Excerpt from Gail Parson’s enthusiastic email following the Regional Conference:
…Arrived home at 7pm (June 24th following the Regional Conference) and honestly it was such a engaging, gripping, and informative conference, my brain is on overload. Other attendees will attest to this. We had 12 hours of input and dialogue on Saturday followed by another intense 3 hours on Sunday. The dinner speaker, Kim Churches, AAUW CEO, is a visionary, dynamic leader, and a pragmatic task master. Just what we need at this juncture. The content was impactful and honestly leaves me energized as to what we can begin to do as compared to what the other states are doing in our region. I want to frame the message as how we need to re-engage in AZ with the AAUW mission which has just been redefined in the last few days at the national level. National has innovative ideas about how we redefine membership moving forward as compared to the current branch structure. More to follow…
Report on 2018 AAUW Regional Conference
AAUW Utah hosted an impactful regional conference on June 22-24. 2018. The three day program included comprehensive updates from Julia Brown, Chair, AAUW Board of Directors, and Kim Churches, AAUW CEO. Arizona was well represented with seven in attendance from four branches. The gathering was informational and inspirational; it also created a sense of immediacy as to how AAUW needs to evolve to ensure its viability in the long term.
A wide range of topics were received by an enthusiastic and engaged audience. Several of the segments ran over the allotted time because of heightened participation. The conference chair was nimble about rearranging the schedule. The complete program was delivered as promised.
State reports included:
- Sexual Assault, Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment – A panel discussion led by a District Attorney, Certified Sexual Assault Counselor/Victim Advocate, Juvenile Defender Attorney, and a UCASA Prevention Program Manager. (Utah)
- The Power of Empowerment (Wyoming)
- How is AAUW Growing and Changing (Colorado)
- Efforts to Pass ERA (Arizona)
- Effects of Statewide Project “Tech Trek Camp” in Public & Corporate Awareness (New Mexico)
- Successful Scholarship Fund Raising (Utah)
Susan Landino, LAF Plaintiff, gave a riveting personal account of the retaliation she experienced at Yale University following her notification to university leadership that sexual assault statistic tallying was non-compliant under Title IX and the Clery Act. With the help of AAUW LAF, she is the first non-sports related university administrator to file a Jackson v Birmingham Title IX retaliation complaint. In addition to the settlement of her complaint, Yale was fined for falsifying sexual assault crime statistics by the Department of Education.
Kim Churches was Saturday’s night keynote speaker. She spoke about the newly approved Strategic Plan that provides a new statement of AAUW’s Mission, Vision and Values. This will be shared nationwide shortly. Kim explained her restructuring of the National Leadership team (From 15 VPs to 5 direct reports; staff reduction from 109 to 89) and the institutionalization of organizational focus, relevance and financial solvency.
submitted by Gail Parsons