March is Women’s History Month, and the theme is "Moving Forward Together! Women Educating & Inspiring Generations." In keeping with that theme, we are happy to announce that our speaker for our March meeting will be Dr. Kasey Thompson.

Dr. Thompson earned a Ph.D. in Values-Driven Leadership from Benedictine University in Lisle, IL and joined Ferris State University’s College of Business in 2017.

She has over twenty-five years of professional experience including leading Global strategic initiatives for McDonald’s Corporation where she served as the Director of Global Menu Strategy. Dr. Thompson led platform innovation teams for the 35,000 restaurants globally as a strategic director for the world’s 90th largest economy. Most notably, Dr. Thompson co-wrote the full strategic marketing plan for Redbox, the world’s first fully automated DVD system. 

Dr. Kasey Thompson

Dr. Thompson is an Associate Professor of Management; passionate about strategic innovation, leadership, ethics, and entrepreneurship, she also serves as Special Assistant to the President for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. She will be talking to us about the challenges and opportunities for women in these career paths.

Our March meeting will be held on March 27 at 5:30 P.M. at the Mecosta County Services Building, 14485 Northland Drive, Big Rapids. Please enter through Door #3, around the north side of the building.

We had great turnout on a bitterly cold night for our Feminomenon event for the Festival of the Arts! Thanks to everyone who attended and presented, and special thanks to Kelley Samuels for her musical contributions for the evening!

Several attendees asked for the PowerPoint presentations. The files had to be reduced significantly in order to upload them to the AAUW-Big Rapids website, and hyperlinks to audio and video were lost in the process. You can find the PowerPoints here. The PowerPoint on the "Music of Suffrage Era" includes speaking notes and is saved in Notes view.

Please mark the morning of Saturday, March 29, 9:00 a.m., on your calendar for a book sorting party in Leah's garage. Her address is 19060 200th Avenue. If most of the books are pre-sorted before delivery to the garage, we should be able to make quick work of what's left. We were done in just a couple hours last year. We need not-too-large cartons with lids/flaps for storing and stacking, so if you can bring empty boxes with you, that would be much appreciated.

The board met on February 17, and determined that it was too late to advertise the scholarship again this semester. Sarah Lucas is consulting with the Ferris Financial Aid Office to determine whether we can advertise through the scholarship portal. Once we have more information about the process, we will decide whether it make sense to use that tool. We will hopefully have more information by the March 27 meeting so we can discuss next steps.

Many thanks to Sarah Lucas, Julie Alexander, and Mary Loesch, who have agreed to serve as our Nominating Committee this year! The following positions come to the ends of their two-year terms on June 30: President, Membership Vice President, and Programs Vice President. Additionally, Kathi Parker agreed to extend her first term as Secretary by one year, so she is stepping down at the end of June, and we need someone to complete the second year of her term.

If you are interested in any of these positions, please contact any member of the Nominating Committee. Current office holders would also be happy to discuss their positions with you. If a member of the Committee contacts you to ask you if you would be willing to serve in a position, please consider saying "yes!" We encourage having co-officers to share the duties of each position to reduce the burden on any one individual. The board also discussed how the Programs Vice President could be converted back to a coordinator position with individual members taking responsibility to plan one program during the year so that the Programs VP doesn't have the burden of planning every program. The board is open to other possibilities that might spread work around and make positions doable for our busy members.

AAUW-Big Rapids | AAUWBigRapids@gmail.com