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JULY 2023 NEWSLETTER
edited by Dottie Burk, Jeanne Lese, Cherie Sorokin and
Leslie Zimring
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"Remember the Ladies" was Abigail Adams' famous request to her husband John in her letter of March 31, 1776. John Adams was at the 1776 session of the Continental Congress where representatives were already contemplating what form of government and new laws would be needed after the Revolution. As we near the 4th of July, it's instructive to reflect on the fact that as women we've been fighting for constitutional recognition and equal rights under the law ever since the time of Abigail and John Adams' correspondence. Not until 1920 did women finally get to vote, a feat brought about by women and men who participated in what we now call the first wave of feminism in this country. But we still don't have the ERA and we're still fighting sexism despite several additional waves of feminist activism!
Feminism today is by far more intersectional and inclusive than the first, second and even third waves of feminism, which were often criticized for ignoring the problems faced by women of color or lower economic status. CBS recently interviewed a number of current feminist leaders who pointed out that the movement now, the so-called fourth wave of feminism, actively seeks to include the voices and concerns of women of color and gender diverse people and is focused on how gender, race, class and sexuality are interconnected and need to be addressed as part of fighting sexism.
The less good news is that feminist is still a "loaded" term for some even though a recent Pew study found 6 in 10 women say feminist describes them well and 62% say feminism is empowering. But 45% think the term is polarizing, presumably not wanting it applied to themselves. Where are you, as an AAUW member, in those numbers?
Not everyone who joins AAUW thinks of themselves as a feminist or of AAUW as a feminist organization, but our mission and our goals are clearly feminist. AAUW is helping our members focus on diversity and inclusion as we seek to advance equity for women and girls. We're also applying a racial lens to our programs and activities, asking ourselves continually how inclusive are we? "How inclusive are we" is a great question for us to ponder individually as well as we each navigate the complexities of living in a world where, despite some progress, sexism is still pervasive and affects all women, in many different ways.
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AAUW CA Takes Action
To Help Fight Book Banning
AAUW CA, in collaboration with Equality California, is launching a new program to help ensure California schools remain free from book banning and curriculum suppression. Equity California is seeking AAUW's help in recruiting qualified candidates for nonpartisan school board positions. The purpose is to counter the effects of outside groups and candidates who do not share AAUW California's values of providing all students access to a diverse curriculum and materials that represent historically accurate information. Stay tuned for more information from Nancy Major, our Public Policy Chair, as this AAUW CA initiative develops. Book banning is an increasingly serious issue across the U.S.
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AAUW Marin's 2023-2024
Board of Directors
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We would love your ideas, your help, and to get to know you better! Contact us by tapping our names. | | |
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Happy Summer Everyone! I am delighted to be joining the leadership of Marin AAUW and look forward to working with you all as we continue to support and engage in research, education and advocacy to empower women as individuals and as a community. AAUW began in 1881 and it is both humbling and heady to be part of this long line of dedicated women.
2023-2024 promises to be a busy and engaging year. First - our auction committee begins its important work on July 10th. Watch for news from Dianne and Dottie on how YOU can support our fall auction and its goals to fund our local scholarships to College of Marin, Dominican, Tech Trek, and the National Conference for College Women Student Leaders.
The board will be meeting August 9th to continue planning the year. Please reach out to me (click on my name above) if you have ideas or suggestions you would like considered. Thank you!
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AAUW Marin Programs for 2023-2024
There are no branch-wide programs planned for July, but we will start up again with an informal gathering in August on a date yet to be determined. Stay tuned for more information on that program as well as our program schedule for September through June.
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Tech Trek is happening!
Seven Marin middle school girls will be attending Tech Trek at Sonoma State University the week of July 23 to July 29. Tech Trek is an experience created and sponsored solely by AAUW to encourage girls to follow their passion for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).
The camp relies on volunteers to help the camp run smoothly. This year Dianne Sheridan, Susan Whittom, Dottie Burk, and Kathleen Clark have stepped up and will be driving on field trips or monitoring classroom activities. Angela Nuckles is our Dorm Mom and will be spending the whole week with the girls. Amy Anderson is teaching an origami workshop. If you too are interested in being a classroom monitor, there is still time to sign-up! You can choose the date and time and contact Amy Anderson. We are still looking for more newspapers to be used during the 'Build It' night. Do you have newspapers? Please contact Angela Nuckles and she will arrange to pick them up. Our members' commitment to supporting this endeavor both financially and with their time is vital to the program. Thank you!
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AAUW NCCWSL 2023
National Conference for College Women Student Leaders
'Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.' - Muriel Strode, poet
Nahomy Alexandra Morrala sends a huge thank you to everyone at AAUW Marin! Nahomy is in the Barowsky School of Business at Dominican University with three minors, GIE (Global Innovation, and Entrepreneurship), Leadership, and Graphic Design. She is going to blaze a trail!
Nahomy's thank you note to AAUW Marin included "The conference was amazing and an experience I will never forget. It was so refreshing to be in rooms full of successful and driven women.... The lectures were great, the speakers were very well spoken, and super engaging! This was my first solo trip, so aside from all of the new skills I adopted from the lectures, I learned a lot of interpersonal skills such as independence, adaptability, and relationship building."
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Have you renewed your membership?
If you joined AAUW before July 1, 2022, it’s time to renew your membership. You received an email in May from our Membership Chair, Chris O’Neill, with instructions for renewing. Just to review:
You can renew online at www.aauw.org. Click HERE for the "How to Renew Your AAUW Membership Online" instructions prepared by our Treasurer Sue Torres.
OR pay your dues by check. Click HERE for the Dues Renewal Form. Print the form, complete it, and send it along with your check to Sue. Questions? Contact Sue Torres.
Trouble accessing these files? Click HERE for a link to our branch website Join/Renew page.
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Welcome JoAnn Levin!
Carol Lorenz convinced JoAnn to come back to AAUW Marin. JoAnn had been a member many years ago when she first moved to Marin. She describes her childhood as Happy Days, except in Chicago. While married to a physician, JoAnn moved to many places in the country, ending up in San Rafael in 1975. She became a single mother of four children, working as a permanent substitute teacher at Marin Catholic High School. JoAnn left Marin for 10 years, teaching English at Ukiah High School, but eventually moved back to her original home in Marin, where she still resides. JoAnn has performed improv in San Francisco and Marin, loves attending SF Ballet, has done house swaps in England and Paris, and enjoys traveling. Until Covid, she led a music club at OLLI. Her four children and four granddaughters all live in the Bay Area, for which she feels very blessed. JoAnn already knows several of our members and she is looking forward to becoming an active member of AAUW Marin. We are so pleased you’ve rejoined us!
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Meet Marissa and Hillary Major
After hearing Nancy Major, their mother and mother-in-law, talk about the benefits of being an AAUW member, we are so pleased that Marissa and Hillary decided to join us.
Nancy’s daughter, Marissa (on the right), grew up in the Bay Area. A feminist from the start, she helped start the first Novato Lacrosse Club for women, when there had been a men-only club for decades. Marissa is a graduate of UC Hastings Law School, first practicing family law, estate planning, elder abuse litigation and corporate law. She and her wife Hillary moved back to Marin and formed their family law firm Warren Major LLP. Marissa enjoys real estate investment, home improvement, and loves traveling.
Hillary (on the left) grew up in Pennsylvania. After law school at Northwestern, she worked in New York in securities litigation, moved to Sacramento and practiced Indian law, and then moved with Marissa to Marin to establish their law firm. When she has time, you can find Hillary doing crossword puzzles, skiing, reading, writing screenplays, and cruising and traveling.
Both women are busy with their legal work and raising two sons, ages 3 and 1, but make time to be with their extended families. Welcome Marissa and Hillary and we can’t wait to meet you.
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Look for more new member profiles next month..
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Ready to join a new interest group? All groups welcome new members. Just contact the group leader for information or to be added to the group email list. For a list of all Marin branch interest groups with leader contact information, click HERE. Note: Interest Groups are just for members of AAUW Marin, but guests who may be thinking of joining are welcome to visit an interest group twice before being asked join. | |
What to do in July and Beyond?
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GOLF!
Golfers! Let's get together to plan golf outings at McInnis. Contact me if you are interested and we can talk about a weekday morning that suits. Looking forward to getting this group started.
Email me at Hannah Panger or call 650-743-4107.
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Summer Shakespeare
Join us at the July 9th matinee performance of Marin Shakespeare's contemporary version of Hamlet at Forest Meadows. Tickets may be purchased in advance or at the event. Let Nancy Van Horn know if you plan to attend, so she can save seats.
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Non-fiction Reading Group
The Nonfiction Reading Group is meeting Monday, July 24, at 1:00 on Zoom to discuss Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande.If you would like to be on the group’s email list and join us, please email either co-leader for the Zoom link: Phyllis Kuehn or Olivia Ruel The nonfiction reading group meets on the 4th Monday at 1:00 via Zoom and discusses nonfiction books selected by the group members.
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Hiking
Next hike is July 11th! We plan hikes on the first Tuesday and the 3rd weekend of each month with distance and destination determined by the hikers. Please contact Ann Vercoutere if you are interested in joining us.
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LitWits Reading Group
LitWits reads literary fiction by writers from any era or country and will begin the year early on August 30 when we discuss Sinclair Lewis' 1935 novel It Can't Happen Here about the election of a fascist similar to Adolf Hitler to the American presidency. Looking ahead? 2023-2024 we will read 3 novels each by Philip Roth, J.G. Farrell, and Walker Percy. Beginning with Roth's The Plot Against America on September 20. New members are always welcome! Contact group leader Ann Thomas 415-924-9559
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What Are You Reading?
This reading group will meet at the home of Cherie Sorokin on July 7 for a potluck salad lunch. Members will share what they are reading or plan to read over the summer. This group is looking for new members, so if you are interested, this would be great meeting to attend. 11:00 book chat, noon lunch. If you are interested in attending in July or joining the group in the fall, please contact Cherie Sorokin.
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Behind the Headlines
The Behind the Headlines discussion group will not meet in July or August. Contact Cherie Sorokin if you are interested in joining the group in the fall.
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Happy Hour Group
Our next Happy Hour is Thursday, July 13 @ 4:30. Location TBD. If you would like to join the group email list, contact Dottie Burk.
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Meet me at the Movies!
Look for the next outing information in the August newsletter. Want to join us? Contact Mary Mossteller and/or Freddie Greene
Handcraft Circle:
Crafts will meet throughout the summer in members homes on the 3rd Tuesday afternoon unless vacation schedules limit our numbers too much. Bring your own crafts project to work on and join us for lively discussion. Contact Mary Mossteller
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New Yorker Reading Group
The New Yorker Reading Group is not meeting this summer.
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Play Mah Jongg?
The Mah Jongg interest group is taking a break for the summer. We will start again in August. We play weekly on Wednesdays, 1:00-3:00, in members’ homes. If you’re interested in joining us when we resume, contact Chris O’Neill for more information. Don’t miss the opportunity to brush up on your Mah Jongg skills with lessons offered by member Nancy Chiu. See the article below.
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Art Tours
Contact Gerrie Young for new dates and times (please include your cell number) or call 415-497-1247 for more information.
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So Much to Do, So Little Time | |
Take Mah Jongg Lessons
Here’s your chance to practice mah jongg and support AAUW Marin. Member Nancy Chiu will give lessons for members and friends with some familiarity with the game on four consecutive Mondays in July from 1:30 – 3:30 pm starting July 10. Cost is a $10 donation to AAUW Marin per session. Contact Nancy at nc@toolworks.com for more info and the Tiburon location for the lessons. Attendees must be vaccinated. Let Nancy know ASAP, if you want to attend.
Note: Students are recommended to have the 2023 mahjongg card issued by the National Mah Jongg League, which can be purchased online at www.nationalmahjonggleague.org or at local game stores. (If you purchase a mahjongg set, be sure it’s an American mah jongg set.).
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Join Experience Corps
Are you interested in helping a primary grade student improve on reading skills? Experience Corps has an excellent program placing volunteers in several schools in Marin. The program screens, trains, schedules, and makes placements to help volunteers make the most of their experience.
To find out more before the end of this school year, you can shadow a volunteer to see first-hand how your time will benefit students or tour a school with a site coordinator. If you would like to learn more about the opportunity to move ahead with the process this summer, contact Laura Phipps or call/text 415-250-0101.
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Become a Two-Minute Activist!
Even if you aren't currently in Congress, heading the World Trade Organization, inventing the Hubble Telescope or leading a campaign against discrimination, you can make a difference by advocating for issues important to women, girls and families as an AAUW Two-Minute Activist. AAUW makes it easy! You receive all the tools you need to call or send messages to your Congress persons or state legislators. You can use the language provided by AAUW or add your own thoughts, and at the press of a button your message will be on the way. Last year Two-Minute Activists sent over 200,000 messages, which helped ensure lawmakers knew how we felt on issues either under consideration or missing from legislative agendas. If you aren't already a Two-Minute Activist you can become one HERE.
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Domestic Employer Training Opportunity through Hand in Hand
Hand in Hand is a wonderful organization that did a great program for us on the problems domestic workers (housecleaners, home healthcare workers, nannies) face and the need for those of us who employ them to be savvier about their issues. They are offering a training program for those of us who are employers on how to make our homes safer for domestic workers, ourselves and our families. The program is being offered jointly with UC Berkeley's Labor Occupational Health Department. The program will be on Zoom July 10, 5-7. You can register HERE.
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Know Someone Who'd Like to Join AAUW? | |
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AAUW women make an impact on women and girls.
Tell your friends what AAUW is doing. Word of mouth is the best way to recruit new members!
Why Join? AAUW offers you multiple ways to stay engaged with our mission of advancing equity for women and girls, as well as to develop friendship with others who understand that the fight for equality is still critical! Excellent national webinars! Engaging monthly branch programs! A wide variety of interest group meetings! Energetic, intellectually curious friends! A mission that is more important than ever! CONTACT Chris O'Neill for membership information.
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© 2019 AAUW
AAUW is a top-rated 501(c)(3) charity. Donations are tax deductible.
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