McLean Area Branch AAUW of Virginia Dec/Jan 2012/13 Volume XLII Number 4 January Program Where Did the Money Go??? T he January branch meeting will feature the 2012/13 recipients of McLean Area Branch funding efforts. The speakers will be Evelyn Garcia Morales, our Career Development grantee, and Eleanore Lambert, our American Fellow. Morales also received a sponsorship from the branch to attend the National Conference for College Student Leaders. They will be speaking about their experiences and the importance of receiving financial assistance at this time in their studies. Also joining us will be Becky Farmer of Georgetown Graduate School. Farmer received funding from the McLean Career Development Grant last year and is doing further studying at Georgetown to enhance her career in foreign service. (Continued on page 6) INSIDE Page 3 Upcoming Event Openings AAUW VA Communications News Page 4 Public Policy Matters Page 5 Northern District News Page 6 November Meeting Photo Page 7 Connections And More! Evelyn Garcia Morales Degree and Field: M.P.P. Management, George Mason University Evelyn Garcia Morales holds a bachelor s degree in political science from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and is a program manager for a nonprofit dedicated to Latina leadership development in Washington, D.C. She is pursuing a master s degree in organizational development knowledge management. She plans to play an instrumental role in unlocking the human potential of nonprofit organizations employees, members, and stakeholders so that they may create long-term, sustainable change. Eleanore Lambert Degree and Field: Ph.D., English, Catholic University of America Project Name: Humor and Ambiguity in Poetry: The Case of Emily Dickinson Eleanore Lambert specializes in Emily Dickinson s poetry. Her research explores how Dickinson s often-missed humor is the key to a fuller understanding of the poet s unique philosophical contributions. Lambert enjoys sharing the rich language of American poetry with her students, and she aims to continue to learn about this poetry while teaching at the university level
Page 2, McLean Area Branch NEWS: Dec/Jan 2012/13 McLean Area Branch 2012/2013 EXECUTIVE BOARD President Elaine Lailas 703/779-8679 Elailas@aol.com Program Vice President Membership Co-Vice Presidents Mary Ellen Keene 703/356-4346 maryellenkeene@msn.com Anne Studner 703/938-9251 Ann-san@juno.com Treasurer Judy Page 908/723-4365 judypage@gmail.com Board Secretary Linda Regan 571/282-3692 Regan.linda@gmail.com Branch Secretary Marjorie Broderick 703/883-8027 margiebroderick@aol.com T his is the season of joyous occasions, beautiful music, family and friends gathering, gift giving, and an array of activities that mark the Christmas and Hanukkah holidays in December. This is the season of reminiscing about our 2012 branch year. As a branch of AAUW, we have engaged ourselves at all levels of the organization. Two McLean branch members are Honor Roll Donors to AAUW. Two of our branch members are leaders at the state level. Nationally, the McLean Area Branch is one of the top 10 contributors to the AAUW Action Fund, one of the top 10 branches in Educational Opportunities Fund support, and has completed the McLean Area Branch Research and Project Grant in celebration of the branch s 40 th anniversary. Ninety-six branch members participated in the Annual Used Book Sale this last summer. McLean branch members are on their quest to give of their gifts and talents to the GEM and STEM programs in the local public schools as well as to serve as tutors at the Pimmitt Center. We just completed a branch survey that gave some interesting results. When we look at the finances of the national AAUW, we find that AAUW received the Seal of Excellence from Independent Charities of Excellence because AAUW meets the highest standards of accountability, programs, and cost effectiveness. The budget breakdown is 7 percent development and fundraising, 11 percent management and general, 1 percent legal advocacy, 47 percent programs, 10 percent research and projects, 3 percent Eleanor Roosevelt Fund, 14 percent American Fellowships. AAUW awarded 89 American Fellowships and Grants for the year 2012-13: 60 Dissertation Fellowships, 12 Postdoctoral Fellowships, and 17 Publication Grants. The eligible applicants numbered 693 and total awards equaled $1,687,000. Now one of the largest sources of funding for graduate education for women, AAUW has provided more than $90 million to more than 11,000 fellows and grantees since awarding its first fellowship... AAUW also awarded 63 International Fellowships for 2012-13: eligible applicants, 696; countries represented by applicants, 116; total amount awarded, $1,256,000. Back at the home base, the McLean Area Branch proposed Allocation of Funds is $29,000. As a member of the branch, you can vote on the Allocation of Funds at the December 16 Holiday Luncheon. The Bylaws Committee has been hard at work on reviewing the branch bylaws, standing rules, and policies. The branch board will be discussing and voting on a recommendation to remove the wording from the branch policy sheet that requires a minimum percentage of our net fundraising proceeds go to AAUW (national). That and other recommended changes to the bylaws, standing rules, or policy sheet will be discussed at the January 19, 2013 branch meeting after the program. The changes to the bylaws, etc., will be presented to the membership for a vote at the March 19 branch business meeting. As we close the year and enter a new era for our branch, let us bring in the New Year of 2013 with an AAUW McLean Area Branch New Year s Celebration on Sunday, January 6, 2013, 2:30 p.m., at the home of Sandy Sieber. We will celebrate our new members and get acquainted with each other as in Auld Lang Syne. As we take a long deep breath and exhale slowly, we are now ready for the New Year of 2013. Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to those who celebrate and have a happy, healthy, and joyous New Year. Elaine
McLean Area Branch NEWS: Dec/Jan 2012/13, Page 3 Announcements Coming Event: AAUW McLean Branch Members New Year s Celebration, Sunday, January 6, 2:30 p.m. at the home of Sandy Sieber, 1803 Dominion Crest Lane, McLean, VA 22101. Meet the new members! Socialize and have a good cheer! RSVP: Anne Studner, 703/938-9251 or Mary Ellen Keene, 703/356-4346 Openings: Branch directory editor with lots of assistance by Pam Bacher Branch website manager with guidance by Ina Nenninger Used Book Sale chairs for 2013 Nominating committee for 2013 five members to be nominated and elected at the December 16 Holiday Luncheon. AAUW of Virginia Board Secretary You are most welcome to volunteer for any of these positions. Elaine will be happy to receive your call at 703/779-8679 or e-mail: Elailas@aol.com. AAUW of Virginia Communications News K ay Koehler, who has managed our website for 15 years, has decided to step down as webmaster. Kay is a legend, known for her technology expertise and efficiency, and no one can take her place on the current site. We agreed that it was a good idea to transfer the state website to AAUW Site-Resources. This would make it easier for someone new to take over the website as Kay steps aside. Our new web manager is Leslie Vandivere of the Fairfax City Branch. She will take over some time after the site is up. We have two new editors to publish the state newsletter, the Virginia Vision. Leslie Vandivere and Erin Nabors, from the Reston-Herndon Branch, have agreed to work together as a team. Erin will receive articles as the copy editor, and Leslie will do the layout as layout editor (previously done by Kay Koehler). Yes, Kay is also giving up this job that she has held for many years. She is a true professional and someone we have all depended on for quite some time. Kay and I will be assisting Leslie and Erin with the January issue. More information will be coming about this later. Happy Holidays! Patsy Quick AAUW of Virginia Vice President for Communications 703/360-8678 From the Editor The McLean Area Branch News is published monthly, September through June, except for a bimonthly issue for December and January. Articles are due the 20th of the month preceding each issue. Articles should be in final form and identified as being for the newsletter. Guidelines for your articles are welcome as are suggestions for the newsletter. Please send your articles for the February News by January 20 via e-mail or postal mail. prbacher@verizon.net Pam Bacher 1442 Towlston Rd., Vienna, VA 22182N Newsletter Editor: Pam Bacher, 703/281-2595
Page 4, McLean Area Branch NEWS: Dec/Jan 2012/13 O nward to the New Year, that very odd 2013. Still, there will be a presidential inauguration and a new Congress, the 113 th! First, some highlights of the past year and the latest news on Capitol Hill. AAUW e-mailed a list of many events, anniversaries, and outcomes for which we can be thankful in 2012. The following are excerpts. You should feel a warm glow to be part of such an organization. A record number of women were elected to Congress: 20 in the Senate and 78 representatives and three delegates in the House. The states that elected their first female senators were Hawaii, Massachusetts, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Wisconsin. On March 17, Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) became the longest-serving woman in congressional history. Mikulski was also the first Democratic woman to serve in both chambers of Congress, the first to be elected to the Senate without succeeding her husband or her father, and the first woman to chair an appropriations subcommittee. Remember when Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D- NY) asked, Where are the women? before walking out, along with Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), in protest from a House committee hearing on birth control that featured all male witnesses? Recently Lilly Ledbetter s book, Grace and Grit: My Fight for Equal Pay and Fairness at Goodyear and Beyond was published. Lilly talked about her book on two popular TV talk shows: the Rachel Maddow Show and The Colbert Report. Public Policy Matters The year 2012 was the 40th anniversary of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, the landmark legislation ensuring equal opportunity in education for all students. It was also the 40th anniversary of the Pell grant program, an indispensable part of millions of students dreams of higher education in the United States. The Obama administration created the Master Teacher Corps program to boost science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, part of the administration s ongoing efforts to produce 100,000 additional math and science teachers in the next 10 years. And in many state elections, results included the marriage equality victories in Maryland, Washington, Minnesota, and Maine; defeats of an antichoice amendment, an antiseparation of church and state amendment, and an amendment that would have limited the state s ability to collect tax revenues in Florida; the defeat of three Idaho ballot initiatives that would have harmed Idaho s education system; and the passage of in-state tuition eligibility for undocumented students in Maryland. AAUW is thankful that the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act in a complex 5-4 decision in June 2012. AAUW believes that, although not perfect by any stretch, many of the reforms included in the Affordable Care Act will improve the collective health of the American people. And did you know that AAUW was ranked as a top-rated women s empowerment organization of 2012 by GreatNonprofits? Finally, hot off the press, the AAUW Action Fund produced the Congressional Voting Record of the 112 Congress, second session. In the Senate the votes were tabulated on such topics as student loans, education jobs, Title IX, responsible budgets, fair taxes, (Continued on page 5)
McLean Area Branch NEWS: Dec/Jan 2012/13, Page 5 A Special Screening Get Out the Vote Success And More! O n October 24, a special screening of The Invisible War was shown at Fairfax Cinema Art Theater. Christina Soto (AAUW national office) and I worked the AAUW table. Over 45 people attended the screening. After the movie Holly Kearl (AAUW national office) and I led a Q&A discussion. Thanks for your continuing support of this important issue. State projects have been a great success. The completed Get Out The Vote resulted in VA AAUW branches registering over 1,021 people and providing voter information to many more. Most of the registrants were in the millennial age group. The Turning Point Memorial project continues. Thanks to the many branches that had Turning Point Memorial presentations at their meetings and toured the Lorton Workhouse Prison Museum and Art Center. Look for additional information on this project. State board members continue to work two of the biggest issues voiced by branches, getting more and younger members and members taking leadership position. There was much brain storming and discussion of these issues at the fall state board meeting. I ask you to seriously consider taking a leadership position at all levels of AAUW. It truly is a great experience. Save April 13, 2013 for the state conference near the Richmond Airport. The theme of the conference is Every ONE Counts. Some of us toured the conference hotel during the board meeting and it is a great facility. Have a wonderful holiday season and a safe and enjoyable 2013. Sandy Lawrence Northern District Representative slawrence4@juno.com 703/569-1588 Northern District News Public Policy Matters (Continued from page 4) full-year spending, the Paycheck Fairness Act, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), Planned Parenthood, and reproductive health. Each Virginia Senator, Webb and Warner, received a 90 percent mark. On the House side, the votes tabulated included DC Vouchers, Title IX, campus safety, responsible budgets, fair taxes, full year spending, the Paycheck Fairness Act, VAWA, Planned Parenthood, and reproductive health. The Congressmen in our area included Rep. Moran with a score of 100 percent, Rep. Connolly with 90 percent, and Rep. Wolf with 10 percent. AAUW s website contains more specific information. Sources include AAUW s Washington Update and Action Network Mary Lou Melley, Public Policy Chair
Page 6, McLean Area Branch NEWS: Dec/Jan 2012/13 Holiday Luncheon Coming Up : Make Your Reservation by Dec. 5 Please Bring a Donation For SHARE To the Holiday Luncheon President Elaine Lailas (left) with November s program speaker, branch member Nancy Pendarvis Harris. Nancy talked about challenges and successes bringing life-saving preventive and curative health care to rural, underserved families in Ethiopia. Photo by Judy Page Call Aroona Borpujari today (703/556-9693) and tell her you want to be there January Program Continued from page 1) The meeting will be held Saturday, January 19, 9:30 a.m. at the McLean Community Center. Come and meet these outstanding young women. You will go home pleased with how AAUW has chosen to further the education of young women and how all the efforts of the branch have contributed to providing opportunities for women and girls. Peggy Stotz, AAUW Funds Chair Peggy Stotz and American Fellow Becky Farmer Photo by Pam Bacher
McLean Area Branch NEWS: Dec/Jan 2012/13, Page 7 GREAT DECISIONS We covered many interesting topics in 2012 and will be ready to start up again in February. To date, we have 17 people who have signed up to participate in 2013 and I have ordered the books. The charge will be $19.80 each and I will send you an e-mail when they arrive. There is still time to join the group and I can give you information on ordering a book for yourself; we are looking forward to some more interesting topics for discussion. Angela Ehemann MORNING LIT The Morning Literature group will meet on Friday, December 14 to discuss the book A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute. Morning Lit meets at 9:30 a.m. at the McLean Community Center. Anne Kanter will review the book and Virginia Dobozy and Dawn Schulz will host. All are welcome. The Morning Literature group will meet on Friday, January 11 to discuss the book The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan. Morning Lit meets at 9:30 a.m. at the McLean Community Center. Joanne Field will review the book and Cris Groth and Ramona Rayle will host. All are welcome. Rebecca Horahan BRIDGE The branch bridge group plays rubber bridge at 10 a.m. on the second Monday of each month. If you are interest please contact me at 703/759-4789 or nrichardsn@aol.com. Nancy Richardson INTERNATIONAL HOSPITALITY Our group had two very special meetings in November: the first, an interesting overview of the American electoral system, expertly explained by Nan Finken; and the second our annual Thanksgiving luncheon, ably coordinated by Juanita Cullen. It featured traditional dishes prepared by all our volunteers for the enjoyment of our foreign embassy women. Our diplomats included representatives of Japan, Korea, Kuwait, Mexico, Qatar, and Turkey, who listened attentively to Barb Willey s program on the history of Thanksgiving. We are all looking forward to our seasonal Cookie Exchange, to be held on December 12, at Maya Somers home. The International Hospitality Group meets twice most months, September through June, in members homes, and would especially welcome new volunteers who could make a commitment to hosting the group, and also relate readily to our young diplomats. Connie Small SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS Bridge Nancy Richardson 703/759-4789 nrichardsn@aol.com Current Events Linda Regan 571/282-3692 Regan.linda@gmail.com Around Town Anne Studner 703/938-9251 Ann-san@juno.com Suzanne Watts 703/356-7926 scwatts@verizon.net Great Decisions Morning Angela Ehemann 703/893-3578 acehemann@verizon.net Noon Sally Liff 703/356-1344 sdlact@cox.net International Coffee and Cultural Exchange Connie Small 703/759-8606 cfsmall@cox.net Morning Literature Mary de Tray 703/992-7526 mdetray@gmail.com Rebecca Horahan 703/356-1424 rhorahan@verizon.net
CALENDAR AAUW advances equity for women and girls through advocacy, education, and research. December Tues. 4 6:30 p.m. Branch Board Meeting at the Dolley Madison Library, McLean Wed, 5 Deadline for Holiday Luncheon Reservations Mon. 10 10 a.m. Bridge at the home of Bettie Clark * Wed, 12 10 a.m. International Hospitality Cookie Exchange at the home of Maya Somers * Fri, 14 9:30 a.m. Morning Literature at the McLean Community Center * Sun, 16 Noon Branch Holiday Luncheon at River Bend Country Club * January 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. Website: www.aauw.org Fri, 11 9:30 a.m. Morning Literature at the MCC * Mon, 14 10 a.m. Bridge at a location TBA Sat, 19 9:30 a.m. McLean Area Branch Meeting at the MCC * Sun, 20 Deadline for articles to be in the February News By joining AAUW, we belong to a community that breaks through educational and economic barriers so that all women have a fair chance. For membership information call Mary Ellen Keene, 703/356-4346 or Anne Studner 703/938-9251