Fresno County Branch, our newest branch, consisting of less than 20 members, did their first informational outreach on the campus of California State University Fresno on April 9, 2013 celebrating the unhappy holiday of Equal Pay Day. Over 85% of their members participated in one way or other to make the event a success.

Members purchased PayDay candy bars (labeled with "not fun" facts about pay inequity) as their hook to get the passing students to stop and chat for a few minutes about what Equal Pay Day means and how it affects them.

Along with the on campus team, one member volunteered to handle the  publicity for the event. She was very successful - letter to the editor, large article in the Fresno Bee Business Section on the day of the event and, to top it off, TV news coverage on the most popular channel in the Fresno market!

As they were wrapping up on the day of the event, they were planning to do this event on an annual basis and expanding to their local community college.

The final round of the 2013 Eleanor Stem Allen Speech Trek Contest was held on Saturday, April 20 at the AAUW CA Annual Meeting. The three finalists gave their speeches and the prizes were awarded.

Pictured are (from left): Pavin Trinh, 1st place winner of $1500, (Alhambra-San Gabriel); Tierney Pretzer, 3rd place winner of $500 (Mariposa);  Kaitlyn Schultz, 2nd place winner of $1000 (Oakddale/Escalon/Riverbank)

Gray Allen, sponsor, awarded the prizes and made a few remarks about his wife, Eleanor Stem Allen, in whose memory the contest is named.

Amador Branch wins our March Program of the Month, with their second annual Women’s History Month Essay Contest. Each junior high female contestant wrote an essay on “A Woman I Admire” and as always, they were impressive. 

 Selecting our February Branch Program of the Month was difficult, and we're proud to announce that California Online is the winning branch for an outstanding program on "The Invisible War."

As preparation for the weeklong discussion, interested members signed up for the program listserve and branch program director, Krys Wulff asked these participants to view the documentary on their own, inviting prospective members to join them. For more background, Krys also provided a link to a NY Times blog article with excerpts from an interview with one of the filmmakers, Kirby Dick. The level of engagement of the members was amazing, with 35 members "attending" the program while 16 actually shared opinions and insights. Remember, this program was carried out entirely through the branch's program listserve. Holly Kearl, AAUW LAF Director, also answered questions about the cases in the film and provided links to more details. She also provided a list of actions that can be taken by members inspired by the film. Krys ended the program with a challenge, offering to match participants’ donations to LAF.To date, the on-line branch has raised over $1200 for LAF.

AAUW Branches serve their communities!

The AAUW CA Program Committee is excited to recognize all the branches who celebrated their Holiday branch programs by donating to community charities. Congratulations to all these branches: 

• Nevada County:  KARE Crisis Nursery
• Roseville/So. Placer: County Food Bank
• Gilroy: Community Solutions
• Atascadero: North County Women Resource Center
• Sonora: Mother Lode Food Bank
• Citrus Heights-American River: Camelia Network for kids coming out of Foster Care ( speaker included)
• Los Altos-Mountain View: Community Services Agency
• Livermore/Pleasanton/Dublin: Fundraising for CALWORKS
• San Luis Obispo - Care & Comfort Gift Bags
• Los Gatos-Saratoga:  Commercial Street Inn Shelter & Georgia Travis Center

After publication of the new AAUW report, “Graduating to a Pay Gap,” and the Watch Party at UC Merced, $tart $mart has now been featured in the Business Section of the New York Times. Click HERE to read the article.

Carol Holzgrafe, Tech Trek State Coordinator, announces the 2013 dates for most camps.

Whittier – June 16-22 

Congratulations to the Merced branch for their October program on the Supreme Court featuring Sandra M. Snyder, retired U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge.  She spoke about the book  The Nine:  Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin.  For more information, click HERE.

The AAUW-CA Program Committee has chosen the Benicia-Vallejo branch to be the first "Outstanding Branch Program of the Month." The branch joined with other like-minded organizations in the community to present a free screening of Miss Representation on Thursday, September 20, 2012.

Click HERE for more information.

Phyllis Coven, the Director of District 23, US Citizenship and Immigration Service, was guest speaker at San Fernando Valley's September 15 meeting.  Coven spoke about the challenges of her position and the new Obama initiative, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which allows qualified undocumented immigrants to obtain work authorization for two years and be free of the fear of deportation during that period.

It's estimated that one-third of all such  potential applicants live in California. The branch honored Coven with national and state membership in AAUW.