Thanks to Atlanta Branch, Sharon Bevis-Hoover for a com­plete report of her expe­ri­ences at the June AAUW Con­ven­tion in Wash­ing­ton, D.C. I first saw it on the Atlanta Branch web­site. She has given per­mis­sion to have it linked to the state website.

AAUW Con­ven­tion Report

State Board Meeting

Seven of the ten branches offi­cers and mem­bers attended the AAUW of Geor­gia Fall Board meet­ing on Sat­ur­day, Octo­ber 22, 2011. Branches rep­re­sented were Atlanta, Cartersville, Cobb, Colum­bus, Hous­ton Peach, Macon, and Rome. It def­i­nitely was a business-oriented meet­ing with focus on the 2011–2012 bud­get (pre­sented by Bea Pid­dock, Cobb County Branch—state finance offi­cer) and updat­ing of the Work­ing Poli­cies and Pro­ce­dures (com­mit­tee chaired by Eve­lyn Merk, Hous­ton Peach Branch). Some lively dis­cus­sions ensued.

Review of state by-laws is pend­ing review based on Dis­trict of Colum­bia changes that will impact non-profit orga­ni­za­tions includ­ing AAUW and its by-laws.

Ann MacKay, Hous­ton Peach Branch, presented a pro­posal to move the Geor­gia AAUW state web­site to the AAUW plat­form, to save expenses for main­tain­ing a host­ing ser­vice and to pro­vide an effi­cient, user-friendly for­mat for post­ing / shar­ing infor­ma­tion about Geor­gia events and activ­i­ties. This was approved.

Refresh­ments were stel­lar, from the con­ti­nen­tal break­fast to the buf­fet style lun­cheon, com­plete with but­ter­nut squash soup. A BIG “thank you” to the Atlanta Branch, espe­cially Sharon Bevis-Hoover, President-Elect, for her delight­ful hos­pi­tal­ity. The Atlanta Branch intro­duced their intern, Sarah Hegener, who assisted with hos­pi­tal­ity and is a stu­dent at Geor­gia State Uni­ver­sity. We also greatly appre­ci­ate Pat DeWitt (Rome) for coor­di­nat­ing the facil­ity at Shorter Uni­ver­sity Riverdale Cam­pus. This loca­tion proves to be fairly cen­tral for many branches and is computer/classroom savvy.

Pat DeWitt, Diana Witt, Deb­bie Kar­vey and Lau­rie Shaw reported on events attended and upcom­ing events related to Geor­gia AAUW Sig­na­ture projects: GA AAUW Lobby Corps and Geor­gia 2012 Project Coali­tion. The Geor­gia Women’s Assem­bly on Novem­ber 10^th (posted on GA AAUW web­site) will be a great oppor­tu­nity for mem­bers to par­tic­i­pate in a pub­lic pol­icy event.

Lau­rie and I are ecsta­tic to report that Vir­ginia Mer­lini (Cartersville Branch Pres­i­dent) has vol­un­teered to serve as Geor­gia AAUW College/University Chair. She has a valu­able resource in Betty Slater and the ground­work that she has laid in this impor­tant rela­tion­ship.  Lau­rie Shaw has been very actively involved with local insti­tu­tions in her area—working to recruit Macon State Col­lege and Fort Val­ley State Col­lege for the C/U program.

Start plan­ning now.The Geor­gia AAUW 2012 State Con­ven­tion will be held in Savan­nah this spring.

We are inves­ti­gat­ing loca­tions and opti­mal dates for the con­ven­tion (pos­si­ble dates are Mar 23/24; April 13/14 or April 27/28). Savan­nah is a lovely gath­er­ing place, and hope­fully, many mem­bers will con­sider com­bin­ing a family/friends week­end in Savan­nah with our state con­ven­tion.  This con­ven­tion will be a col­lab­o­ra­tive effort, with AAUW mem­bers in Savan­nah being our resource guides to loca­tions, venues, group activ­i­ties and spe­cial events.It will also pro­vide great vis­i­bil­ity for AAUW and encour­age con­tin­ued AAUW involve­ment in the Savan­nah area. Hope­fully all our branches and many mem­bers will be able to gather together for this Geor­gia AAUW and share in the friend­ships that this orga­ni­za­tion nur­tures. Watch for notices about final details.

Hope to see many of you soon, whether engaged in AAUW mis­sions: lob­by­ing and/or encour­ag­ing women to run for office or just gath­er­ing together and enjoy­ing each other’s company.

Deb­bie Kar­vey and Lau­rie Shaw, Co-Presidents