April  2023

** *  *   *    *     *      *     *    *   *  * ** *  *   *    *     *        *     *    *   *  * * *

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE FROM CELIA

Thank you to our members who completed the member survey:  the 21 who did at our March meeting and the four who responded to the email I sent out afterward to those not at the meeting.  A summary of the results follows in a separate article.

Cathy and Faith’s March meeting program celebrating Women’s History Month was wonderful.  Thank you for providing a lot of information about American women who have made a big difference in our lives, many of whom were unfamiliar to us.  The program had three parts.  First, Cathy read the original Congressional proclamation issued in 1987 establishing March as Women’s History Month.  Then the seven Readers Theater members read information about a number of women who have made history in our country, both well known and not.  The third part was a fantastic video “Wild West Women,” a recounting of part of the fight for women’s suffrage in the U.S. with the main focus on its leader, Inez Milholland, who was unknown to us.  Her story is amazing, especially because she literally gave her life in the quest for women to be able to vote.

Our April meeting also should be stimulating and informative.  A number of women who work, or have worked, in non-traditional fields for women will relate what it is like to work in male-dominated professions.  We will return to the Skyline Room at the Cerritos Library but on the second Thursday, April 13, rather than the usual third one.

In addition to the speakers, we will elect officers for 2023-24.  As you know, with the need for leadership restructuring for the coming year, we will vote to fill just three positions:  administrator, secretary and treasurer.  Chris and Marilyn have consented to filling, respectively, the last two.  However, we still need one or two members to serve in the administrator position.  Please contact Chris if you are willing to do so.  The VP positions that have been elected in the past will be filled by appointment from those who volunteer to do the jobs.  There also will be the usual appointed positions to be determined later.  What we do next year will be based on the survey results and who is willing to facilitate those areas of greatest interest.  The composition of what we will call our board will be determined at our branch planning meeting on Saturday, June 24, at Heritage Park in Cerritos.  As always, this gathering is open to all members.  Please save the date.  More details and a sign up to attend will follow in May.

In conclusion, a very happy April birthday to Ceci, Marilyn, Joyce, Mary Ann and Thea.

MEMBER SURVEY RESULTS – MARCH 2023

Here are the results of the survey, completed by 25 of our 39 members, showing how important each of the items are to them.  A few items do not add up to 25 as two people did not evaluate everything.  Following each item are three numbers:  the first is how many 3 ratings it got (essential to continued membership), 2 ratings (want it to continue but not essential to continued branch membership) and 1 ratings (not at all important).

1. General meetings with specific focus: 18, 5, 2
2. Support of AAUW Fund: 11, 14, 0
3. Support of Academic Achievement Awards: 15, 7, 3
4. Being informed about AAUW Public Policy issues: 10, 7, 6
5. Interest groups: 15, 2, 7
6. Candidates forums: 6, 8, 10
7. Tech Trek: 7, 13, 5
8. Refreshments at general meetings: 2, 9, 14

Three people at the March meeting wrote other things that were important to them:  social and community-based member activities; a community outreach to replace Su Casa, possibly volunteering at an elementary school; and Falcons Nest contributions.  A person who was not at the meeting wrote:  “consider merging with another branch” and “asking members for monetary contributions should not be the answer to supporting our projects and funds” since there are “no plans for fundraisers.”

These results will be used to determine where we will focus our energy for 2023-24 at our planning gathering on June 24.

** *  *   *    *     *      *     *    *   *  * ** *  *   *    *     *        *     *    *   *  * **

Reminder to members:  As is written in your directory, the AAUW mail/email list is to be used for AAUW business only.  If you wish to share something personal with selected members, please verify with the members first, if they want to be included.  Members who find themselves receiving email they do not want should feel free to ask to be removed.  We’re all friends here.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Meeting & Program, Faith & Cathy
Thursday, April 13

Cerritos Library, Skyline Room
Social time at 6:30
Program at 7:00 PM,
Business meeting to follow

Our program is a panel of three women who have had non-traditional careers.  Participants are retired Coast Guard Captain, Charlene Downey; retired Los Angeles School Police Sergeant, Cheron Bartee; and a former owner and executive of Frieda’s, Inc., Jackie Wiggins.  Members are encouraged to invite or bring female students, younger relatives or friends to this meeting.  Just let Ceci know if you will have guests, so that enough refreshments can be prepared.

> > > Elections for 2023-24 officers will be held. < < <<

AAUW La Palma-Cerritos Branch Nominating Committee Report       

As you all know, if you attended our March General Meeting or read Celia’s recent letter, our branch is in the process of restructuring our leadership.  During this transitional period, we will have three elected officer positions for our branch. These are the nominations:

Administrator, or two co-Administrators       – OPEN
Secretary                                                         – Chris Taxier
Treasurer                                                        – Marilyn Forsstrom

If you are interested in serving as an Administrator or co-Administrator, please contact me as soon as possible.

The vote for electing our new branch officers will be at our General Meeting on Thursday, April 13, 2023.
~ Chris Taxier, Nominating Committee Member

 

Please note:  All our meetings comply with local rules and the accepted health guidance of Los Angeles and Orange counties for in-person meetings.  Members may choose to easily attend and participate in meetings by connecting via phone to another member in attendance and have been doing so successfully.

From the City of Cerritos:  FACE COVERING IS OPTIONAL. It is strongly recommended, but not required, to wear a face covering when inside any City of Cerritos facility.

Please welcome and support your new officers.  Remember that their job is to lead and encourage other members.  Please offer to help them when they ask.

$50 for 50

A big Thank you to all of you who are contributing to our Celebrating 50 years as a branch by contributing $50.00 or other amounts to our fund fundraiser for the AAUW fund. We shall continue this opportunity to contribute throughout the year. We will continue to celebrate our 50th year by asking each member to contribute at least a $50.00 donation to the AAUW Fund. As we have explained before, AAUW prefers contributions to the Greatest Needs Fund.  However, you can always make designations to any of the AAUW Funds if you wish.  We will have envelopes available at our meetings in 2023 for your convenience.

Looking forward to our dining fundraisers from Pieology and Chipotle that are still in the planning stages, awaiting final dates.

Mooneen Lecce Giving Circle Special Projects Fund (#4229)
Courtesy of Linda Westman, Co-Fund VP Long Beach and Tobi Balma

The Mooneen Lecce Giving Circle (MLGC) honors the memory of longtime AAUW member, Mooneen Lecce who believed deeply in volunteerism and charitable giving. Members of this Circle of philanthropists support strategic, innovative gender equity projects where their gifts will have the greatest impact. It strives to contribute to projects that the current AAUW budget cannot fund.

One project is focused on the question: why so few women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics? To find answers and develop strategies to change this situation, AAUW issued a report that examines the reasons why there are relatively few women in STEM professions funded by the Mooneen Lecce Giving Circle as well as the Eleanor Roosevelt Fund.

The report, Why So Few?: Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics looks at research findings that point to eight environmental and social factors — including stereotypes, gender bias, and the culture of science and engineering departments in colleges and universities — that serve as barriers to women’s participation and progress in STEM professions. The report also contains statistics on girls’ and women’s achievement and participation in STEM areas as well as suggestions for how to make the fields more open
to all individuals. With this knowledge and understanding of the barriers, AAUW with the support of the Mooneen Lecce Fund can develop and implement programs to bring greater equity and representation of women and girls in STEM education and professions.

The MLGC has also been critical in contributing to numerous AAUW research initiatives; including women facing discrimination, AAUW’s Work Smart Online Initiative, “Limiting our Livelihoods” dealing with sexual harassment in the workplace, “The Simple Truth About the Gender Pay Gap,” and the 2020 Get Out the Vote Campaign.

Interested? Please speak with Tobi who is a Giving Circle member. And check out this Video and this link.

AAUW California State Public Policy Committee Sets 2023-24 Legislative Agenda
by Kathi Harper, State Public Policy Chair

The State Public Policy Committee, in conjunction with our Public Policy Advocate Kathy Von Osten (KVO), has completed their selection of the 30 bills that the committee and KVO will be working on this year.  This year our bills fall into the following categories from the 3 pillars of our Public Policy Priorities:

• 8 “Economic Security” bills
• 11 “Public Education” bills
• 21 “Social Justice” bills

• • 8 “reproductive justice”
  • 5 “healthcare”
  • 5 “freedom from violence” including sex exploitation, DV, stalking
  • 1 “gender-identity protection”
  • 2 “voting rights”

The committee then selected our top 3 priority bills, including at least 1 bill which we will co-sponsor (“A” bills).  KVO will spend most of her time working on these bills, including working with the authors’ offices, attending committing hearings, and writing letters of support.  These are also the 3 bills members will advocate for in their Lobby Days visits.  We then selected 3 next-level bills (“B” bills), which are important but not as resource intensive.  The remaining 24 bills will be handled as “C” level bills.  Here is a look at our top 3 bills:

AB1394 – This is our co-sponsored bill.  It would allow victims of child sexual exploitation and trafficking to sue a social media platform for between $1 million and $5 million if the victim can prove the platform design knowingly, recklessly or negligently facilitated the use of code words for sexual predators to describe the type of child and the type of sexual activity that resulted in the act of exploitation.

SB287 – Would prohibit a social media platform from using a design, algorithm, or feature that the platform knows, or should know, causes child users to: purchase fentanyl; inflict harm on themselves or others; develop an eating disorder or engage in dangerous dieting; purposely take their own lives; and/or experience addiction to the social media platform.  A victim of any of these consequences can sue the platform for up to $250,000 for each violation.

AB549 – Requires all state agencies to conduct an evaluation of all their departments to ensure the state does not discriminate against women, and report their findings every 2 years.