The NORTH COUNTRY CONNECTION
When we meet on June 4 at Thatcher Hall on the SUNY Potsdam campus for our annual meeting, election of officers and reports, our Leader on Loan will be Melissa Guardaro of Valley Cottage. A co-president of the Rockland County Branch, she is the AAUW-NYS International Director for the NYS Board.
Melissa will discuss her special New York State AAUW project, My Sister's Keeper, which she launched in 2010 with former state board member Joan Monk. The project educates AAUW members about the plight of women both internationally and domestically, and to encourage local action to help our global "Sisters." The program starts a book discussion of Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn and provides for a myriad of avenues to help women with the problems of education, violence against women, maternal health, economic empowerment and women's rights.
Joining AAUW in 2007, Guardaro was a 2009 New York State Emerging Leader and a member of the AAUW Delegation to Cuba in 2010, when a delegation of 48 AAUW members and staff traveled to Cuba for six days of research, dialogue, cultural events, and educational experiences. The group visited sites around Havana and met with women leaders in education, the arts, politics, and law, to examine gender equality in Cuba and to meet with Cuban citizens to gain a firsthand understanding of the roles of women in Cuban society.
Brunch is $10 per person and RSVPs are due no later than May 31 to Membership VP Becky Gerber . You can also pay your 2011-12 dues then. Bring a guest to this terrific program!
There will also be open nominations from the floor at the meeting on June 4; any member eligible to serve is invited and encouraged to run for any office.
You have received your dues card with this newsletter. Please return it with any corrections to your contact information on the back along with your check, made out to AAUW, for $68. Although NYS increased state dues by $3 this year, your branch Board is holding the dues to last year's total in these difficult financial times for our members. That means we only collect $6 per member, with $13 going to the state and $49 to AAUW. Please remember that $46 of your national dues is tax deductable at the end of the calendar year. Our membership year end on June 30, so your prompt payment of dues will greatly ease the work our Treasurer and Membership VP have to go through for the 2011-12 year that starts on July 1. Thank you!
Here are just a few things... "YOU" can do as a member of the St. Lawrence County Branch of AAUW:
Three SUNY Potsdam students, Lilian Gotlieb, Olivia Breen and Megan Wainwright will be attending this year's National Conference for College Women Student Leaders - Leadership for Today and Tomorrow. Sponsored by AAUW and NASPA, this is the only conference that brings together college women to address important and contemporary leadership issues. The conference provides a transformative experience for attendees, and students return home ready to improve their campuses and their communities.
The AAUW's election is under way! Cast your ballot online or mail in your paper ballot today. The concept of "One Member, One Vote" was adopted by the delegates at the 2009 AAUW National Convention. It provides every member the opportunity to have both a personal voice in the process of directing the future of AAUW and the right to vote for candidates as well as proposed bylaws amendments, resolutions, and the proposed Public Policy Program.
Paper ballots were mailed April 15, 2011. Each paper ballot is personalized with the member's AAUW ID number and a voter PIN (personal identification number). Online voting will take place from May 1, 2011, through 9 p.m. EDT on June 17, 2011. To vote, members must log in to the One Member, One Vote section of the AAUW website. Each voter must enter her or his member ID to access the site and then use the voter PIN provided on the personalized paper ballot to vote. Paper ballots can be submitted by mail only and must be sent to the AAUW national office for scanning. Paper ballots postmarked after 11:59 p.m. EDT, May 31, 2011, will not be accepted.
In late March, the St. Lawrence County Branch of the American Association of University Women Branch (AAUW) cosponsored a science discovery event at Clarkson University for 55 Junior Girl Scouts from Northern NY with a grant from their Open Windows for Girls Fund. The event was hosted by the Clarkson chapter of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). Additional support came from the Clarkson University School of Arts and Sciences and from the Coulter School of Engineering at Clarkson University.
The science fun and discovery began as the scouts rotated between six different stations designed by the Clarkson SWE members so the girls could complete the requirements for the Junior Girl Scout Science Discovery Badge. The activities included making invisible ink and writing messages to each other that they tried to read. The girls also played with magic sand that didn't get wet when put in water, made crazy putty, a kaleidoscope and bath salts. At the biomechanics station, the girls each found her center of mass. Based on that information, they tried to predict who would have the better balance when dueling with pugil sticks.
Since 1989, thanks to the generous donations by members, local companies and people who believe in girls, AAUW has sent hundreds of Open Windows girls ages 10-15 to 4-H Camp, Girl Scout Day Camp, sports camps at local colleges, math and science camps, school trips to Washington, DC, the state and county fairs to compete in 4-H competitions, technology and computer camps, the DEC Environmental camp, and to music camps, among others.
Faye White, SLC AAUW Open Windows for Girls coordinator, presented Alexis Michael and Jennifer Cougler, members of the Seaway Valley Screaming Eagles Team, with a check to help fund the cost of the team's trip to The Plains, Virginia to compete in the National Team America Rocketry Challenge May 14. Alexis and Jennifer are students at Heuvelton Central School and are members of the Seaway Valley 4-H Rocket Club.
New York State Assemblywoman Addie Jenne Russell, who serves the 118th "River" District from Jefferson and St. Lawrence Counties, sat down with eight women student leaders at Clarkson University to discuss the opportunities and challenges for young women considering governance, politics and public service as a career path. The show is also available for viewing on-line any time.
With Mother's Day behind us, now is a good time to look at the condition of mothers around the world and here at home. Every year Save the Children ranks the best and worst places in the world to be a mother. The rankings reveal stark truths around the globe when it comes to child and maternal mortality, health care, and education. Women are the majority of the more than one billion people living on just a dollar a day, and they account for 6 out of 10 of the world's hungry.
The best place to be a mother is Norway; the worst is Afghanistan. In Norway, a typical woman lives to be 83 years old and has 18 years of formal education. In Afghanistan, the average woman will die before she is 45 and has fewer than five years of education.
And here at home, America slipped down three spots to 31 from last year's report, out of the 43 developed countries listed. We now place behind countries like Croatia, Estonia, and Latvia.
In the United States in 2010, women made up 47 percent of the civilian workforce, nearly two-thirds of women were contributing to family incomes, and more than 20 percent of women were their family's primary breadwinner. And yet those women are often relegated to "pink-collar" jobs, where they have lower wages, fewer benefits, little in retirement, and little room for advancement. At a time when American families are increasingly reliant on women's paychecks, those smaller paychecks put more and more Americans outside the reach of a middle class life.
Single mothers are still more likely to be employed than married mothers, because they must depend on their own earnings. But it's harder for them to find jobs, in part because they find it difficult to make child-care arrangements.
And there is a motherhood penalty paid by all working women. It ranges from 4 percent less in wages per child for a woman working in the highest paid jobs to 15 percent less per child for women working in the lowest paid jobs.
And of course for many women, even a pink collar job is out of the realm of possibility in these depressed times. In 2010, the unemployment rate for single mothers averaged 14.6 percent. And women's access to unemployment insurance has often been more difficult, given the restrictions on how it is applied.
Women hold 62 percent of jobs in local government, mainly in K-12 teaching, and three-fourths of jobs in privately provided education and health services portions of the public sector positions. Around the country in many states, these jobs are in jeopardy under the pretext of "deficit reduction."
At the federal level, budget cuts are having significant impacts on job training and employment programs. Programs that are central to improving women's access to higher wage, higher-skill jobs are again being targeted by the deficit hawks in Congress.
Exacerbating everything is the unprecedented income inequality in the United States, now surpassing even levels seen during the Great Depression.
And of course, lack of representation in political office also weakens the position of America's mothers. Women's representation in public offices has grown only slowly since 1920 when they earned the right to vote. Women are still greatly under-represented in most states and in the national government. In fact, the proportion of women in our Congress is about half the average for national legislative bodies throughout the world.
Women constitute 23.5 percent of the state legislatures, 21.8 percent of state executive positions, and 16.7 percent of US mayors. Those numbers are not high enough to ensure that women's issues ever make it to the top of the legislative agenda.
AAUW has dedicated 130 years to the advancement of education for women and girls. AAUW believes that career and technical education is critical for women and girls seeking to earn their way in a competitive marketplace. We strongly believe that access to high-wage, high-skill jobs should be a right for women and girls from diverse racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, age, and disability backgrounds, including training for nontraditional jobs. It is in these fields traditionally that women workers can begin to close the persistent wage gap between women and men.
The St. Lawrence County Branch is now accepting nominations for its AAUW Agent of Change Award for 2011. AAUW biennially honors a St. Lawrence County woman whose work as employer, employee or volunteer is noteworthy in one or all of these three areas:
Any individual or group may submit a letter of nomination for someone who meets the criteria. Lisa Wilson will chair the 2011 Agent of Change committee. To nominate someone, please send her a letter and supporting documentation outlining the nominee's contributions that meet the criteria to 52 South Main Street, Norwood, NY 13668 before August 15. The award will be presented at the branch's fall membership meeting.
The American Association of University Women advances equity for women and girls through advocacy, education and research. AAUW will be a powerful advocate and visible leader in equity and education through research, philanthropy, and measurable change in critical areas impacting the lives of women and girls.
In principle and 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.
The AAUW Educational Opportuntities Fund provides funds to advance education, research, and self-development for women and to foster equity and positive societal change.
The AAUW Legal Advocacy Fund provides funding and a support system for women seeking judicial redress for sex discrimination.
The findings of a school consolidation study will be released during three public meetings that will give St. Lawrence County residents the chance to ask questions. Dennis M. Sweeney, the study project's director, said three main options will be discussed:
The study was launched last fall by St. Lawrence-Lewis Board of Cooperative Educational Services on behalf of the 18 public school districts in the region. The component districts shared the $126,176 price tag.
May 25 at the Edwards-Knox Central School auditorium, Russell, for these districts: Edwards-Knox, Gouverneur, Harrisville, Clifton-Fine, Colton-Pierrepont and Hermon-Dekalb. The public meeting starts at 6:30 p.m.
May 26 at the Norwood-Norfolk Central School auditorium, Norwood, for these districts: Norwood-Norfolk, Canton, Potsdam, Massena, Parishville-Hopkinton, and St. Lawrence Central, Brasher Falls. The public meeting is at 6:30 p.m.
May 31 at the Lisbon Central School auditorium, Lisbon, for these districts: Lisbon, Ogdensburg, Heuvelton, Madrid-Waddington, Morristown and Hammond. The public meeting is at 6:30 p.m.
Betty Connolly, our very hard-working chair of the Clothing Fair held annually at SUNY Canton, reports this year's fair was better attended than ever, thanks in large part to the distressed economy. Over 400 shoppers picked up outfits suitable for work and job interviews (100 more than last year). $120 in donations was collected that went to our 2011 Scholarship Fund, and the left over clothes were donated to the Ogdensburg Fire Department. Thanks to everyone who donated clothes, time and volunteer energy!