September 2012
Volume 6, Issue 1
SandScript
In this issue: • September Program • Directory Corrections • President’s Message • Get Out the
Vote • Half the Sky • Local Scholarship Fundraiser • Social Media • Community Outreach • Book Groups • Dining Group • Check and Correct • Making The Invisible War Visible • Turning Point Suffragist Memorial • Branch Calendar Deadline for October issue: September 25
American Association of University Women Virginia Beach Branch
Question #1: The first woman to serve in the Cabinet served as the Secretary of which Department?
Question #2: Which Cabinet-level Department has had the most women serve as Secretary?
If your answer to both questions was the U.S. Department of Labor, then you were correct in both instances.
For this reason, we are so excited that our speaker for the September meeting is Latifa Lyles, the Acting Director of the Women's Bureau at the U.S. Department of Labor. The Women's Bureau was created by law in 1920 to
You Do Not Want to Miss the September 19, 2012 Branch Meeting
and Speaker!!!
Directory Corrections
“formulate standards and policies which shall promote the welfare of wage-earning women, improve their working conditions, increase their efficiency, and advance their opportunities for profitable employment.” http://www.dol.gov/wb/
Today, the Women's Bureau defines as its vision: "to empower all working women to achieve economic security by preparing them for high paying jobs, ensuring fair compensation, promoting workplace flexibility & helping homeless women veterans reintegrate into the workforce." The Women's Bureau's four priority areas are: equal pay, workplace flexibility,
higher paying jobs for women, and women veterans experiencing homelessness.
Please join us in the Auditorium at the Meyera E. Oberndorf Central Library, 4100 Virginia Beach Blvd, Virginia Beach, on Wednesday, September 19, 2012, beginning at 6:30 p.m..
Ms. Lyles will begin speaking at 6:45 p.m., which is 15 minutes earlier than the usual starting time for the speaker.
The Auditorium fits a lot of people so please invite your friends, neighbors, work associates, and family members.
Please make the following changes to your directory:
Lisa Somerville’s email address is james.somerville@aol.com. Sarah Sterzing’s email address is sterzaauw2012@gmail.com. Dana Henning’s email address is danahenning0@gmail.com.
In principle and in practice, AAUW values and seeks a diverse membership. There shall be no barriers to full participation in this organization on the basis of gender, race, creed, age, sexual orientation, national origin, disability or class.
Welcome back to everyone after our summer break, and a big welcome to our new members: Rachel Alvidrez, Lynn Feigenbaum, Marcy Germanotta, and Renee Rosa.
Even though we took a break from monthly meetings over the summer, we did not take a break from AAUW:
On July 7 branch members Ruby Arredondo (President-Elect), Sally Pattison-Cisna (Membership VP), Marcy Germanotta (Program VP), Connie Davis (Treasurer), Fran Adams (Publicity), Louise Wild (Historian), Ginny Werner (AAUW Funds), Tammie Mullins-Rice (Local Scholarship), Sarah Sterzing (Social Media), Barbara Paige (Community Outreach), and Alice Forrest (Hospitality Co-Chair) joined me for a day-long planning meeting for 2012-2013. The group identified a great array of speakers. Headlining the first program of our new year on September 19 is Latifa Lyles, Acting Director of the Women's Bureau, at the U.S. Department of Labor. (see page 1) As soon as other speakers are confirmed, we will be announcing them so that you can annotate your calendars appropriately. You will not be disappointed in the line-up.
The group also planned fundraisers for the year to support AAUW Funds, the AAUW Legal Advocacy Fund (LAF), and our local scholarship fund. Not only will you see familiar activities, such as the Norfolk Florist Flower Cards, the Little Theatre of Virginia Beach (March 24, 2013) play and reception, and basket raffles, but also you'll see some additional fundraisers. Details will follow as soon as they are finalized.
On August 15 members from our branch and other AAUW branches in Hampton Roads joined community members in attending the powerful documentary The Invisible War, which focuses on sexual assault in the U.S. military. AAUW LAF has supported several of the plaintiffs featured in the documentary. (see page 9)
On August 18 I attended the AAUW State summer meeting in Charlottesville. The main focus was on how to increase membership and on how to get members to volunteer for branch officer positions. On the latter topic, I was able to share our success in building an amazing cadre of women to hold elected and appointed office in our branch.
Also, over the summer, our branch's efforts in support of the AAUW national initiative It's My Vote: I Will Be Heard were launched. Under the superb leadership of our Public Policy Chair, Sally Daniel, we started holding voter registration drives in advance of the November Presidential election. (See page 3) Sally's actions received praise at the AAUW State summer meeting on August 18.
In the pages following, you'll see many of the activities and initiatives in which our branch is involved. We hope to see you at many of these and hear from you at any time, with additional ideas and suggestions.
Regards, Leslie Tourigny
SandScript
Page 3 of 10
Get Out The Vote: The Beach’s Response to the National Initiative
A crucial election is coming our way, and, yet, many younger people (millennials) have never become invested in the voting process. As women, we fought hard and long for the right to vote. Now, we are fighting to get women to exercise that right!! AAUW launched a national voter registration initiative this year, It's My Vote: I Will Be Heard. We, in Virginia Beach, are answering the call! Since our “target” audience is millennial women, we are focusing on voter registration on college campuses. The good news is that we have partnered with the League of Women Voters and the Tidewater Community College’s Women’s Center to cover all of these bases, as well as our sisters from the Norfolk and Portsmouth AAUW branches. Between July and when we went to press, we have registered 163 young people so far. Below is a list of the sites where we will “set up shop” to register additional voters through the entire voter registration season. We hope to add to this list before the season ends.
Tuesday, September 4: Virginia Beach Higher Education Center 11:00am-1:30pm
Tuesday, September 4: Virginia Wesleyan College TBA
Wednesday, September 5: Norfolk TCC Campus 11:00am-2:00pm (with the League)
Wednesday, September 5: Virginia Beach Higher Education Center 4:00pm-8:00pm
Thursday, September 6: Virginia Wesleyan College 11:00am-1:00pm
Thursday, September 6: Virginia Beach TCC Campus 5:30pm-7:30pm
Monday, September 10: Virginia Beach TCC Campus 11:00am-1:00pm
Monday, September 10: Virginia Beach TCC Campus 5:30pm-7:30pm
Tuesday, September 11: Panel Discussion on Issues (hosted by Norfolk TCC Student Activities) 6:30pm-8:30pm (voter registration during and after)
Tuesday, September 18: Virginia Beach TCC Campus 10:00am-1:00pm
Tuesday, September 18: Chesapeake TCC Campus 4:00pm-7:30pm
Monday, September 24: Virginia Beach TCC Campus 4:00pm-7:00pm
Thursday, September 27: WHRO 6:30pm-7:00pm
If you are interested in volunteering at any of the voter registration events, please call Sally Daniel: day-822-7554 or night-495-4349.
Sally Daniel, Public Policy Chair
HALF THE SKY Community Event
On Thursday, September 27th from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m., WHRO will open the doors of their Norfolk studio (5200 Hampton Blvd) for a screening of Half the Sky, a documentary based on Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl
WuDunn’s widely acclaimed book, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. The film tells the stories of inspiring, courageous individuals from across the globe who are confronting the problems of sex trafficking, gender-based violence, maternal mortality and forced prostitution and are finding meaningful solutions through health care, education, and economic empowerment for women and girls.
A pre-screening reception from 6:30 – 7:00 p.m. will give attendees the opportunity to peruse information shared by local organizations committed to empowering women and girls. At 7:00 p.m., there will be a screening of Half the Sky, followed by examination of how issues raised in the film impact the Hampton Roads community and discussion of what we can do to address these challenges.
The event is free and open to the public, but seating is limited, so please come early.
Ginny Werner will be hosting a table for our branch during the pre-screening reception and, along with Sally Pattison-Cisna, Sally Daniel and Leslie Tourigny, will share information about AAUW membership and conduct voter registration.
Local Scholarship Fundraiser
Once again, we are selling Flower Fundraiser Cards through Norfolk Florist. For each card sold we receive $10 for our local scholarship fund and our supporters are able to receive free flowers every month for a year starting in November. In the past, the cards sold for $25 each - this year the cost is $30 per card. The goal is to sell 100 cards and raise $1000. The key will be to sell to people outside of our branch who support our mission. Feel free to ask for a $10 donation if someone wants to support our local scholarship fund but doesn’t want a flower card. As an added incentive, the person who sells the most (cards and donations) will receive a free ticket to the holiday luncheon. The cards will be available for purchase from September 19th through October 31st. Happy Selling.
Please note the free flowers are not available on Valentine's Day, Easter Sunday, Professional Secretaries' Day, Mother's Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas Day and the 7 days before these holidays.
Tammie Rice
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Page 5 of 10
According to marketing firm, MashUp.com, people are spending more than 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook. Among all the other social media outlets, Facebook is probably the easiest to learn and manipulate and it should be a place for our members to hang out on-line. Due to the widespread use, it is a great resource to build the capacity of the branch and to create a strong on-line and social media presence. Plus it’s Free! Our website should also be the place where you go first when in doubt about anything regarding our branch like meetings, special events programs, fundraisers and lobby days, etc.
This summer Tammie Mullins Rice updated the AAUW VA Beach Branch’s web site and it is AWESOME! Check it out by visiting http://virginiabeach-va.aauw.net. It is filled with great information and resources, as well as secure membership sign-on where we can communicate on-line but out of the public view. In the coming months, we will add the ability to make a donation and pay membership dues. The more often it is used and the more traffic we drive to our website and our Facebook page, the faster our branch will pop up in internet
searches. This is important for keeping our on-line presence current and fresh. We also need to keep the Facebook page updated and we need to be purposeful when using it. Although I will lead the weekly posts, it is imperative that the members also use it by posting comments and photos, updating information, sharing posts and working to “share” our page as often as possible on their own Facebook walls. Visit our Facebook page at:
www.facebook.com/pages/AAUW-Virginia-Beach-Branch/112238275525016.
Four goals of our Facebook Page where we need your help:
Create awareness of our brand on Facebook by sharing it with your friends
Attain 300 “Likes” by year-end
Have 3- 5 comments or shared items each week
Have our FB page be the lead referral to the VB Branch Website
Facebook and our website provide efficient ways to network with each other, along with opportunities to collaborate with other organizations, promote current awareness campaigns, special events, programs and lobbying initiatives plus post photos and videos that show all of the great work we are doing. Finally, it is one of the best ways to market to college students and potential new members, donors and supporters. By using social media, we automatically increase awareness of the AAUW locally and on the state and national level to a wider audience that looks to the internet first for research and information.
If you are interested in learning more about how to use social media, please make yourself known to me or anyone on the board and we can plan a learning session on these great tools we have at our disposal. Sarah Sterzing, Social Media Chair
Social Media
As the new Community Outreach Coordinator, I would like to get suggestions from our members regarding community outreach initiatives that we might add during the upcoming year to our existing community projects (Pennies for Prescriptions, Farm Fresh Receipts, Suited for Success). Please contact me sometime before the end of September at 567-3754, by email at bpaigebateman@cox.net or in person at the September meeting with any ideas that you would like us to pursue. Thank you for helping us to build this aspect of our Branch activities.
FARM FRESH 1-2-3-4
COMMUNITY
PROGRAM -
Once again, I am asking for your help with a community project that will benefit the children at the Pendleton Child Service Center. Pendleton, which is located right here in Virginia Beach, addresses the needs of children with behavioral and emotional problems. The Pendleton Child Service Center is participating in the Farm Fresh 1-2-3-4 Community Program which allows the Center the opportunity to earn free educational equipment by saving Farm Fresh receipts. The regular portion of the receipts that detail your purchases will be honored or the 1-2-3-4 Community portion (when available). Over half of the totalCommunity Outreach
Morning Book Group meets the first Thursday of the month at 7:30 am for breakfast and discussion. Questions? Call Mary Kirby at 467-1918 or email mary.k.beagle@cox.net
.
Date Book Author Place
September 6 CALEB’S CROSSING Garth Stein Atlantic Shores October 4 THE PARIS WIFE Paula McLain Sunrise Cafe November 1 FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT Alan Furst Sandfiddler Cafe December NO BOOK
January 3 UNBROKEN L. Hillenbrand Citrus
Morning Book Group
receipts received in the past have been
contributed by our branch, and the staff and students atPendleton have been most appreciative of our help. Please keep saving your receipts from Farm Fresh, G.W. Marketplace and the Market at Tobacco Row. At each branch meeting, there will be an envelope for yourreceipts. I will take the receipts to the Pendleton Child Service Center
periodically. At theend of our fiscal year, I will report to our branch how the children at the Center will benefit from the receipts our branch has collected. This is a rare opportunity to participate in a program that has no cost to our members, but will provide benefits for an
organization in our
community. Arlene Ney 464-5394
Pennies for
Prescriptions -
Our Pennies for Prescription outreach program now supports the efforts of the Beach Free Clinic. Our small but steady donations help the less fortunate in our community to stay on their medications. Get your friends, families and co-workers involved. By making a difference in the community, everyone wins! Keep those pennies coming and many thanks for all your help. Barbara Paige 567-3754Suited for Success
—
Time to check your closets again. Remember, we also accept more casual clothes since S.F.S. also is supplying shelters. Men and women's clothes are welcome. Daisy Smith, 467-2270
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Our AAUW Evening Book Group meets, as a rule, on the second Tuesday of each month, September through June. We read well recommended and prize winning literature which all the members suggest and then vote to
The Adelante Book Group meets every other month on the 4th Thursday. For more information, contact Dana Henning at danahenning0@gmail.com.
Date
Title
Author
Hostess
September 27
Founding Mothers Cokie Roberts
Dana Henning
November 29
Breaking Night: A
Memoir
Liz Murray
Carole Szetela
January 24,
2013
Cruel and Usual
Punishment: The
Terrifying Global
Implications of
Islamic Law
Nonie Darwish
Barbara Paige
March 28, 2013
Miriam’s Kitchen:
A Memoir
Elizabeth
Ehrlich
Ginny Werner
May 23, 2013
Still Alice
Lisa Genova
Sally Pattison-Cisna
Evening Book Group
Dining Group will explore the foods of Thailand at its October 27th get together. Everyone is welcome! Just sign up and we'll provide you with a Thai recipe to make for the
Exotic Thai Cuisine
select at our final meeting in June. We alternate dessert meetings and potluck dinners, which are held at volunteering members’ homes. The book we read for the month is reviewed by one of the members and a
discussion of the book follows. Please call Maryann Walsh at 412-2030 for more
information.
dinner. Don't worry if you're not a “good” cook. All of us are novices when preparing exotic foods and we enjoy the stories we all have of preparing new dishes, almost as much as
the food itself. If you'd like to give DiningGroup a try, please contact Toni Lohman at tlohman@verizon.net or 463-9135.
2012-2013
Branch Officers
President Leslie Tourigny 410-4812 itsles@cox.net President-Elect Ruby Arredondo 495-7224 rarred001@covad.net VP Programs Marcy Germanotta 482-5502 marcyg@gsccc.org VP Membership Sally Pattison-Cisna 340-2829 pattisonsj@gmail.com Secretary Carole Szetela 631-1805 karolka@verizon.net Treasurer Connie Davis 496-3558 connidavis@verizon.net AAUW Funds Ginny Werner 623-2345 ginny.werner@whro.org Communications/Publicity Fran Adams 467-2775 bikalot@cox.net SandScript Editor Dana Henning 390-4355 danahenning0@gmail.comCheck and Correct (Your Email Address)
Are you receiving the emails from AAUW of Virginia and AAUW national that you should be receiving?
Over 150 email addresses were removed from Virginia’s Mail Chimp address-list because they bounced. The
reasons for bounces varied, but many bounced because of
a typo in the address
or because they
simply were
wrong
. These addresses were obtained from AAUW Member Services Database (MSD).
These bounces affected members receiving AAUW of Virginia
Vision
and voting and elections ballots.
We hope to prevent that in the future.
Please check to see if your email address is correct at AAUW! It may have been entered incorrectly or you may
have changed your email address and neglected to notify AAUW national.
Please, just check and correct, if
necessary!
How to check the AAUW Member Services Database (MSD):
1.
Login at www.aauw.org. (If you do not have your member id number click where it says “Look up.”
It just takes seconds.)
2.
After logging in, click on MSD in the left menu. If you have not already registered a password, do
so by clicking on “Register for Password.” Follow the directions.
3.
Once you have created a password and enter the MSD, click on “My Profile/My Membership Card.”
4.
If your info is correct, click “cancel” and leave the site.
5.
It says “click here” to make changes to your personal information.
6.
Make the change, click “next” to confirm, and then submit.
7.
Logout on the top left of the page.
You may also ask your branch treasurer to check and correct for you. Or, you may call AAUW at
800/326-2289 or email
connect@aauw.org
. If emailing, you should include your full name, member id
number, branch name, and correct email address
.
Patsy Quick
Vice President for Communications
AAUW of Virginia
pnquick@cox.net 703/360-8678
SandScript
Page 9 of 10
Did you know that, according to the new documentary, The Invisible War, about 20 percent of women and 1 percent of men in the military are raped by coworkers? Of the few rapes that are reported, only 8 percent are ever prosecuted and just 2 percent end in conviction. These are just some of the disturbing facts highlighted by Holly Kearl, national AAUW Legal Advocacy Fund (LAF) Program Manager. Holly joined members from AAUW Hampton Roads' branches and members of the local community on August 15, 2012, at the NARO in Norfolk, for one of the
Making The Invisible War Visible
“
AAUW
advances
equity for women
and girls through
advocacy,
education, and
research.”
public showings of The Invisible War. This documentary features several AAUW LAF-supported plaintiffs from the lawsuits Cioca v. Rumsfeld and Klay v.Panetta. Following the movie, Holly participated in a discussion, along with Joann Bautti, Assistant Director of the Women's Center at Old Dominion University, and Marrissa Bond, from the YWCA of South Hampton Roads. Our Branch was
instrumental in arranging for Holly's participation in the NARO discussion and for staffing a table for AAUW membership recruitment and voter registration before and after the movie and discussion.
On December 13, 2011 a U.S. District Court judge dismissed Cioca v. Rumsfeld, and the case is currently on appeal. Also, on November 16, 2011 U.S. Representative Jackie Speier introduced the Sexual Assault Training Oversight and Prevention Act (STOP), which establishes separate procedures outside of the normal chain of command for handling sexual assault cases in the military. STOP was referred to the House Armed Services Committee, Subcommittee on Military Personnel, where it remains, without further action.
Reply Forward
AAUW Members Are Encouraged to Support the Turning
Point Suffragist Memorial
With Women's Equality Day 2012 behind us and a Presidential Election two months in the future, AAUW State President Caroline Pickens' message to branches encouraging support for the Turning Point Suffragist Memorial, could not have been more timely. As you may recall, our branch was months ahead in recognizing the hard fought battles to secure the right to vote for U.S. women. We dedicated our March and April 2012 programs to women's suffrage as a means of recognizing Women's History Month. We showed the movie Iron Jawed Angels and had Kathleen Pablo from the Turning Point Suffragist Memorial come to speak. A major focus of both programs was on the "Night of Terror" in November 1917 when more than 70 suffragists were imprisoned in the Occoquan Workhouse in Fairfax County, Virginia, for picketing the White House for the right to vote. The reports of their inhumane
treatment became a "turning point" in the battle to pass the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution extending the right to vote to women.
The Turning Point Suffragist Memorial Committee is working with the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority to raise funds to erect a suffragist memorial not only to commemorate the struggle of the suffragists, but also to educate future generations. You can personally support the Turning Point Suffragist Memorial by becoming an associate member for $19 a year ($50 for 3 years). http://www.suffragistmemorial.org/Membership.html There are additional opportunities to become a Charter Member as well.
Date
Event Place TimeSeptember 19 Branch Meeting Central Library Auditorium 630pm* Sept 26 Board Meeting Our Lady of Perpetual Help 630pm October 10 Branch Meeting Central Library 630pm October 24 Board Meeting Our Lady of Perpetual Help 630pm October 27 Southeast District Meeting TBA TBA October 27 Dining Group 3300 Ocean Shore Ave, VB 630pm November 14 Branch Meeting Central Library 630pm November 28 Board Meeting Our Lady of Perpetual Help 630pm December 8 Holiday Luncheon Virginia Beach Resort Hotel 1130am December 19 Board Meeting Our Lady of Perpetual Help 630pm February 6 AAUW Lobby Day Richmond, VA TBA February 23, 2013 Southeast District Meeting TBA TBA March 24, 2013 Play/Reception Little Theatre of VA Beach TBA April 13, 2013 AAUW Virginia State Meeting Richmond, VA TBA June 9-12, 2013 AAUW National Conference New Orleans, LA TBA April 25-27, 2014 AAUW State Conference Smith Mountain Lake, VA TBA * Speaker will begin her presentation at 645pm
Branch Calendar
American Association of University Women Virginia Beach Branch
Dana Henning, SandScript Editor 1204 Egret Pt
