May 2023

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PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE FROM CELIA

This is my last formal article as branch president. I will, however, be sending some emails later in May and in June to remind you of upcoming events in June and to encourage your attendance and participation. (See the following separate articles about our installation and planning meeting.)

Thank you to Cathy and Faith for arranging for the very interesting speakers at our April meeting. The focus was on women who worked in non-traditional fields for women. It was very interesting that they thanked us, and women like most of us of a “certain age,” for paving the path for them to be able to do what they have done.

Also, at our April meeting, we elected officers for the coming year. A giant thank you to Joan P. and Gail for taking a big step forward for our branch and agreeing to be its co-administrators for the coming year and an on-going thank you to Chris and Marilyn to continue, respectively, as our secretary and treasurer. We still will need volunteers to facilitate one or two programs each (or in pairs), look for ways to increase our membership and facilitate fundraising for the AAUW Fund. These do not need to be year-long commitments. Your help will be asked for at our May meeting and June planning gathering.

Speaking of May, I look forward to our meeting when we will be able to meet and hear from the women who were chosen by the Academic Achievement Awards committee to be the recipients of this year’s branch recognition. Joan P. told us at the April meeting that they have amazing stories to tell about themselves.

A big thank you to our 2022-23 board for all of their hard work in keeping our branch going and in providing our members with those things that are important in our AAUW lives: Cathy and Faith (Program), Jackie and Saurabh (Membership), Sue and Tobi (Fund), Chris (Secretary), Marilyn (Treasurer/Bulletin/Website/Bylaws), Sondra (Public Policy), Joan P. (Academic Achievement Awards), Jackie (International Interests) and Tobi (College/University Relations). Thanks also to those in support and interest group coordinator positions: Ceci (Hospitality); Sue. C, Pat and Joyce (Telephone Tree); Thea (Cover to Cover); Dorothy (Great Decisions); Gail and Joan P. (Gourmet) and Jackie and Celia (Readers Theater).

I have enjoyed this year as your president and appreciate your willingness to try a new branch leadership structure for the 2023-24 year to ensure that La Palma-Cerritos AAUW continues to exist. As I mentioned at the installation a year ago, I served as branch president in 1979-80, 43 years ago. I certainly will not be doing so in 43 years. Who knows what any AAUW branch leadership will look like in 43 years.

May birthday greetings to Edna, Joan P. and Chris; and June wishes to Esther and Diane.

INSTALLATION

The installation of our elected officers for 2023-24, along with recognition of our 2022-23 branch board and our named gift honoree/s, will be Saturday, June 3, at 1 pm at the same location as last year.

Mimi’s Cafe
4404 Candlewood (just east of Lakewood Boulevard)
Lakewood

Like last year, you will be able to choose directly from the regular menu. A lunch type entree and non-alcoholic beverage, plus tax and tip, will be $25 to $30. You can pay by cash or check (payable to the branch). Marilyn will collect your money at the restaurant and then pay by branch credit card for the total. If you order an alcoholic beverage, you will need to pay for that separately with the server.

If you did not sign up at the April meeting to attend nor will not be at the May meeting to do so, please contact hospitality chair Ceci at borjavan@yahoo.com to let her know you are coming so that she can give the restaurant a count for their set up.

ANNUAL BRANCH PLANNING MEETING

The planning meeting for our 2023-34 year will be on Saturday, June 24, from 11 am to 4 pm in the building at Heritage Park in Cerritos at 18600 Bloomfield Avenue, across from the Cerritos High School parking lot. Lunch will be provided.

There will be a sign up at the May meeting and at our installation on June 3. If you are not able to attend either of those to sign up, please let Marilyn know by June 20 if you plan to attend. We hope to have as many members as possible there to help map out how those things that are important to our members (based on the survey results) will be available for them to attend. We need your ideas as well as your willingness to be a leader in implementing them.

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).

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

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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.

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Meeting & Program, Faith & Cathy
Wednesday, May 17

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

You are cordially invited to attend the Regular Monthly Meeting to celebrate the recipients of our Academic Achievement Awards

Sincerely, the Academic Achievement Award Committee:
Joan P., Chair: Gail R., Sue C., Sue S., Harriet M., Faith H., Nancy K.

PLEASE PAY MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL DUES, $113

Face masks recommended in Cerritos facilities.

Please note: All our meetings comply with local rules and the accepted health guidance of Los Angeles and Orange counties for in-person meetings. Your board voted unanimously in November to hold board and general meetings in-person with due respect to members who do not wish to attend in-person. Those 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.

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.

Membership, Saurabh & Jackie

We are looking forward to taking care of services for current membership. In order to increase membership for our branch, we request all members to bring one friend to our meetings. Please welcome our new member at the meeting. Thank you.

Download our Branch Brochure

Download AAUW Membership Application

MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL DUES AND INCREASE – $113

Our AAUW year ends on June 30 and YOUR dues for next year need to be paid and forwarded by me to our National Association and California State before then. Later payments cause a lot of hassle, extra paperwork and processing delays, so please try to pay by the end of MAY. A dues increase on the National portion was approved by AAUW two years ago and this additional $5 is the last “installment” of that increase.

Remember that $69 of that amount is a tax-deductible contribution to AAUW National Association as a reorganized 501(c)3 tax exempt group. Current annual dues now $113, Life Members still $41, Honorary 50-year $21.

Please send your check to Marilyn, written out to La Palma-Cerritos AAUW.

AAUW Fund, Sue, Tobi

Our fundraiser at Black Bear Diner,
Tuesday, May 9th
Raised $136.69 for AAUW Fund
THANK YOU!

$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.

Public Policy, Sondra

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.

2023 – 2025 Proposed Public Policy Priorities (PPP)

MARCH 19, 2023

The AAUW California Public Policy Program establishes policy directives to guide our members, inform our legislative priorities, and serve our mission. Every two years we re-assess these directives to determine if updates need to be made in light of an ever-changing cultural and legislative landscape. Members are invited and encouraged to make suggestions through a statewide survey, which was conducted in Fall of 2022, and resulted in comments from over 466 of our members. The AAUW California Public Policy Committee has reviewed all submitted comments and has incorporated several changes in the proposed 2023-25 PPP for the next two-year period of July 2023 through June 2025.

The proposed changes were presented to and adopted by the AAUW California Board of Directors and will be put to a vote by the membership April 22-May 13, 2023 as required by our bylaws. Thanks to all who submitted comments.

The AAUW California Public Policy Program establishes policy directives that will guide our members, inform our legislative priorities, serve our mission to advance equity for women and girls through advocacy, and are consistent with our values of achieving fair and equitable opportunities for our diverse society. Toward that end, AAUW California advocates policies that promote, enhance and ensure:

Economic Security for All Women, including:

Equity in the workplace
Enforcement of workplace anti-discrimination statutes
Security in retirement
Access to job training for career development
Work-life balance, including access to quality affordable childcare and paid sick and care-giving leave

Equal Access to Quality Public Education for All Students, including:

Vigorous enforcement of Title IX
Adequate and equitable funding at all educational levels, including pre-school and post-secondary
Removal of barriers for girls to access instruction in STEM fields
Civics instruction in all CA high schools
Access to diverse staff and curriculum that represents historically accurate information
Funding adequate to support a strong infrastructure, and equitable access to resources, including technology
Opposition to the use of public funds for nonpublic and charter schools that do not meet public school civil rights and accountability standards

Social and Racial Justice for All Members of Society, including:

Self-determination in reproductive health
Equal access to quality affordable health care, housing and a healthy environment
Freedom from violence in all its forms and wherever it occurs, including violence against historically marginalized groups, and support for policies that reduce or prevent gun violence
Guarantee of civil and constitutional rights for all, including all forms of gender identity and expression, and all family structures
Protection and expansion of voting rights
Support for United Nations sustainable development goals which address human rights and women’s and girls’ concerns

Increased Representation of Women in Leadership Roles, including:

Proportional appointment to publicly-held corporate boards
Access to leadership skills training
Access to programs that promote participation in public service careers
Melissa Maceyko, Member AAUW California Public Policy Committee

Each year on March 31, the world observes Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV) to raise awareness about transgender people. It is a day to celebrate the lives and contributions of trans people, while also drawing attention to the poverty, discrimination, and violence the community faces.

We understand how women’s history tells the story of misogyny, which is the systemic mistreatment of women, girls, and feminine peoples through forms of physical and structural violence. But we rarely consider how it is linked to transmisogyny, which focuses on the complex intersections between transphobia and misogyny that are faced by trans women and girls, as well as trans-feminine and gender non-conforming peoples. It is a term that attempts to capture multiple layers of gender-based marginalization and systemic mistreatment. If misogyny and transmisogyny are not combatted together, then the root of the problem will never truly be eradicated.

Although the past decade has seen a more vocal public push for diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives around gender, the current sociopolitical climate in the United States is not supportive of, and is often openly hostile to, transgender and gender non-conforming individuals. Under this sphere of increased hostility is the explicit targeting of trans women and girls and trans-feminine peoples with words, actions, and legislation. It is particularly important for women’s organizations who seek to combat gender-based forms of oppression to build coalitions and take a stand against misogyny and transmisogyny in all its forms, because misogyny and transmisogyny come from the same place. They both describe gender-based oppression that results from the prioritization of masculinity alongside the degradation of femininity.

Targeted hostility against trans women and girls and trans-feminine peoples can be seen not only in the alarming uptick in physical violence against this community, but also in the increasing persistence and intensity of public debates over whether or not trans women and girls and trans-feminine peoples are “real women” that belong in “women’s spaces,” including gender-specific bathrooms, women’s sports teams, and locker rooms. These debates prioritize misplaced and misunderstood claims of biological authenticity. They are dehumanizing and cannot be disconnected from other forms of violence as they normalize widespread and explicit marginalization and exclusion.

As a women’s organization, the increasingly hostile environment for trans women and girls and trans-feminine people should be at the forefront of our collective education and activism – let’s help ensure that history doesn’t continue to repeat itself. Visit the Public Policy website to learn more.

Academic Achievement Awards, Joan P

Pictured at the La Palma-Cerritos AAUW Academic Recognition and Awards Program on May 17, 2023, are, left to right, are Cerritos College Board of Trustees President Dr. Shin Liu, Cerritos College Professor of Communications Dawn Trickett, Cerritos College Director of Diversity, Compliance, and Title IX Erin Miles, Academic Awards Chair Joan Pylman, Award winners Sofia Heejae Chun and Leidy Barrios, Awards Selection Committee Member Gail Ross, Cerritos College Foundation Executive Director Martha Pellayo, and Cerritos College Executive Assistant to the President/Superintendent Andrea Wittig.

Women Supporting Women. It is a beautiful thing.

TECH TREK

The two girls we sponsored for Tech Trek 2022 who attended camp at Whittier College in June were recently recognized by their school districts and, in the case of the Walker student, by the City of La Palma. Kristen V., an eighth grader at Walker Jr. High, was recognized on October 13 at a meeting of the Anaheim Union High School District board and on October 4 at a meeting of the La Palma City Council. Lyanne, an eighth grader at Ross Middle School in the ABCUSD, was recognized on November 1 at a meeting of the ABCUSD board. Both girls gave presentations about their experiences at Tech Trek. Past branch Tech Trek co-coordinator Edna Ethington attended the meetings with Kristen and branch president Celia attended the ABC meeting with Lyanne. Tobi Balma attended the two school district meetings to facilitate the girls’ presentations. Photos of the events follow.

ABC Board Meeting honoring Lyanne G. with Tobi and Celia.

La Palma City Council meeting honoring Kristen V with Edna.

Anaheim Union HSD meeting honoring Kristen V. with Tobi.

Su Casa, Joan Pylman

A big shout out to our members for their support of Su Casa. Our Holiday Wish List Drive was very successful. 28 members gave generously including 14 who gave numerous gift cards and 14 who gave goods including blankets, diapers, toiletries, children’s clothing, games and toys. All items were delivered on December 19^th. If you missed the deadline, you can still donate through the Su Casa website.

Thank you for your support and generosity. La Palma Cerritos AAUW cares for women.

International Issues, Jackie Shahzadi

…through its global focus and reach, empowers all women and girls to create a secure and just world built on education, advocacy, friendship and mutual respect.