Presidents’ Message by Donna Holmes and Marty McKnew

Happy New Year! 2018 has arrived!

We can’t leave 2017 without acknowledging the wonderful team who worked so hard on our lovely Holiday Party – Carolyn Martin for her great presentation, Mary Williams on piano, Mary Schneider and Vivian Counts for the table décor, and Deborah Dunn and Nancy McCabe (in absentia) and all their team. Thanks to all of you, we collected more than 300 books for Love, Talk, Read. Gloria Yost encouraged the Sacramento State Affiliate members to attend, and it was great to have them with us. And finally, thank you everyone for the warm welcome to our surprise guest – the president of the San Antonio Branch, Karen Reichensperger, PhD.

Looking ahead to 2018, we have a great line-up of activities for our branch. In January we have the annual Capitol Cities Inter-Branch Funds Luncheon. This year’s two fellows, Kara Leong from UC Davis and Zawadi Ahidiana from UC Berkeley, are receiving their support from local grants. We are so delighted women honored to have grants in their name or their branch’s name will be introducing them at the luncheon. Look for the flyer in this newsletter, and sign up today.

Now that it is 2018, 2020 is not far away. What is so important about 2020, you ask? It was in February 1920 that the Sacramento Branch held its first meeting. Ruth Burgess is heading up a team to celebrate this big anniversary. They are asking for your help in the way of AAUW stories. We all have them. What’s yours? Ruth will be looking for it. Watch the newsletter for monthly updates on all the plans for 2020 and how you can participate.

Best wishes for a healthy and happy 2018!

Marty and Donna