A Year for the History Books
Co-presidents Jeane Caveness and Stelet Kim
As Long Beach enters the Yellow Tier and we approach month 15 of the pandemic, how are you feeling? Weary & wary? Eager to travel and gather with friends and family? Wanting to hug everyone you meet? We share those feelings. And as we approach the end of our term as Pandemic (Co-) Presidents, we want to celebrate with you the measurable successes resulting from our 2020-2021 strategic plan:
- To advance equity for women & girls in our community, two new projects were just approved by the Board of Directors! GovTrek for high schoolers and a Career Development Workshop focused on professionals with 5-10 years of work experience
- To strengthen branch governance and sustainability, we conducted a thorough audit and updating of board leadership position descriptions
- To understand the characteristics of our membership, we administered a member survey and analyzed results, providing branch leadership with much data to help inform our decisions and priorities. Kudos to the collaborative efforts of the Membership Committee and Diversity & Inclusion for developing the survey.
- To improve technology use, our ad hoc Zoom Committee helped us quickly convert to an all-virtual setting last March and investigate ways to provide closed captioning for more inclusive meetings. Special thanks to our ad hoc Zoom Manager Tobi Balma, who continually endeavored to learn new skills in support of our branch’s success.
- To deepen and widen our understanding of diversity & inclusion (D&I), we identified & shared resources on diversity and anti-racism and discussed the AAUW membership degree requirement and its implications on diversity & equity. Our utmost gratitude to: Mary Ann Takemoto, who initiated the D&I Committee, and to the committee who led us in self-reflection on our road to intentional inclusion and active anti-racism; Membership VP Dee Dee Catalano and Committee for thoughtfully aligning membership growth strategies with our desire for our branch to reflect the diversity of Long Beach; to Program VP Herlinda Chico, who underscored the importance of diverse voices by presenting a year of outstanding, thought-provoking programs emphasizing equity and civic participation.
- To put our money where our mouths are, we, thanks to Herlinda Chico and several members’ generosity, now have a fund for fully or partially subsidized membership for prospective members whose circumstances prevent being able to pay for membership dues
- To improve branch & program visibility, a roadmap was developed for improving our external partnerships and communications thanks to our Communications Coordinator Terri Armstrong
- To answer national AAUW’s challenge to all branches, we applied for the Five-Star Award Program and anticipate a positive response in June
- To address the interests and needs of the newest generations of our members (Millennials and Generation Xers), formation of a new interest group has begun
We accomplished a lot in a most challenging year – and of course, as always, there is still much to address. Our hope is that AAUW as a national organization will evolve in the ways that welcomes ALL women – and men – into our movement. We hope that our branch will continue to find active, tangible ways to achieve gender equity for women & girls in our community. And we hope that each of us will resolve to do what we can to re-examine our beliefs and to dismantle systemic barriers to true equity in our society, gender and beyond.
Thank you all for your support, flexibility, and creativity this year. We are thrilled to pass the torch to Co-Presidents Ginny Baxter & Charlotte Joseph, who have exciting plans for the near future, including a hybrid meeting model to keep inclusion at the forefront. Join us on Saturday, June 5, 2021 for our final meeting of the year and installation of new officers.
New Co-Presidents Ginny Baxter & Charlotte Joseph
Signing off in appreciation and solidarity,
Stelet Kim & Jeane Relleve Caveness, Ph.D.
AAUW Long Beach Branch Co-Presidents