PUBLIC POLICY REPORT

May, 2008

Report of the Co-Directors of Public Policy
Diane Balin and Faye Marcus

This year, 2007-08, has been a busy and exciting year for Public Policy, with the announcement at AAUW Convention in June that AAUW-IL was one of seven recipients of an AAUW IMPACT GRANT. We were given $800 to develop a Lobby Corps for Illinois and given support from the Public Policy staff of AAUW in Washington, D.C.

Our legislative consultant (lobbyist), Paula Purdue and her daughter, Jenni Purdue, provided training in "How to Lobby" during the two Fall Conferences. See www.aauw-il.org for information on "How to Lobby" and "How to Write a Fact Sheet". Paula and Jenni also trained members of the Lobby Corps in Springfield, consisting mostly of members of the Decatur and Springfield branches. We would like to thank the following women for their dedication to AAUW's Public Policy: Nia Odeoti Hassan, Amy Green, Susan Wood, Delinda Chapman, Marcia Wherry, & Nancy Daugherty from Springfield Branch, and Alice Heubner from the Decatur Branch. Anyone willing to travel to Springfield is welcome to become a member of the Lobby Corps.

Some AAUW members lobbied their state and federal legislators in their home districts. We lobbied our Senators and Representatives to support the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (HR2831) and the companion Senate Bill 1843, Fair Pay Restoration Act, and other AAUW issues. See www.aauw.org, click on Advocacy, and then Public Policy. AAUW-IL members are becoming expert lobbyists as we participated in two Lobby Days this spring. On March 4th we joined with new partners: Business and Professional Women (BPW), National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO), and Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP), to lobby in Springfield on several important bills concerning women's health, business grants for women entnepures, ERA, and school funding bills. They are invited to our Convention, and we plan to continue to collaborate with them. On April 30, we again joined with Illinois Education Association (IEA) and the Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT) to lobby Springfield on school funding. Branch Public Policy chairs participated in a conference call with Seth Chase and Lisa Maatz of the Washington, D.C. AAUW staff about Pay Equity Day action. We also continue to work with the Adolescent Health coalition.

Throughout the year, Washington Updates and Action Alerts were sent to Public Policy committee members and branch public policy chairs with the intention to have this important public policy information sent to all AAUW-IL members. Are you a "Two Minute Activist"? It is really easy to use. It is important to make your voice heard.

The First Jane Addams Day was celebrated on December 10, 2007. Connie Baker, President of the Elmhurst Branch, designed an attractive Jane Addams Postcard which was distributed at our district meetings. Members were asked to use them to thank state legislators for voting to implement the Jane Addams Day in Illinois.

April 22 represents Equal Pay Day, because women earn 77 cents for every $1 that a man earns. Therefore, it takes a woman 16 months to earn the same salary as a man earns in 12 months. The Public Policy committee passed out "=Pay" Pins at Convention and Lobby Days to build awareness of this issue.

The 2nd Annual Public Policy Awards were announced at Convention. Eight branches sent in applications. The Public Policy committee evaluated the projects on four areas: collaboration, impact on membership, public awareness, and impact on a public policy issue. Each of these projects was different and very creative. Thank you to the following branches for their participation: Aurora, Chicago, Deerfield,Huntley, Lombard, Rock Island-Moline, Springfield, and Wood River.

We want to thank the AAUW-IL Public Policy Committee: Midge Parkinson (dist. 1), Linda Weber (dist. 2), Jan De Young & Barbara Steigman (dist. 3), Pat Porep, Donna Erickson, and Connie Baker (dist. 4), and Jeanne Hebeison & Diane Oltman-Ayers (dist. 5). These ladies have really worked hard this year getting information out to branches about our Lobby Corps, Lobby Days, and Public Policy Awards. We also want to thank all the Branch Public Policy chairs that are too numerous to list here. We also could not be effective without Paula Purdue and Jenni Purdue, our legislative gurus.

We are delighted that Lisa Maatz, Director of Public Policy and Government Relations is our Convention keynote. She is here because we are one of the recipients of the Impact Grant.

We hope that you are all gearing up for 2008-9 to Get Out The Vote! Lobbying will be even more important so join our state Lobby Corps and develop your own branch Lobby Corps.

Respectfully submitted,
Diane Balin and Faye Marcus