Daily Archives: March 5, 2020

Policies Affecting California Women’s Well-Being are March Program Focus by Amy Rose and Cathy Locke

Women have made considerable progress since securing the vote 100 years ago, but they still face disparities on a range of issues including economic security, health and participation in political leadership.

Colleagues from the California Budget & Policy Center will update us on the status of women in Sacramento County and statewide during a March 25 presentation on the California Women’s Well Being Index.

The Wednesday evening meeting is scheduled from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Arden-Dimick Library Community Room, 891 Watt Ave. (corner of Watt and Northrop avenues).

The Women’s Well Being Index, prepared by the California Budget & Policy Center, is a multifaceted composite measure looking at five dimensions of women’s well-being by county: health, personal safety, employment and earnings, economic security and political empowerment.

The California Budget & Policy Center (calbudgetcenter.org), formerly the California Budget Project, was founded in 1995 to provide an independent source of information on how budget and tax policies affect low- and middle-income Californians. The center provides analyses and commentary on issues including tax policy, economic trends, health and criminal justice.

Come learn about the issues affecting California women and how you can advocate for change.

The March 25 program is free of charge, but members and guests are asked to sign up online via Eventbrite or call or email Cathy Locke (contact information is available in the branch directory).

 

Presidents’ Message By Liz Jordan and Charmen Goehring

Liz Jordan

The saying goes that March roars in like a lion, but it feels like February stole a bit of March’s roar. Our much-anticipated 100th Anniversary celebration is behind us, but certainly not our ongoing pride in our Sacramento Branch’s contributions to our community.

HELP WANTED

This brings us to one of the most important issues before the branch that impacts our ability to continue as a vibrant organization … our need for volunteers and specifically for a member to step forward to assume the office of Finance Director. We were blessed for several years with members who were willing to take it on as a new personal challenge and by members with professional expertise. But now the Nominating Committee is facing a serious situation: a needed volunteer to take up the position.

MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL

Please read Sharon Anderson’s article about membership renewal. We have been trying to keep you informed about this significant change in the way you will be renewing membership for the 2020-2021 year. We will renew online this year using our most secure credit cards. It’s super simple, and you will get instructions via email and snail-mail. We are hoping you will continue to be as generous with our outreach programs (which are all tax-deductible!!). More information about that process will be mailed to you in April.

GOODBYE AMY ROSE

We were so fortunate to have Amy Rose step up to take on the Public Policy Directorship this year. Amy has left us for Houston, Texas, and a new job with Harris County Government. We will miss her energy and talent on our board and hope we can find her replacement! Good luck, Amy.

BY-LAWS CHANGES

In an effort to help the enormous task of the Nominating Committee as well as bring the branch up-to-date with best practices at both the State and National AAUW, we propose the following changes to our By-Laws:

  1. To make the following changes to our Bylaws Article X: letter c. “the term of one year” to read “term of two years”.
  2. Add a new letter  ‘d’ to the Bylaws Article X. Officers, to read “Officers shall be elected in staggered terms as following: Secretary and Finance Director shall be elected in even-numbered years. President-Elect, Funds Director, Membership Director, and Program Director will be elected in odd-numbered years. The president-elect shall serve for a term of three years, one year as president-elect, followed by two years as president.

The Branch will vote on these changes during the April Branch meeting, along with voting on the proposed slate of officers for next year’s elected board.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS

Charmen Goehring

March 25, 2020, Branch meeting is an evening meeting at the Arden-Dimick Library Community Room on Women’s Well-Being. This meeting was planned by Amy Rose along with our Program Directors Cathy Locke and Karen Burley. Excellent information will be provided as well as a brief presentation by one of our scholarship winners.

April 25, 2020, at Plates Café is the popular Author’s luncheon. We will have an exciting presentation by Steve and Susie Swatt, along with Rebecca LaVally and Jeff Raimundo on California women’s achievements, celebrating the right to vote along with many other milestones. This is also our annual meeting and we vote on next year’s elected board and some proposed bylaw changes.

Equal Pay Day is March 31, 2020.  

 

Important Membership Renewal Information by Sharon Anderson

Our usual membership renewal forms will be mailed around April 20 but with a few important changes this year.

In the February Capital Ideas, we alerted Sacramento Branch members that all members are now required by national AAUW to renew dues through the Membership Payment Program (MPP). Association will no longer accept checks. This means that all dues (National, State and branch) must use the MPP invoicing system. To prepare, several members renewed membership last year and found it quite easy. Members just fill in their credit card number (including any donations to Association’s Fund programs) and click “submit.” Because Association absorbs the credit card fee, this system also saves our branch a considerable amount of money previously lost to credit card fees.

On April 20, in addition to the USPS mailed paper renewal form and instructions, there will be emailed invoices sent out to every branch member who has an email address. The member opens the emailed invoice, fills in the information, and submits payment directly to Association, with a copy to Membership Treasurer Sharon Anderson for maintenance of our local records.

For those who want to make donations to our local programs such as Speech Trek, Tech Trek, Scholarships, NCCWSL, etc., a check or credit card number will need to be included with the mailed membership renewal form. (This is essentially the same renewal form that you see every year.)

Look for more information about this process in your email inbox from Membership Treasurer Sharon Anderson as we approach the due date. Additionally, all Board members will be available to assist people who need help with the emailed invoices, although we don’t expect you to have any difficulty. For members who do not have email and cannot receive an emailed invoice, information will also be mailed in plenty of time to proceed with renewal.