March 2013 Newsletter

 

Southern Highlights

 

Volume 11 Number 6 March 2013

Shaping the World One Woman at a Time


 

 

Marijo Alexander and Sue Grove, Co-Presidents

Co-President’s Thoughts

 

What a great AAUW year this has been so far! Our programs have been excellent and the small groups have been busier than ever. The Great Decisions Group has doubled in size, the knitting group is meeting regularly on Saturday mornings, the book groups are going strong, Travel Group keeps sharing adventures, and First Friday lunch is well attended. I encourage everyone to take part in as many of these groups as you can. They give us an opportunity to get to know each other in small group settings.

I am so looking forward to our Women’s History Month endeavors. Judging the projects at the high school is really rewarding and fun, so if you are available on February 28th, talk to Carolyn or Peggy about helping. We are thrilled to be having Lisa Maatz, Director of Public Policy and Government Relations for AAUW as the keynote speaker at the Women’s History Assembly at Austin High School on March 8th. Please attend if you can. Lisa is an amazing woman and a wonderful presenter. AAUW is lucky to have her on staff!

Thank you to everyone who has started to bring items for our Silent Auction basket for the State Convention in April. Since it is in Rochester, I highly recommend that you go to it if you possibly can. You get a feeling for what a powerful organization AAUW really is. Thank you for all you do.

Think spring!!!

 

Sue Grove

Co-President

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May Newsletter

Southern Highlights

Volume 11 Number 8 May 2013Shaping the World One Woman at a Time

 

 

Marijo Alexander and Sue Grove, Co-Presidents

Co-President’s Thoughts

Welcome Spring! I cannot believe that we are at the end of our program year! Thank you to everyone who made this year so successful. We have so many talented members in our chapter who come together for spirited conversations and hard work to carry out the mission of AAUW. Every year when I interact with the high school students as they work on their Women’s History Month projects, I come away refreshed and hopeful.

State Convention is another event that always inspires me. I love to watch talented women (and men) working towards our shared goals of equity for all. This June, Marijo and I will be attending the National Convention in New Orleans. I am excited to hear Melissa Harris Perry and Olympia Snow at the final banquet.

As I write this, we are up to our necks in books that are coming in for the book sale. A huge thank you goes out to everyone who has really stepped up and put in hours upon hours publicizing, sorting books, gathering boxes, and all the other tasks involved.

Thank you, too, to those who are willing to serve on the board. It does involve effort, but working together ends up being rewarding and fun at the same time. Please consider taking a position.

I am looking forward to the banquet to celebrate all that we have done this year. Be sure to attend and to invite a potential member to come to meet us. Take good care.

Sue Grove

Co-President

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Southern Highlights Newsletter

Southern Highlights

 

Volume 11 Number 7 April 2013

Shaping the World One Woman at a Time


 

 

Marijo Alexander and Sue Grove, Co-Presidents

Co-President’s Thoughts

 

Happy Spring! I can’t believe that we are already into the final programs for this year! It has been an amazing year for our AAUW branch.

 

Women’s History Month at Austin High School was a huge success. It is always rewarding to visit with the students about their projects and recognize how much of a learning experience it is for them. Lisa Maatz, AAUW’s Director of Public Policy, gave an inspiring speech that students and faculty really enjoyed and we even got front page coverage in the Austin Daily Herald. Several members of our branch along with members from Albert Lea and Rochester joined Lisa and David Kirkwood, a national AAUW board member, for lunch at the Old Mill. I accompanied Lisa and Dave to the SPAM Museum and Lisa tweeted from there. She thanked us all for the warm Minnesota welcome.

 

The April meeting is your chance to see the winning projects from the Women’s History Month and to meet the students. Please try to be at Riverland for this meeting. Then, in May, we have our year end banquet. Think of friends to invite to join us.

Also, the State Convention is in Rochester the end of April. Please consider attending if you possibly can. It is a great event. Don’t forget to bring something for our gift baskets for the Silent Auction. Our theme is “Our Favorite Things”.

 

Finally, don’t forget the book sale is the first weekend in May. We need all the help we can get for all phases of this major fund raiser: sorting any time now, setting up the Wednesday and Thursday before the sale, working at the sale, and packing up books early in the week following the sale. Please contact Laura Tjomsland , Joyce Goetz, or Sue Grove for more details. Also, you may take books to donate at any time now. Just deliver them to the front desk at the library.

Thank you for all you do.

 

Sue Grove

Co-President

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February Newsletter

Southern Highlights

Volume 11 Number 5 February 201

Shaping the World One Woman at a Time

 

 

Marijo Alexander and Sue Grove, Co-Presidents

Co-President’s Thoughts

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Our January 8 program at the Seibel Family Visitation & Exchange Center was excellent! The information presented is a perfect fit with the Strategic Plan we submitted last March. It supports Vision #1 (continue to support efforts to combat violence, bullying, and harassment against women, girls and other minorities at home, in school, and in our communities); Goal #1 (create a higher level of awareness to reduce violence, bullying, and harassment against women, girls and other minorities;” and Action #1 (educate others through informative programs, speaker presentations, book selections and films). We may want to submit this as our “Best of Branches Report” for 2012-13 (last year we submitted the Scholarship Tour of Homes Fundraiser). For those of you who attended, please consider writing a summary (500 words or less), and submit it to your co-presidents. Thank you!

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A sincere thank you to everyone who expressed their friendship, words of comfort and sympathy to Sue Grove with the passing of her beloved mother, Lorraine Oestreich.

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REMINDER: The AAUW State Convention in Rochester will be here before we know it. Our silent auction theme is “Our favorite things.” Please bring your “favorite things” to our February, March and April meetings. Thank you for your generosity – we appreciate it!

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Marijo Alexander

Co-President

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Southern Highlights October 2010 Newsletter

Southern Highlights

Austin Minnesota Branch

Volume 9 Number 2 October 2010

Shaping the World One Woman at a Time


 

 

Co-President’s Column

It was good to see many of you at our September kick-off potluck (but we missed all who didn’t make it). Our thanks go especially to Janet Gilbertson, our hospitality chair, for the lovely seasonal decorations and arranging for the food.

It was encouraging to see guests and to have most of them become members. We will try to have member spotlights on each of these people. We have 54 members as of this writing. Membership chairs, Sandy Folk and Marsha Kuehne, are to be commended for their work. They plan to have the new directory ready at our October 12 meeting so you will want to be there to pick yours up.

Evelyn Guentzel is recovering from knee surgery and apologizes for not being able to schedule a candidate forum for this election year. You are urged to watch KSMQ Channel 15 on October 25 when The Herald and KSMQ sponsor a debate between the candidates. Evelyn will not be doing Public Policy Notes this month since she is without her computer while at Comforcare for rehab. She may be home by the time you read this newsletter. Continue reading →

Fall Tour of Homes-Albert Lea

Our Albert Lea Branch of AAUW will be having our Fall Tour of Homes on Saturday, September 25th from 10 AM to 3 PM. Five area homes will be on tour that day. Tickets can be purchased in advance for $13.00 by contacting me at: callahan@smig.net ; my phone: (507) 377-3201 or at my address below. Tickets may be purchased the day of the tour at the Marion Ross Community Theater, 147 North Broadway in downtown Albert Lea from 9:30 AM until 1:00 PM.

September 2010 Newsletter

Southern Highlights

Austin Minnesota Branch

Volume 9 Number 1 September 2010

Shaping the World One Woman at a Time

 

 

Co-President’s Column

Welcome back to all returning AAUW members, and a hearty welcome to you who have recently joined. We are looking forward to a year of working together to advance our goal of breaking through educational and economic barriers so that women have a fair chance. That said, we also look forward to a year of good fellowship and fun. The program committee has many good programs lined up which we feel you will profit from and enjoy.

Marijo Alexander was our president-elect throughout last year, and we admire her courage to tackle the lead job even though she is a relatively new member. Marijo is executive assistant to the president of Riverland Community College and could well have said “I don’t have time” when asked, but with an endless supply of energy and enthusiasm, agreed to tackle the job. I look forward to working with Marijo. I have been a member since 1984 and have served as program V.P., educational foundations chair, secretary, visibility chair, and newsletter editor so I guess my turn has come to be co-president.

One resolution was presented and approved at the state convention in St. Cloud in April, and that stated: “The AAUW Minnesota Board will assist branches through its programming, equality connections, and public policy work to educate members about the ERA issue and actively work to encourage the Minnesota Legislature to put an ERA amendment on the ballot in November 2012.” Needless to say, it passed unanimously.

Why do we need an equal rights amendment? Because:

  1. Neither the MN Constitution nor the U.S. Constitution explicitly guarantees that all of the rights they protect are held by all of its citizens without regard to sex.
  2. We need to protect ourselves from a rollback of the significant advances in women’s rights over the past 40 years.
  3. The U.S. needs to practice what it preaches with respect to equal justice under the law.

Thanks for joining AAUW. Let’s make this one of our best years yet!

Liz Richardson, Co-President

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