MALE MEMBERS?

Did you know that AAUW membership is not just for women? In June 1987 at the Houston National Convention, AAUW members voted to extend membership to include men who were college graduates and who shared AAUW’s commitment to gender equity. The first male member was John Freeman. He purchased a life membership immediately following the successful vote to extend membership to males. His wife, Grace, was a member of the Rock Hill, S.C., Branch and he was an enthusiastic supporter of the activities and ideals of our organization as represented by his wife. He discussed becoming a member with his wife; she supported the idea, and he joined in order to provide, in his words:”…equal opportunity for all members of our society.” If you have husbands, sons, nephews, male associates, etc., please consider inviting them to join and/or gift them with a membership. We welcome them to participate in our program initiatives and in our interest groups.

Janice Stuter

CHANGING THE ANNUAL RENEWAL AND DONATIONS PROCEDURES

National is no longer accepting checks from branches or individuals. Our branch will no longer be accepting checks either because of the charges imposed by banks. Members of the Board have been investigating how to best align our renewal and funding procedures with these new situations. The plan they are developing involves renewing memberships online using the Member Payment Plan (MPP). This will apply to membership fees and donations to the various funds listed on the renewal form. We will also be using Pay Pal for donations made to the Branch for our outreach programs such as Speech Trek, Tech Trek, and Scholarships.

Details on how members will do this will be presented in the near future. Donna Holmes and Angela Scarlett are going to set up the Pay Pal program. There is a special way to do it for non-profit groups so that we do not have to pay so much to use it. Our aim is to be good stewards of members’ money, and that means changing some of our habits.

MEMBERSHIP NUMBERS?

Last month I expressed concern about what appeared to be a drastic reduction in the number of members in our Sacramento Branch. What I didn’t realize (members of the Board informed me) is that a lot of the size reduction of our branch occurred because of the proliferation of other local branches in our area, especially the Citrus Heights – American River (CHAR) Branch. CHAR, formed in 1960, serves the areas of Citrus Heights, Folsom, Rancho Cordova, Fair Oaks, Carmichael and Orangevale, providing scholarship opportunities for students of American River College. We’re all working together for the same ultimate goal: gender equity.