La Palma-Cerritos AAUW
Board Meeting Minutes
January 4, 2024
- Call to Order Co Administrator Gail Ross called the meeting to order at her home at 7:02pm.
In attendance: Sue Carruthers, Karen Cox, *Marilyn Forsstrom, Faith Herschler, *Gail Ross, Jackie Shahzadi, Thea Siegel, Celia Spitzer, *Chris Taxier
Attendance: 9 (*3 elected board members)
- The Minutes from the November 2 Board Meeting were approved as submitted.
- The Treasurer’s Reports dated December 31, 2023 were submitted by Marilyn Forsstrom which were unanimously accepted.
Balances: General Account: $7,117.79
Fund Account: $ 623.64
- Elected Officer Reports
Co-Administrators – Gail inquired if the current officers were interested in continuing in their same roles for 2024-25. Marilyn and Chris both stated that they would be willing to continue in their respective offices. Gail stated that she and Joan Pylman would be stepping down at the end of this year as co-Administrators and asked if there was anyone who would be willing to take over in their roles. The same question will be brought to the general membership at our next meeting.
Gail announced that our new meeting place will be at the ABC Unified School District Adult School site on Cabrillo Lane and Del Amo. There will be no charge for using that facility.
Program Facilitators – The January program will be facilitated by Faith Herschler and Karen Cox. The speaker will be Dr. Frances Marquez who is a mentor and a teacher of the deaf. She earned her PhD at Claremont Graduate School in 1995. Her goal is to encourage more young, deaf people to become involved in government.
The February Fund Luncheon is being planned by Thea Siegel and Sue Carruthers. Thea stated that the luncheon will be held at the Panda Inn in La Palma on February 13 at 12pm. The cost will be $30 which includes the meal, tax and tip, and an approximate $10 donation to the AAUW Fund.
- Appointed Officer Reports
Public Policy – In the absence of Sondra Cohen, Celia Spitzer spoke about her participation in a Two-Minute Activist message sent to Senators Padilla and Butler and Congresswoman Steel regarding SB 701 “Women’s Health Protection Act”. Sen. Padilla sent an informative response back to her addressing additional information about the bill and what he was doing in Congress to help protect women’s health.
International Relations – Jackie Shahzadi spoke about Women First International and the wonderful work they do globally. The descriptions and color photos in their newsletters present how this organization funds worthwhile projects to help women improve their lives and communities around the world.
- Announcements
Our January General Meeting will be held on Thursday, January 18 at 6:30 pm in the auditorium at the ABC Unified School District Adult School site at 20122 Cabrillo Lane, one block east of Pioneer Boulevard, adjacent to Del Amo.
Our February Board Meeting is scheduled for Thursday, February 1. The time and place are yet to be determined.
- Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 7:48 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Christine Taxier, Secretary
Note: These minutes have not yet been approved.
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La Palma-Cerritos AAUW
General Meeting Minutes
March 21, 2024
- Call to order
Co-Administrator Joan Pylman called the meeting to order in the auditorium of the ABC Unified School District Cabrillo Lane Adult School site at 7:05 pm.
Attendance: 20 (including the speaker and a guest)
- Business Meeting
Joan Pylman announced that there are two March birthdays among our branch members: Celia Spitzer and Sue Solomon. - The Minutes for the January 18 General Meeting were passed around on a clipboard and read. Three signatures were obtained to approve the Minutes as submitted.
- The Treasurer’s Reports dated February 29, 2024 were accepted as submitted.
General Account: $7,380.84
Fund Account: $1,646.92
- Reports
Academic Achievement Awards – Joan Pylman reported on the membership of the Awards Committee: Dorothy Edwards, Gail Ross, Edna Ethington, Fern Michaelson, Ceci Borja-VanZitter, and Joan Pylman. They have already met and read the applications submitted from Cerritos College. The Committee will then select two recipients who will be recognized for their outstanding work – a transfer student to a four-year college or university, and a re-entry student after having been out of school for at least four years.
An Award Ceremony will be held in April.
Membership – Joan Flax introduced her guest who joined us.
Walk for Women – Joan Pylman invited everyone in our branch to join the Artesia-Cerritos Soroptimists tomorrow (March 22) at 10:45 am in a walk from the Cerritos Town Center to the Cerritos Library to celebrate the recent renaming of three of the six library study rooms. They are now named after important women in the STEM fields: Marie Curie, Katherine Johnson, and Chien-Shiung Wu. This is in conjunction with a celebration of Women’s History Month.
Great Decisions – Dorothy Edwards announced that the next meeting will take place at 1:00 pm on Wednesday, March 27 at her house.
Legal Advocacy Fund (LAF) – Tobi Balma announced that the California Online Branch has invited Aileen Rizo as a guest speaker on March 23, at 2pm on Zoom. As one of the litigants supported by LAF, Ms. Rizo’s case went all the way to the Supreme Court and won equal pay for women in the workplace. She will speak about her experiences and how she helped bring about changes in California law. Tobi will provide the Zoom link.
Tobi also reminded members to vote on the proposed changes to the National Bylaws.
Readers Theater – Esther Aronson announced that we may meet in the afternoon starting next year.
International Interests – Jackie Shahzadi wished everyone a Happy Persian New Year, first in Farsi and then in English.
- March Program – Tobi introduced our speaker Jodi Balma, Professor of Political Science at Fullerton College. Using a PowerPoint presentation, Jodi spoke about “Reproductive Rights – Abortion Post-Dobbs”. She explained how the Supreme Court’s decision in 2022 has impacted access to reproductive health in many ways, including abortion, medications, in vitro fertilization, and travel to safe states. Ob/gyn doctors- fearful of being prosecuted – are leaving their practices or taking early retirement. LGBTQ rights are also under attack.
- Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 8:20 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Secretary, Christine Taxier
Note: These minutes have not yet been approved.
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La Palma-Cerritos AAUW
Planning Meeting Notes
June 24, 2023
- Welcome
On behalf of incoming co-Administrators Joan Pylman and Gail Ross (who were out of town), outgoing President Celia Spitzer welcomed everyone at 11:15 am at Heritage Park in Cerritos.
In attendance: Esther Aronson, Tobi Balma, Sue Carruthers, Karen Cox, Dorothy Edwards, Marilyn Forsstrom, Faith Herschler, Harriet Moses, Jackie Shahzadi, Thea Siegel, Celia Spitzer, Chris Taxier
Attendance: 12
- Ice Breaker
Each attendee introduced herself and described how she would contribute to the branch this next year. Celia led an ice breaker activity about body part replacements. - Review of Folder Contents
Chris reviewed the contents of the folders which she had prepared for today’s meeting. Included were today’s agenda, copies of survey documents and results, a proposed calendar, and a “Now for the New” project related to Equality California. The folder also contained copies of AAUW public policy priorities for National and California as well as other documents from our local Branch.
- Proposed changes from previous years
Tech Trek – We discussed whether to resume direct selection of Tech Trek campers from our branch. Since no one was willing to be in charge, it was decided not to do so, but still support Tech Trek financially. Tobi explained why she didn’t think it was a good idea to continue sending campers to the Whittier Camp. Several of us also commented on the news reports of the financial difficulties of Whittier College and related concerns. An additional issue has been the rising cost for sponsoring each girl to attend camp.
Celia reminded us that our branch has already sent $300 to the California AAUW Tech Trek Fund (SPF). We also have $152 in our branch account designated for Tech Trek which could be eventually moved to SPF, resulting in a total of $452 in our SPF Tech Trek account.
Tobi reported that Long Beach AAUW sent a large number of girls to Tech Trek camps this year. Harriet suggested that we might ask the Long Beach Branch to consider including one or two girls from the ABC Unified School District as part of their selection process. We could send our Tech Trek funds to that branch to support that process. Tobi said that she would talk to the Tech Trek Chair in that branch.
- New Branch Board – The new Executive Board consists of three elected positions, currently with four people: two co-Administrators, a Secretary and a Treasurer. All appointed board positions are filled by the same people as last year. Board meetings will take place with the same frequency as last year, but attendance will be mandatory only for the executive board and the persons in charge of the current month’s and following month’s programs (six total). The board meetings will still be open to other AAUW members to attend. Joan Pylman and Gail Ross will set the agendas and run the business meetings.
Lunch (12:00 pm – 12:45 pm) *Thanks to Marilyn who made the 3 salads, and to Celia who provided fruit, iced tea and sweets!
- Focus and Direction for the Coming Year
We discussed what we wanted to accomplish in 2023-24, including what our focus would be and who would accept short-term leadership roles for the individual programs. Part of our discussion also addressed who would be our audience. We agreed that we wanted to provide interesting and meaningful programs for our branch members, but we also wanted to provide education for the community around us.
These are some of the topics that our members expressed an interest in:
- Reproductive rights (Dobbs Decision)
- Banned books issue, with need to monitor local school boards
- Diversity, including Black and LGBTQ (diversity toolkit on website)
- Climate change
- Title IX (Cerritos College rep.)
- Possible speakers – State Senator Janet Nguyen and Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva) – Public policy priorities?
- Aging – Mental decline / Alzheimer’s
Jackie recited a wonderful quote on diversity:
“Diversity is being asked to the party.
Inclusion is being asked to dance.”
- Need to Monitor Local School Boards Regarding Possible Banning of Books
Although California opposes book banning in our schools, we talked about recent news of some local school boards wrestling with these very issues. Among them are Temecula and Los Alamitos. We agreed to monitor local school districts and watch for threats to ban books in their schools:
ABC Unified School District – Celia
Buena Park School District – Harriet
Cypress Elementary & Anaheim Union High School Districts – Chris
Long Beach Unified School District – Esther, Chris
- Program Ideas
We reviewed the survey results and evaluation results compiled in recent months from our branch membership. With this in mind, we arrived at the following flexible schedule for the year:
FACILITATOR
MONTH RESPONSIBLE PROGRAM
SEPTEMBER Celia Spitzer KICK-OFF / POTLUCK
OCTOBER __________ ____________
NOVEMBER Harriet Moses, Book Banning Issue
Thea Siegel
JANUARY Faith Herschler, Climate Change
Karen Cox
FEBRUARY Thea Siegel, FUND LUNCHEON (at a restaurant with Sue Carruthers a Fund recipient speaker)
MARCH Tobi Balma WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH Reproductive Rights (Jodi Balma)
APRIL Joan Pylman ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS;
Branch Election
MAY Jackie Shahzadi, Diversity (includes Black & LBGTQ Pride) Esther Aronson
- Membership
We discussed the desire to get new members, but we also decided to focus more on retaining the members we already have as a priority. Since there is no Membership VP, we will have rotating volunteers to sit at the welcoming/ sign-in table each month. Supplies will be provided for this table: sign-in sheets, name tags for members, name tags for guests, branch brochures and applications. All of these supplies will be kept in a traveling box, which will go from person to person each month. Jackie suggested we call this committee: “Sisterhood of the Traveling Box”!
Marilyn stated that 32 branch members have renewed their membership. There are still three members who have not yet sent in their dues. (Last year we had 39 members in our branch.)
- Annual Budget
Marilyn stated that our branch annual budget will be voted on by the Executive Board in September.
Marilyn reminded us that Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva had given our branch a grant to pay for things like honoraria for guest speakers and special programs. The use of the money is very flexible. We should not be shy about requesting reimbursement for these extras.
- Proposed Calendar
We reviewed the proposed calendar and made several corrections. For “Cover to Cover” on the second Thursday of each month, meetings will start at 1pm, not 12:30pm. For “Great Decisions” on the fourth Wednesday of each month, meetings will start at 6:30pm, not 7pm. For “Readers Theater”, the first meeting will be on Monday, September 4.
- Public Policy
Sondra will provide articles for the website on public policy. We can also find information on the website on Equality California and the fight against book banning.
- Publicity
Cathy Niederman will write monthly articles for two publications about our general meetings. Edna Ethington will continue writing for La Palma Mosaic quarterly. Celia will submit information for the calendar portion of the monthly publication put out by the City of Cerritos. The facilitator who is responsible for a program must notify Cathy, Celia and Edna well enough in advance of the event dates.
- Newsletter / Website
The facilitator who is responsible for an upcoming program should submit an article to Marilyn by the end of the prior month, for our branch online newsletter. On an as-needed basis, articles should be submitted from the chairs of the Academic Achievement Awards, College/University Relations, International Interests, Interest Groups and Public Policy by the end of the month.
- Hospitality
Ceci Borja Van Zitter will continue to do hospitality, but we need to help her, especially in cleaning up at the end of the meetings.
For the set-up of our meeting rooms, Tobi suggested that a template be designed for round table set-up and equipment/technology and podium requirements. Marilyn said that the library already has a template precisely for this purpose.
- Cruise for our Branch?
Before she had left for her trip, Gail Ross had suggested that our branch organize a cruise which could also be a fundraiser.
- Conclusion
The Planning Meeting concluded at 2:40 pm.
Christine Taxier, Secretary