High­lights of the AAUW State Convention

We opened the con­ven­tion in the din­ing hall of Geor­gia Mil­i­tary Col­lege in Milledgeville with Ann Bertoli (Milledgeville) as host, Mar­lene Humphry (Warner Robins) as reg­is­trar and Eve­lyn Merk (Warner Robins) as cre­den­tials chair. Pro­grams were pre­pared by Diana Witt and Stephanie Bab­bitt of the Atlanta branch. Varie Rustin, co-Membership VP, led a candle-lighting cer­e­mony hon­or­ing our mem­bers who have passed away.

After din­ner, Rustin and co-Membership VP Car­lene Beck pre­sented Ten-Star and member­ship awards (listed else­where) and Lau­rie Shaw pre­sented EF and LAF awards to the branches. Humphry pre­sented Geor­gia AAUW Achieve­ment Awards to Ann MacKay (Warner Robins) and Carol Stephens (Cobb).

Next we pro­ceeded to the very impres­sive con­cert hall for a pre­sen­ta­tion on the new Associ­a­tion bylaws by Carol New­nam, our Regional Direc­tor. Carol did a fine job of clarifying the changes and the rea­sons for them. The evening con­cluded with a recep­tion at the Com­fort Suites Hotel.

Morn­ing ses­sions com­menced with a smartly exe­cuted pre­sen­ta­tion of the col­ors by a group of girls from the middle-school divi­sion of Geor­gia Mil­i­tary Col­lege. Ann Bertoli, a retired math­e­mat­ics instruc­tor from GMC, explained that the school enrolls stu­dents from mid­dle school through the first two years of col­lege. Next we were greeted by the mayor of Milledgeville, Richard Bent­ley, who pre­sented us with a framed procla­ma­tion nam­ing the week­end of April 24–25 as the AAUW Week­end. The open­ing ses­sion con­cluded with communications chair Marie Bruner’s pre­sen­ta­tion of the new AAUW–GA web­site built on a Word­Press plat­form by Ann MacKay. It looked espe­cially impres­sive on the large screen in the con­cert hall!

As requested, Dr. Sunita Man­ian of Geor­gia Col­lege and State Uni­ver­sity and Susan Pavlin of Refugee Fam­ily Ser­vices (and the Atlanta branch) chal­lenged us to become involved with women from other cul­tures not com­pletely unlike us. Man­ian empha­sized that education for women makes all the dif­fer­ence, and cau­tioned that eco­nomic sanc­tions against other coun­tries hurt women dis­pro­por­tion­ately. We need expert advice to decide what will help: for exam­ple, head­scarves may allow women to go to school rather than stay­ing home to main­tain tra­di­tional mod­esty, and tex­tile fac­tory jobs may give women a chance for eco­nomic power. Pavlin echoed the theme of edu­ca­tion for girls. She pointed out that sim­ple things can help: women’s san­i­tary prod­ucts would allow Maa­sai girls in Kenya to go to school com­fort­ably, and women’s own­er­ship of the milk they get from cows they do not own helps them gain some eco­nomic inde­pen­dence. The Atlanta branch is spon­sor­ing two young women each year from Refugee Fam­ily Ser­vices who need men­tor­ing and financial sup­port to pre­pare for college.

Fol­low­ing our three pub­lic pol­icy pri­or­i­ties deter­mined a year ago, the next ses­sion encompassed STEM edu­ca­tion, pay equity, and health. Lynn Foun­tain, imme­di­ate past pres­i­dent, gave a fact-filled pre­sen­ta­tion on STEM (sci­ence, tech­nol­ogy, engi­neer­ing, and mathematics) edu­ca­tion for girls. She sug­gested that girls need oppor­tu­ni­ties to develop their spatial-manipulation abil­i­ties by prac­ti­cal problem-solving. They need to see STEM fields as help­ing fields. Even though women are in the STEM pipeline, they are being discouraged by the cul­ture and envi­ron­ment they find in the work­place. Pat DeWitt, current pres­i­dent, reported on pay equity. With Equal Pay Day only a few days away, she reminded those present of AAUW’s pay equity resources on the Asso­ci­a­tion web­site. Exhibit­ing some local sta­tis­tics on pay equity obtain­able from the US Bureau of the Cen­sus web­site, she chal­lenged mem­bers to write op-ed pieces high­light­ing these local con­di­tions. She also sug­gested a pro­gram to rec­og­nize the most family-friendly employ­ers in each branch’s area. Finally, Deb­bie Kar­vey, cur­rent trea­surer, reported on women’s health issues: some suc­cesses and some fail­ures in the last Geor­gia leg­isla­tive ses­sion. Stim­u­lus money was used to fill some deficits in fam­ily plan­ning and teen preg­nancy pre­ven­tion, and the Med­ic­aid waiver for fam­ily plan­ning ser­vices received some seed money. At the same time, there were many attempts to restrict access to fam­ily plan­ning ser­vices, fur­ther restrict or ban abor­tion, reg­u­late infer­til­ity facilities/treatments and a real effort to ele­vate the legal status of an embryo.

Lunch included a pre­sen­ta­tion on EF and LAF by Lau­rie Shaw, and an intro­duc­tion of Shyria Cole­man of 9to5 Atlanta Work­ing Women, who had led the stu­dent group in a job-negotiation workshop.

After lunch we were treated to a Branch Show­case fea­tur­ing two of our strong branches, Atlanta and Warner Robins. Pat DeWitt also reported on a visit to the Val­dosta branch’s Sis­ter to Sis­ter Sum­mit. The annual busi­ness meet­ing fol­lowed, in which we elected new offi­cers, and con­cur­rently Anna Rhau-Bernhard of North Ful­ton branch met with the student group in a dis­cus­sion of health.

The day ended on a high note with a cross-generational dia­logue with two very artic­u­late Stu­dent Advi­sory Board mem­bers: Jas­mine Bran­don from Savan­nah Col­lege of Art and Design and Rachel Zudekoff from Geor­gia Col­lege and State Uni­ver­sity. The stu­dents verified that “equity is still an issue,” but they had been able to stand up for them­selves. When asked how we can help, they men­tioned work­ing for pay equity and pro­vid­ing net­work­ing and learn­ing opportunities—like the ones we pro­vided dur­ing the convention.