Category Archives: Branch Business

Our Branch Moves Forward!

Our Branch Moves Forward! By Hedda Smithson

Last month we read about the new structure of our governing body – the board in its new
format. Now we ask you to look at some of the back pages of our membership directory.

Liz Jordan! Donna Holmes! Marty McKnew! Nancy McCabe! Cherril Peabody! Molly
Dugan! Gloria Yost! Barbara Smith! Hedda Smithson! Jane Cooley! Jean Bonar! Linda Sparks! What do all these women have in common? YEP! Each has served as AAUW
Sacramento Branch President! (A couple have done repeat performances!!) AND each is still
active at some level in our current membership year. So – something about that experience
sparked a passion for our branch and a desire to continue being involved.

Guess what – your name could be added to that Presidents list! Sometimes being
president is a bit easier than taking on a director’s responsibility and/or committee chair.
Regardless of the “job”, there are lots of resources available to facilitate your experience. Check
out our branch web site (https://sacramento-ca.aauw.net). Use the password in the back of the
directory to access the Members-Only page.

Here are some of the expectations:
* Be familiar with our governing documents: our bylaws, policies and leadership responsibilities and see that these are followed.
* Have good communication skills.
* Be comfortable using email, texting and Zoom
* Commit to a two-year term.
* Preside during board and business meetings and play a part in general membership meetings in welcoming guests and helping with the program.

Our election will be held early in 2025. Our rules allow for self-nominations.
AND – you would not be alone – the dozen women listed above are more than willing to be your cheerleaders.
Oh! Did we mention that the job comes with a gavel at the beginning and a lovely pin at the end? Tempted? Interested? Curious? We hope so. Contact our president, Nancy McCabe. She will help you get involved.

AAUW Sacramento Has a New Look!

AAUW Sacramento Has a New Look! By Hedda Smithson

Take a look at your current membership directory. Find a page called Board of Directors. We are slimmer, sleeker, and very nimble!! Instead of six elected and eight appointed positions, we now have four elected officers and five appointed directors. If you still have your 2022-2023 directory (bright pink cover), you might compare it to the 2023-2024 membership directory (lime green cover.) The board meets on Zoom so keeping track of nine or ten faces is easier than fourteen.

Our policies tell us that the terms for President and Program Vice President are two years; Secretary and Finance Director terms are the same but staggered so there are always board members with institutional memory to move the branch forward. The directors are appointed for one- year terms and may serve a second year if desired. The focus areas are Membership Support, Membership Development, Local Projects, AAUW Priorities, and Communications. We will be looking for members to step up to take on the President and Program VP roles for the 2025-2026 AAUW year, so please consider it.

Still have questions? Contact anyone on the Board! We are always looking for new faces and fresh ideas! Thanks!

Strategic Planning and Call for Volunteers

Strategic Planning at Work

On May 20 at 11 a.m., we installed our new president and vice presidents of programming, heard from this year’s Speech Trek winner, and recognized our branch’s named-gift honorees and new 50-year members. We also voted on updates to our branch’s bylaws. More information on these topics can be found elsewhere in the newsletter.

Marty McKnew and Hedda Smithson, two of our strategic planning committee members, substantially revised the bylaws by eliminating duplicate sections and adding new verbiage for our new at-large director positions. Click the link below to read the clean copy of the bylaws.

Contact Marty at martymcknew@comcast.net to see the marked-up copy of the bylaws.

Click <here> for AAUW Sacramento Bylaws.

Volunteer to join the AAUW Sacramento Board as a DIRECTOR AT LARGE

in one of the following areas:

Member support – Communications – AAUW Priorities – Local Projects – Membership Development

AAUW Sacramento has REGROUPED with a newly Reorganized Board!!

Do you want to expand AAUW’s Mission supporting Women and Girls in Sacramento?
Would you like to be part of building deeper friendships and camaraderie?
Are you looking for a place to share your talents and skills such as enthusiasm, creativity, and bringing people together?

What you will do:

Serve as a voting member of the Governing Board
Take an active and collaborative role in leading and setting branch goals
Maintain active communication with the groups within your focus areas listed above
Keep the Board regularly informed about your focus areas’ activities/needs

What you will gain:

Leadership skills
New friends
Satisfaction of making a difference for our AAUW Mission

Sacramento Branch Needs You! Help us RENEW and REFRESH!

For questions or more information please contact President Nancy McCabe. Her contact information can be found in the Membership Directory.

May Program

May Program By Angela Scarlett

AAUW Sacramento will hold its May Meeting and Officer Installation at 11 a.m. May 20, 2023, at the Sacramento Dharma Center, 3111 Wissemann Drive, Sacramento 95826.

We will install our new president and vice presidents of programming, hear from this year’s Speech Trek winner, and recognize our branch’s named gift honorees and new 50-year members.

We will also have a light lunch and enjoy the Dharma Center’s back garden again, as we have the center until 1 p.m.

We encourage everyone to bring a guest or fellow AAUW Sacramento member who hasn’t been able to attend an event in person. Please RSVP to Angela Scarlett at angela.scarlett@gmail.com or contact her on her cell phone (in our directory). If you would like to volunteer, don’t hesitate to contact her.

Authors Luncheon April Program

Authors Luncheon April Program By Angela Scarlett

Our Authors Luncheon will be a shared event with CHAR. Here are the details on the Authors Luncheon coming up soon:

Date: Saturday, April 29, 2023, 11a.m.-2 p.m.,

Location: North Ridge Country Club, 7600 Madison Ave., Fair Oaks

Menu: Choice of Chicken Marsala with roasted potatoes and grilled vegetables or Pasta Primavera with marinara sauce and grilled vegetables. Choice of Limoncello Cake or Fruit Cup. Bread. Coffee, iced tea, hot tea and water.

Reservations: Price $30. Checks made payable to AAUW CHAR or electronic payment accepted. AAUW Sacramento Branch reservations should be sent to Charmen Goehring (address in directory). Members may also send payment and RSVP via Venmo to @Charmen-Goehring (send it as “personal”). RESERVATIONS DUE BY APRIL 19. PLEASE INDICATE MENU CHOICE in “memo” section of check.

Hear local author Christine Hunter talk about the women and stories she encountered when writing her recent book, “We Can Do This!: Sacramento’s Trailblazing Political Women and the Community They Shaped”.

Chris is a former Sacramento City Planning Commission member and volunteer lobbyist. She has worked on many political campaigns. In her book, she took a deep dive into the women serving Sacramento from 1972 to 2014. Her book is available on Amazon if you want to read it before our lunch date. We may even have a special guest joining Chris to further add to the discussion.

Strategic Planning Committee Working Hard to Redesign our Branch

Strategic Planning Committee Working Hard to Redesign our Branch By Liz Jordan

On Sunday, May 1, eight members of the branch met to begin the process of planning how to help our branch through the latest leadership crises. Many members may remember that the branch has gone through this process twice before in the last 30 years. Each time, a committee met, figured out what were the problems in finding members willing to lead, and designing solutions that were imaginative and created with enthusiasm. But the last two times, we have not actually followed through with enacting many of those solutions. This time, we must succeed.

The committee went through long discussions on such questions as:

– Why does AAUW Sacramento Exist?
– What is important to us?
– What do we want to do as a branch?
– What do we need to do better?
– Why external trends could lead to increased success and engagement?

Finally, we came to the hard part: How do we achieve our goals? Ideas discussed were:

streamline our activities and our board of directors,
become more nimble in our responses to change,
restructure our programs, identify a yearly theme,
engage Interest Groups in branch activity and action

We broke into subcommittees for improving our outreach, restructuring the board and governance, restructuring programs and improving communications. We plan to meet and share what we have developed in our subcommittees on June 1, 2022.

Any member with ideas or energy to offer should contact Marty McKnew. See her contact information in the directory.

Leadership Slate Approved

Leadership Slate Approved by Branch By Liz Jordan

At the April 9, 2022, branch meeting, members unanimously approved the partial slate of officers provided by the Nominating Committee. The attending members voted for Susana Mullen as finance director and for Carole Cline as secretary. These members will assume their roles on July 1, 2022 and will serve for a two-year term.

The Nominating Committee was unable to find anyone to serve as president or as program director for the next two years. In addition, the Nominating Committee chair, Liz Jordan, admitted that the committee was distracted with the crises of a leadership deficit, so they overlooked their responsibility to name three new members to the 2023 Nominating Committee. Three members will be named at date to be determined.

Nominating Committee – Slate and Vote

Nominating Committee Report By Liz Jordan
With Two Positions for Membership Vote

The Nominating Committee, Linda Sparks, Vicki Nicholson, Nancy Lawrence, Cherril Peabody, and Liz Jordan, present an incomplete slate of candidates for the Branch vote on April 9, Branch meeting and Author’s Event.

The slate is:

Secretary for a two-year term: Carole Cline.

Carole has just served one year as secretary, completing the previous term left vacant.

Finance Director for a two-year-term: Susana Mullen

Susana has an MBA in accounting and is retiring from an accountant position.

Open and Unfilled: President or Co-Presidents

This position is necessary for branch function. Leads the board action and in decision-making.

Open and partially filled: Co-Directors of Program

One member volunteered with qualification for this position; she needs a co-director. She is very experienced but will not serve as the sole director.

The Branch is slated to vote on April 9 at our branch meeting designated as the Author’s Event. Every member can vote.

Job descriptions for open positions are available on the sacramento-ca.aauw.net website under the Membership tab, Members Only link. Anyone interested in serving in either of the two open positions, please contact Liz Jordan, Vicki Nicholson, Angela Scarlett, or Nancy Lawrence. Phone and email available in the Directory.

What Happened at the Leadership Crisis Meeting?

What Happened at the Branch Leadership Crisis Meeting? By Liz Jordan

On Wednesday evening, March 16, more than 35 members signed into a branch meeting, open to the entire membership. The goal of the meeting was to help solve a leadership crisis: to find members willing to serve the branch.

Who Will Lead? The annual Nominating Committee has not been able to find a volunteer[s] to serve as President or Co-Presidents or as Program Director or Co-Directors.

Other branch leadership needs discussed were for volunteers to lead our Tech Trek Program and one to lead our Public Policy activities.

Job Descriptions are available from Nominating Committee Chair Liz Jordan and/or by clicking on the Membership tab through to the Members Only link of the AAUW Sacramento website sacramento-ca.aauw.net.

Survey: The membership was alerted to this meeting by eblast and each eblast contained a link to a survey about branch activities. The survey gleaned responses from about a quarter of the membership and then comprised the focus for the meeting discussion. (See article by Gloria Yost about what members responded). The members attending this meeting were able to see some of the members responses, and then members were randomly assigned to one of five break-out rooms where they discussed one of the questions, as well.

The five questions from the survey, then discussed by the break-out groups, were:

What are your reasons for being a member of AAUW Sacramento?
Our mission is to empower women and girls. How do you think we can motivate our members to participate in mission-based activities?
What reasons do you have for serving or not serving on a committee or as a board leader?
Do you ordinarily participate in Branch meetings and programs? Why or why not?
If we reduced the number of our branch outreach activities, which ones would you eliminate? Or change and in what way? These four activities were discussed:

- Scholarship – women 25 years or older, returning to college
- Speech Trek – high school kids speak to a question about gender equity
- Tech Trek – six middle school girls who have talent but may lack motivation go to STEM Camp on a college campus for a week.
- NCCWSL – National Conference of College Women Student Leaders – conference once a year over Memorial Weekend at University Maryland.

Discussion: Volunteer recorders in each of the five breakout rooms kept notes and reported back to the larger meeting during the last half hour. The discussion was wide-ranging, and all possible ways to restructure branch activity were on the table. A strong possibility of a Strategic Planning Committee to work on streamlining branch activities and leadership positions is under discussion.

Please: Anyone willing to serve in either of the open board positions or on the Strategic Planning Committee is strongly encouraged to call or write Liz Jordan, Nancy Lawrence, Cherril Peabody, Linda Sparks or Vicki Nicholson. Please see the directory for contact information.

March 16th Branch Meeting – Important!

Important March 16th Branch Meeting

7- 8:30 p.m. on Zoom!!

What is the impact of AAUW in Sacramento?

Tech Trek: over last three years, 18 local middle school girls to STEM camp, for total tuition of $16,500. Imagine the impact over the last 22 years!?!
Speech Trek: over last five years, 37 local student speakers won $4,675 in awards.
Scholarship: over past five years, 21 local women have received $42,000 in scholarship money toward a college degree.
NCCWSL: for the past two years, we have sent 5 young women student leaders to a national leadership conference at Univ. of Maryland for $2,400.
Advocacy: last year several members lobbied our state legislators about the impact of legislation on the equitable treatment of women and men all over California.
From 2019-2021 we helped reconstruct a new Sacramento County Commission on the Status of Women and Girls.

CALLING ALL MEMBERS TO A BRANCH MEETING TO BRAINSTORM SOLUTIONS. March 16, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. over Zoom, we will discuss in small groups, 5 critical questions to help us find answers for the future of our branch.

Why do we belong to AAUW?
How do we ignite interest and motivation among members to continue our mission of empowering women and girls?
What inspires or prevents us from serving on branch board or a committee?
What inspires or prevents us from participating in meetings and programs?
Should we discontinue some of the outreach efforts described above?

Today, the Sacramento Branch of AAUW is in a crisis of leadership. We cannot find volunteers to step forward to lead some of these important outreach efforts. The Nominating Committee has searched for several weeks to fill necessary board positions; some critical positions remain unfilled.

FACTS: A branch must have an executive officer, a treasurer and a branch secretary to exist.

Over several weeks, the Nominating Committee has found two of the three required volunteers to serve for the next two years.
No local students will be attending STEM CAMP this summer from AAUW Sacramento. We have $17,000 in the account to send six girls. We don’t have a Tech Trek Director.
We are not participating in Lobby Week in April organized by AAUW CA because we do not have a Public Policy Director.

FACT: No outreach can occur, no money spent, no beneficiaries awarded without the structure of the branch.

The March 2022 branch meeting is an opportunity to brainstorm some solutions. Please attend! You will receive the Zoom link in an email prior to the March 16th meeting.