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Pat’s Perspective: |
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American Association of University Women Aurora Area Branch |
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Promoting education and equality for women and girls |
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Greetings, It’s hard to believe, but the Vernal Equinox will be in a few weeks. As we say good-bye to winter and hello to spring in March, we celebrate Women’s History month. Our branch will celebrate the month with a wonderful program about the leadership and influence of the First Ladies on Saturday, March 20th. It should prove to be both informative and entertaining, and will be a cost effective time to invite a guest. Now that I am retired, I truly enjoy these breakfast meetings, and I hope to see a great many of you there. I also hope some of you will find the time to attend the nation-wide celebration on March 4th in partnership with CARE, for a showing of the film, HALF THE SKY at Randall 15 at 7:30 p.m. Another excellent program will be at Fermilab on Tues. March 9th in honor of Women’s History month. Dr. Sandra Hanson will speak on issues of gender and race in science education, and what we can do to reduce inequities in this area. This topic is very pertinent to AAUW’s efforts to promote STEM studies for girls and to our branch project next October. Please check your February newsletter for details. I plan to attend, so if you would like to car pool please phone me at 630-978-7428. The programming committee has scheduled some outstanding speakers this year and I hope you will take advantage of them. The work done by AAUW staffers in Washington is very effective; especially that of our lobbyist, but AAUW is dependant on the grass-root support of its members. I hope you are able to act on some of the emails Donna so faithfully sends to us. Also, the size of our membership, as well as the quality of the research, helps to increase the amount of influence AAUW can have on issues in Washington. In order to attract and retain members we need to be a vital organization, interested in supporting the agenda of our organization. So, you can help by inviting friends to some of our excellent programs. The April International dinner should be an outstanding program, as we learn about the efforts to enable women in Thailand to escape from prostitution, and have the opportunity to do some “Fair-Trade” shopping. So, put these events on your calendars NOW! Also, the May event has been rescheduled because the Infusion Tea Shoppe has closed, to May 22nd. Please watch for details in your future newsletters. Did you take the opportunity to try out a study group during the month of February? If you did not, try one in March! Pat |