2016-2017 Summary of Branch Activities

by Carolyn Smith

Although the main programs of our Branch are from September-May, Branch members are usually busy with AAUW-focused activities during the summer months, as was true over the summer of 2016:

• On June 2, Marjorie Broward, Pat DeWitt, and Susan Cornehl attended the Florida Times-Union’s first EVE Women’s Summit, a set of panel and roundtable discussions on how to encourage and help women in Northeast Florida achieve and maintain high leadership positions. Marjorie was added at that time to join the committee that grew out of that summit and has been working from that time on preparing the research and programming for the EVE Women’s Summit, scheduled for September 2017.
• Kimberly Beasley was also busy over the summer working on this same goal of leadership by organizing for this area the AAUW-affiliate YWTF (Young Women’s Task Force –founded in 2004 and affiliated with AAUW in 2013).
• From June to August, too, members were in various ways making sure that friends and family members were duly registered for and voting in the August state and local primary, August 25, 2016, as well as in the November election.

Thanks to Program Director Marjorie Broward, the programs Sept- May, 2016-17, were fascinating, provocative, and energizing.

• Under Marjorie’s urging and that of Carolyn Hall, members agreed to start each of our programs when possible with a short review of a book, preferably one from AAUW’s recommended 2016-17 book list Adelante, or a related book, fiction or non-fiction, relevant to AAUW-issues. Among our book reviewers: Marian Bunch, on Amy Elles’s Becoming Nicole; Carolyn Smith, on Louise Erdrich’s The Round House and a related non-fiction book by Sarah Deer; Kimberly Beasley, The Confidence Code, by Kati Kay and Claire Shipman; and Faith Schofield on Sisters in Law by Linda Hirshman.
• Our September program was focused on AAUW’s national STEM focus, with our speaker as Robert Copeland, Executive Director of Northeast Florida STEM2 HUB (science, technology, engineering, math, medicine). He explained that the main goal currently of this non-profit group is to encourage and train K-12 students, girls as well as boys, to be encouraged and trained to fill the pipeline for jobs in this area and elsewhere in STEM2 fields.
• Our October, program was focused on another AAUW focus, women in leadership roles, and on this issue, our speaker was Tia Mitchell, who has a high position in the field of journalism as the Florida Times-Union’s main political reporter. She talked about her experiences as a woman and as a minority woman in her field, from reporting on the Sheriff’s office to the Duval Schools, Jacksonville City Council, and then to her current position as The Times-Union State Bureau Chief and her “View from Tallahassee” columns.
• For the November meeting, member Faith Schonfeld carefully researched the opportunities for financial literacy training for women in Jacksonville, primarily to ascertain if the Branch should promote an AAUW WorkSmart workshop. She introduced as guest speaker Martha Cox, of Family Foundations of Northeast Florida, to help expand our understanding of financial issues affecting women, especially those needed to get out of poverty, including financial skills as well as a living wage job, affordable transportation and child care, and freedom or protection from criminal activity and legal injustices.
• In December, thanks to planning by Program Director Marjorie Broward and her committee, we celebrated our 90^th anniversary as a Branch with a luncheon with invited guests at Bistro Aix. Our speaker was Dorothy K. Fletcher, author of books on places and people in Jacksonville’s history. She focused in particular on what events and people of note occurred in Jacksonville at the time of the Branch’s founding (February 1926). Kimberly Beasley sang songs from that era, and Marjorie and Carolyn Hall had a table with pictures and other memorabilia of the Branch’s history.
• In January, as in November, the focus was on financial issues affecting women. The January speaker was Dr. Mary Gatta, Associate Professor of Sociology at CUNY, on her research on the effects of the gender gap and occupational sex segregation on women as they age.
• The focus of the February meeting was STEM, with our sixth year of being involved in the Expanding Your Horizons event for middle school girls. Susan Cornehl was our Branch’s representative on the main planning committee, composed of research women at Johnson and Johnson, UNF’s Women in Engineering, and UNF’s Women’s Center. Besides helping with planning and in various tasks at the event, the Branch again: a) sponsored girls from Girls, Inc., this year 15; b) provided information on STEM books for middle school girls, this year again offering a table of examples of books; and c) offered books as prizes (this year, the choice for prizes was the YA version of Hidden Figures).  Also, this year AAUW-FL had an adjoining table with information about Tech Trek. As in 2014 and 2015, the maximum number of middle school girls that could be accommodated at UNF’s Convention Center (200) attended.
• The focus of the March meeting was a luncheon-panel event at the Garden Center, with another focus on financial issues affecting women, with special attention to the gender gap that still remains since the passage of the Equal Pay Day Act in 1963. The date, March 28, encapsulated March as Women’s History Month and the nearing of April 4, when at last in a year the gender gap begins to close.

Equal Pay Day Lunch and Learn

Over 90 women attended the luncheon and panel event at noon at the Garden Center. This was thanks to Jax-AAUW Program Director Marjorie Broward and others on the planning committee, composed of representatives from the Jacksonville Branches of AAUW and NOW, the Jacksonville Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, the Women’s Center of Jacksonville, and the Women’s Center of UNF.

Audrey Moran, until recently President of the Chanber of Commerce, welcomed attendees and gave a brief history of the status of women since 1963; Pat DeWitt urged calls to Florida legislatures to pass two bills focused on closing the gender gap (HB 319; SB410);   and Juanita Powell-Williams, NOW, introduced the panel of three women speaking on their personal experiences encountering and trying to change the gender gap: Kimberly Beasley (Jacksonville Branch, AAUW); Tashia M. Small (attorney at law, Conroy Simberg); Lori McGraw-Baker( President of Total Awards, Acosta).

• April was a round-up meeting with reports on special events (90^th celebration, STEM-EYH, Equal Pay Event), celebration of our She-roe Nominee (Susan Cornehl), Pat DeWitt’s report on Lobby Day, and nominations of 2017-19 President, Program, and Finance Director. Pat DeWitt, Susan Cornehl, and Carolyn Smith also summarized events at the AAUW-FL Leadership Conference, April 2-3.
• May was the first of the picnics honoring long-time and now deceased member Lydia Payne, one of the Branch’s active members in founding the Friends of the Library and also serving a term as President of AAUW-FL. The Lydia Payne Memorial Picnic was scheduled for the clubhouse connected to the condo building at 6000 San Jose Blvd. overlooking the river. Besides the buffet luncheon and fellowship, the three nominees for 2017-19 officers were elected: Carolyn Smith, President; Anji Easterling, Program Manager; Kathy VanderVliet., Finance Director.

In addition to the speakers and our STEM, Equal Pay Day, and 90^th celebration special events, various Branch members were involved in other events:

1. In October, Kimberly Beasley with several other young women from JU and UNF founded the AAUW-allied group, the Young Women’s Task Force, whose goal in the main is justice for women.
2. In November, at City Hall, at the 50^th anniversary of the founding by AAUW-Jax of the Friends of the Library , member Marjorie Broward was celebrated as a representative of those in the Branch who founded the Friends,  which continues to advocate for the Duval’s library system and raise money for its books and programs. AAUW-Jax has continued to budget financial support for the Friends.
3. In January, various members joined the local Women’s March and carried our AAUW Banner to show solidarity with other women in the March.
4. In January, members Kathy VanderVliet and Faith Schonfeld began work on updating the by-laws and aligning them with national by-laws. Their work was accepted at the April meeting.
5. In March, Branch member, Pat DeWitt, as AAUW-FL Public Policy Director, planned and attended AAUW-FL’s annual Lobby Day (March 14), with highlight in FL’s Capitol Fourth Floor Rotunda, at noon, a rally for Equal Pay for Equal Work, focused on support for two bills closing the gender gap (SB 410; HB319), organized and sponsored by speakers FL Sen. Linda Stewart, House Rep. Lori Berman, and House Democratic Leader Janet Cruz.
6. In April, Branch member Susan Cornehl was honored as the Branch’s nominee chosen to be one of the She-roes of 2017 by the Women’s Center of Jacksonville.
7. For each monthly newsletter, Pat DeWitt, AAUW-FL State Public Policy Director, and Carolyn Smith, Branch Public Policy Director, summarized local, state, and national bills related to AAUW-supported issues and urged members to vote in support of or protest against a bill and how to do so by way of calls, e-mails, or the two-minute activist section of aauw.org.