Monthly Archives: May 2018

Presidents’ Message by Donna Holmes and Marty McKnew

Marty McKnew

Has this year flown by! We will be installing new officers at the May 19 meeting. We hope you will attend. Before we move on to next year, let’s pause to reflect on all we have accomplished this year. Some of the highlights:

In October we co-sponsored the screening of Equal Means Equal with the Citrus Heights – American River branch. This joint venture was a huge success, reaching many new people and bringing to light the plight of the Equal Rights Amendment. AAUW-CA recognized this as an outstanding meeting.

Donna HolmesWe followed this up with a meeting on Deeper In Debt: Women and Student Loans in November, with fabulous guest speakers for our panel discussion. Once again we reached out to the community and a new audience.

The Inter-Branch Council annual meeting featuring a funds speaker in January was the best attended in recent history. Thanks to all our members who came out. We reinstituted the silent auction, and our branch came away with enough donations and auction gains to complete our 100th Anniversary Research and Projects Grant. What an accomplishment – two years before our 100th anniversary.

What a year! This is only the short list. We have accomplished so much more. Thank you to everyone who made this year such a success. We have a wonderful branch and so much to appreciate.

Marty and Donna

On a personal note, I know the branch will be in wonderful hands next year with a great group of dedicated women on the board. It has been a pleasure to serve as one of your co-presidents. — Marty

Click Here to Read the Interest Group Calendar, Book Group Calendar, Birthdays and Printable Articles

Editor’s Note: Angela Scarlett is looking for an interested member who can use WordPress and would like to work with the board to get blog entries published in a timely manner.  This would just take 2 – 3 hours a month from the privacy of your own home. Contact Angela at angela.scarlett@gmail.com.

Scholarship Committee Updates by Susana Mullen, Scholarship Co-director

Scholarship Committee members met on Saturday, March 17. There were 10 eligible applicants, at least seven of whom would have won any other year. The competition was very steep. All three nursing recipients have GPAs between 3.84 and 4.0 and received excellent references from Chemistry and Anatomy professors. The first alternate is a Civil Engineering student at California State University, Sacramento, raising three children on her own.

Athena Avila

Athena Aviles, 42, Sacramento City College Nursing Major, will transfer to CSUS in Fall 2018, hopefully in the Nursing Program.

 

 

 

Brianna Delaney

Brianna Delaney, 25, SCC Nursing Major, will also attend CSUS in Fall 2018, hopefully in the Nursing Program.

 

 

 

Sidra Awais

Sidra Awais, 31, is finishing her AA at SCC and will transfer to CSUS in Fall 2018, majoring in Accounting. She is married and has two children.

 

 

 

Emily Wirth

Emily Wirth, 28, was also a recipient last year. Her husband is also studying nursing on the GI Bill. They have two children. She is an SCC Nursing Major who will transfer to CSUS in Fall 2018, hopefully in the CSUS Nursing Program. Last fall, her husband was selected as the veteran recipient of a Habitat for Humanity of Greater Sacramento home build. She has invited our members to the Habitat Veterans Day event in November to see the home they are building.

April 2018 Meeting Recap – Closing the Pay Gap by Donna Holmes

April’s branch meeting on closing the pay gap was so wonderful. I only wish more members had attended. Ashley Anglesey, Public Policy Director, started the meeting off with a PowerPoint presentation of AAU National’s 2018 Closing the Pay Gap research. We know about white women making only 80% of white men, but the various breakdowns are even worse. Then, when women break the barrier in fields previously dominated by men, the wages go down for everyone. Ashley had a great handout, and I am sure glad I live in California.

Next up was Shannon Smith-Crowley, AAUW California’s Legislative Advocate, who used many examples to demonstrate the need to not use prior pay in setting current pay. Shannon advised us to tell our stories and put a face on the problem. People relate to individuals better than statistics. After I retired from AT&T, I decided to become a teacher, which paid much lower. I remember typing my grad school letter and noting that I was pursuing my credential because with a pension and benefits, now I could afford to be a teacher!

Councilperson Angelique Ashby speaking at our April 2018 meeting

Our last dynamic speaker was Sacramento City Councilwoman Angelique Ashby. Angelique told of a black man being hired by the council and what his salary should be. Then she pointed out that the Hispanic woman in the job was being paid $30,000 less! She got a raise.

When asked how to get more women to run for office she listed three items:

  1. Clean campaigns
  2. Money – she lost the mayoral race because Mayor Darrell Steinberg had $2 million left from his lieutenant governor run and was allowed to use it.
  3. Removal of double standards.

Big thanks to Deborah Dunn, Ashley Anglesey and Gloria Yost for putting together an informative and dynamic meeting.

 

My Memories of AAUW as a “new member” in 1969 by Georgia Richardson

I joined AAUW in 1969. I was invited to a New Member coffee and met a wealth of like-minded women and learned of interesting and exciting things to do. The next year I was asked to lead the New Member section. I found that the duties included arranging day and evening coffees and inviting new members, manning the New Members’ table at the Fall Festival, and updating and editing the new member booklet. I could do that.

I gathered the new material to update the booklet that explained AAUW Sacramento Branch and gave contact information for the many interest sections. The movie “Around the World in Eighty Days” had been released and was a very popular film at that time. The incoming AAUW Sacramento Branch president, inspired by the film, chose the theme “Around the Branch in Eighty Ways” for the upcoming year. Now that I had the contents in order, I needed a cover for the new member booklet. I decided a hot air balloon would be a fitting cover, so I drew what I thought was a hot air balloon. When I showed it to others, they all said that it looked like a light bulb! I always knew that my artist’s skills were challenged. So this wouldn’t do.

I reviewed my newly acquired interest section material and found an art and crafts section leader who lived in Land Park. I called her and told her my situation and she graciously agreed to draw a new hot air balloon. Her rendering looked like a hot air balloon, not a light bulb! She also did silk screening and agreed to do the 100 covers that I needed, but would need my help.

On the agreed upon day, I loaded up my two little ones, the sitter, and a stack of light blue cover paper and drove to Land Park. The sitter took the four children to the park while we produced the cover pages. Silk screening is not a fast process, and we had 100 newly screened pages all over her house in the drying stage. The children enjoyed the park and stayed there a long time, which gave us time to complete all the needed pages, dry and stack them.

I will always remember the beautiful talent of this artist, her friendliness, and willingness to help.

A Celebration by Kathleen Asay, Funds Co-director

If you need it, here’s another reason to attend our annual spring luncheon this month: Be there to celebrate the completion of our 100th Anniversary Grant fund and recognize our Named Gift Honorees. With all the wonderful women in AAUW Sacramento, it was hard to select a just few to receive a special mention, but we did it. Show your support for their work for our branch by joining in the applause.

And a reminder: May is the month to renew your branch membership and a convenient and traditional opportunity to donate to AAUW Funds. Note the enclosed list of funds to choose from and read the brief blurbs about them. Allow yourself a moment to be inspired by all the good work of this organization. Remember the moving article Alicia Hetman wrote about the Eleanor Roosevelt Fund. This year, the branch is hoping you will remember that Alicia herself has a grant fund in need of completion. Let’s fulfill this fund and get it stipend-producing. Note that undesignated donations are given to fund 9110, the fund used for whatever is needed to operate AAUW.

Exploring a Joint Current Events Interest Group Idea with CHAR by Cherril Peabody

In the April newsletter, I asked members to give me their thoughts about our interest groups, i.e., whether they are meeting your needs and if you have any ideas for new ones. So far I have only received one response, from MaryGene Page, but it was an interesting one. She is a dual member with the CHAR (Citrus Heights-American River) branch, and they have been talking about starting a current events interest group. She wondered if we might want to start one, too. She also suggested that if neither branch has enough interested members to develop a group we might have a joint group serving members of both branches.

When I put these ideas forth to some of the board members, I was surprised to learn that in earlier days of the branch there had been joint groups with other branches, and such a group would certainly still be possible. I have been a member of this branch for almost 30 years, but this was the first I had heard about that practice!

A current events group, whether joint or not, is something that would take some real thought. There are so many issues of importance being debated now throughout the world, and it could be somewhat overwhelming to choose a few to study. When I told Nancy McCabe about the idea, she suggested that the group might look at some of our mission issues, like equal pay, personal safety on college campuses, reproductive choice, or workplace harassment. That makes sense, but I think the selection should be made by the women who start the group. Another concern is that there may be issues where members have different beliefs, and it would be important to ensure that all opinions are respectfully heard. That’s where our Interest Group Ground Rules and Conflict Resolution Guidelines might come in handy.

So what do you all think about this idea? I sent info about the idea to our current interest group chairs, and Joan Hammond responded that she thought it was a good idea along the lines of the Great Decision groups, which are always full. They mostly study global issues, so maybe this group could study U.S. issues. Please let me know what you think about current event topics in general, the prospect of a joint group with CHAR, and other ideas you have that you think would improve our interest groups.

Hear a Very Special Speech at the May Annual Installation Meeting by Deborah Dunn

Our May Branch meeting will be on Saturday, May 19, from 10 a.m. to noon at the Sacramento County Department of Human Assistance, 2700 Fulton Ave. You won’t want to miss the winner of our February 2018 Speech Trek contest, Grace Tan, as she delivers her winning speech on the very timely contest topic: How can we stand up to sexism? What can individuals and organizations such as AAUW do to breakdown stereotypes and biases in school, at work, in the military, and in our communities?

In addition, recently elected officers for 2018-19 will be installed, and Named Branch Gift Honorees will be announced. Each year, AAUW Branches can recognize members who have contributed in important ways to AAUW and its mission. The number of members recognized is dependent on the amount of donations to AAUW Funds. This year, we will be recognizing six members. Join us in honoring these members and congratulating them for their outstanding contributions.

Also during the meeting, attendees will have an opportunity to mingle with and better get to know other branch members from their geographic areas. We have a fun activity designed to spark interaction and conversation.

Please register for the May 19 meeting via Event Brite (no charge and we only require name and email).

Eventbrite - AAUW Sacramento Annual Installation of Officers

Alternatively, you can register by emailing Dawn Boyd at darnone1@att.net. Registering in advance helps the Program Committee with planning. Hope to see you there!