voting laws since 2015. Ohio has not reinstated voters from previous purges. Nevada Indian tribes won an emergency court order requiring the polling places in two Northern counties. Whether through old transgressions or new ones, the voter suppression issue continues and will surely impact our national election on November 8.  These restrictions include requiring voter ID, eliminating same day registration, diminished polling areas, reducing early voting and purging voter rolls. Thousands of Americans are affected by this actions. A disproportion number of older voters, people of color, poor and young voters will be impacted.

What has been done?    The courts have stepped up and blocked many laws that violate the Constitution or the current VRA.  For example, the 5th Circuit of Appeals affirmed that Texas law was one of the most restrictive in the country. It discriminated against blacks and Latinos. Under the original law restrictions, 600,000 registered voters would not have been allowed to vote. The Judge instructed a lower court to review the intention of law as to discrimination as well as to order new procedures to be enacted.

The Voting Rights Amendment Act of 2015, sponsored by Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy, (D) and Georgia Representative John Lewis (D ), targets practices known to suppress voting rights of minorities and will provide greater transparency in federal elections in voting procedures. It was assigned to a congressional committee on June 24, 2015 but this bill has little chance of passing without Republican support. At this time the bill has not made it to the House or the Senate. This bill is in stalemate in Congress.

Resources: 

www.thenation, www.nytimes.com, www.aclu.org, www.leahy.senate.gov. http://www.brennancenter.org/,   www.legaguewomenvoters.org

AAUW Membership Incentive Programs by Pat Winkle

membership benefitsOur Membership Committee works to raise awareness of AAUW and our Branch, recruit prospective members, and engage and retain current members. But all of this is really done through the personal involvement of each of our members. Our history tells us that members sharing their passion about AAUW with someone else has helped to keep our numbers strong. The stronger we are, the more we can accomplish on behalf of women and girls. How can you share your passion?  Tell someone you know, or even someone you may have just met, about AAUW. Tell them about the parts of the organization that make you so passionate. Tell them about the mission, the research, the advocacy, the philanthropy, and why you are a member. Then invite them (better yet, bring them!) to a meeting, refer them to our website (sacramento-ca.aauw.net) and encourage them to join!

Since this is the beginning of a new year for the branch, we thought it would be helpful to provide information on the membership campaigns continuing this year. These campaigns provide individual and branch incentives to recruit new members.

Shape the Future Membership Campaign is a national program used to help branches recruit new members by offering reduced membership rates to new or lapsed (2 or more years) members who join on the spot during AAUW-sponsored activities that are open to the public. Branches build their member base, and for every two new members that join, branches earn one free membership, up to a maximum of five free memberships annually, to give to anyone eligible for membership, including: new members, renewing members, etc. Not only does the branch benefit, but more importantly, our new members benefit by saving 50% ($24.50) off their national dues.  This offer is available to members joining at any branch meeting or other AAUW sponsored public activities, including our Happy Hours!

Give a Grad a Gift: AAUW members can give a recent grad — a friend, daughter, son, granddaughter, grandson, niece, or nephew — a free AAUW National and state membership within two years of graduation, at no cost to you or them! Your grad will receive a one-year national and state membership — a $69 value. They can join a branch at any time but will be responsible for paying branch dues – only $16 for our branch, so why not consider gifting that for them if they are local? Please contact Membership Treasurer Sharon Anderson for application information.

Special graduate student rate: You can invite graduate students in our community to join AAUW and our branch at the special introductory National rate of $18.81 plus the cost of state dues ($10). We waive branch dues for these students. This special rate is for new members and is only effective for their first year of membership.

Finally, National will be recognizing members who recruit five or more new members in a year with a new recruiter pin.

MEMBERSHIP MATTERS by Shirley Wheeler and Pat Winkle, Co-Membership Directors

Please join us in welcoming the following new members to the Sacramento Branch of AAUW:

ASHLEY GILREATH has been a member of AAUW before joining our Branch. She received her BA in Environmental Studies and Economics from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and her Master in Environmental Science and Management from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Ashley lives in Carmichael and works full time as a Program Manager- Conservation.

BERNARDETE NUNES was referred by Deborah Dunn. She received her BA in International Relations from the University of California, Davis. Bernardete lives in Elk Grove and is interested in joining Art and Architecture.

TAMARA OLSON received her BA in Sociology from the University of Minnesota. She is a retired Account Executive at G.E. Capital and lives in Sacramento. Tamara is interested in a number of our interest groups.

KAREN ZUMWALT received her BA and her MS in Health Education form California State University, Sacramento. She is a retired School Administrator and lives in Sacramento. Karen is interested in a number of our interest groups.

MERRIE McLAUGHLIN received her BA degree in English Literature from Swarthmore.  She is a former AAUW member.  Merrie is a retired payroll tech and lives in Sacramento. She was referred by Gloria Sears.

MARY ROSE M. REPINE received her BA and Master degrees in Industrial Psychology from California State University, Sacramento. Mary Rose also received her Ph.D. in Business from Trident University International. She is a retired Executive Director of Hospital Building Safety and a former member of AAUW.

KATHERINE (Kit) ROEMMELE received her BA in Psychology/Sociology from Whittier College. She received her Master of Education from Whittier College and University of California, Los Angeles. Kit was a former AAUW member in Fullerton. She is a retired teacher and Vice Principal. Kit lives in Sacramento and received information about our branch from the Internet.

Art and Architecture Interest Group Visits Sherry Karver Studio by Linda Patterson

art-and-architectureThe Oct. 7 meeting of the Art and Architecture group was held in Oakland at the home and studio of artist Sherry Karver. Karver, who exhibits her work in major U.S. cities and who has donated a painting to the Crocker Art Museum, is an artist whose work “addresses urban living, webcams, and other forms of surveillance and deals with a multitude of issues concerning each of us today, such as loneliness and alienation in our fast paced society.”

Her photo-based paintings and sculptures reference masses of people in a highly technological age. Karver begins her work with a black and white photograph taken in a public place, most notably Grand Central Station, Italy, or France. Text is added digitally, and then the photographic print is mounted on a 2 5/8” deep wood panel. With numerous oil glazes, Karver adds color and then coats the final surface with UV resin, a reflective surface that sometimes adds the viewer’s own likeness as part of the work.

The studio, located in the former Rockridge Women’s Club that Karver purchased many years ago, includes a mini gallery where many of her large painting are hung. Karver graciously explained her process, answered questions, and offered cookies during the visit.