A big thank you goes out to all our mem­bers who attended our 2011 Geor­gia AAUW State Con­ven­tion in Warner Robins and to our host branch, Hous­ton Peach, ably led by Mar­lene Humphry. This branch demon­strated a stellar col­lab­o­ra­tive and pos­i­tive spirit dur­ing this event. The room accom­mo­da­tions and the con­ven­tion facil­i­ties at the Fair­field Inn were excel­lent and the staff was very accom­mo­dat­ing and help­ful. State conven­tion is such a great oppor­tu­nity for net­work­ing and shar­ing in AAUW focused mis­sions and events.

Get­ting to know Patri­cia Ho, our guest AAUW Director-at-Large from national, was so reward­ing and a real treat. In a very engag­ing and inter­ac­tive way, she pre­sented the strate­gic focus of AAUW and set the stage for national con­ven­tion in Wash­ing­ton, DC. I hope many branches will encour­age, pro­mote and enable attendance at the national convention.

At Fri­day evening’s ban­quet, we had a deli­cious din­ner with even more scrump­tious desserts. Awards were announced for mem­ber­ship and phil­an­thropy.  Geor­gia AAUW contributed almost $40,000 last year in philanthropic dona­tions to AAUW Funds … that is $115 per capita giv­ing and we should all be proud of the hard work that sup­ports these contributions.

Our 2011 Geor­gia AAUW Woman of the Year is Car­olyn Garfein. Her legacy of lead­er­ship to AAUW is outstanding, and she con­tin­ues to guide AAUW dur­ing a time of tran­si­tion and great change.

The most sig­nif­i­cant items from the con­ven­tion busi­ness meet­ing on Sat­ur­day were a proposal to increase state dues from $10 to $20 per year and a com­mit­tee was des­ig­nated to review Geor­gia AAUW By Laws and Working Poli­cies and Procedures.

Our state pub­lic pol­icy chair, Patri­cia DeWitt, and Diana Witt of the Atlanta Branch, coordinated an activist panel and dis­cus­sion.  Our guest pan­elists were Danielle Cefalu, an attorney with Hur­ley Elder Care and Hol­lie Per­sons, a spokes­woman with Geor­gia LWV.  Danielle addressed some of the legal ramifications of elder care and Hol­lie addressed the chal­lenges of redis­trict­ing in Georgia.

Pat and Diana showed their involve­ment and pas­sion for pub­lic pol­icy advo­cacy as they updated us on current bills that reflect AAUW val­ues and mis­sion and do need our support.  It was great to applaud the pas­sage of HB 200, which looks to pro­tect the rights of exploited chil­dren, but there is still more work to be done, young peo­ple still needs protection. The Grass­roots Advo­cacy Work­shop mate­ri­als were distributed to the branches … to pur­sue as a branch pro­gram and to encour­age activism at the local level.

Patri­cia Ho was hon­ored to install new state offi­cers, Lau­rie Shaw of Hous­ton Peach, as Co-President and Bea Pid­dock of Cobb Branch, as Trea­surer.  These new offi­cers will assume respon­si­bil­i­ties effec­tive July 1, 2011.  Con­grat­u­la­tions to these new lead­ers in Geor­gia AAUW. Despite wear­ing mul­ti­ple AAUW hats May Ruth (Bradberry) Lynch has very ably served as trea­surer and with her CPA exper­tise, helped us take a good, hard look at our bud­get dur­ing a time of reduced rev­enues.  She has been great to work with and learn with.  Work­ing together as state co-presidents with Mar­cia has been a spe­cial treat for me these past two years. Her years of expe­ri­ence and lead­er­ship in AAUW as well as her knowl­edge, easy man­ner and humor have been out­stand­ing resources and sup­port as we moved into an era of change for Geor­gia AAUW.  As we con­tinue to explore our iden­tity and sig­na­ture val­ues for Geor­gia AAUW and tran­si­tion to a new leadership team, we look for your sup­port and your talent.

Look­ing for­ward to our future together in AAUW

Deb­bie Kar­vey and Mar­cia Capriotti

Co-Presidents