SPRINGFIELD-ANNANDALE BRANCH AAUW of VIRGINIA APRIL 2015 UPDATES Presidents’ Notes . . . The Country Club of Fairfax was a swirl of activity on the morning of March 14, 2015. The 14th annual Spring Fling fundraiser was underway! From the Silent Auction to the delicious luncheon to the eagerly awaited speaker, columnist Petula Dvorak, the nearly 185 guests were enjoying themselves. This was indeed the most financially successful Spring Fling yet. It was a pleasure to welcome everyone while celebrating the 60 th anniversary of our Springfield-Annandale branch, Women’s History Month, the recent International Women’s Day, and Pi Day. Some specifics: New to the Silent Auction area were the Cash and Carry items. The luncheon tables were gaily decorated with beautiful flowers and pastel colored napkins. Delightful Petula Dvorak* of the Washington Post gave us a window into her life as a female columnist in this digital age. And we raised a significant amount for the AAUW Funds and AAUW Legal Funds. (*Less than two weeks later, Petula was named a finalist for the Mike Royko Award for Commentary/Column Writing.) Kudos to the many volunteers who made Spring Fling possible, especially Coordinator Ann Sauberman, Auction Chair Nancy O’Day, Auction Administration Chair Mary K Johnson, and Tickets Chair Rose Clark. The other major AAUW activity in March was STEMtastics, the career day event designed to inspire middle school girls to pursue careers in STEM fields (with concurrent informational workshops for their parents.) Several members of our branch, along with representatives from three other Northern Virginia branches, had spent long hours planning for this most successful morning at the NOVA Annandale campus. We who were volunteers on March 21 were amazed at some of the opportunities open to young women today. On the social front during March some of us enjoyed a trip to the National Cathedral for a tour and tea, Dine Around at Afghan Kabob, Movies at Midweek (we saw “Ballet 422”) and the two long-standing Book Groups. There will be similar opportunities in April. We’re excited that our next general meeting, on April 23, showcases the Student Diversity Awards winners from our local high schools at a ceremony at Greenspring Retirement Community. Hope all can attend this 7:00 p.m. annual event. Don’t forget to note Equal Pay Day on April 14, the day women’s earnings finally catch up to men’s from the previous year. If you haven’t taken advantage of our various branch activities in a while, we encourage you to do so. Ginny Wells Co-President Deborah Dodd Co-President vkwells@verizon.net mickdodd@verizon.net 1 NORTHERN DISTRICT NEWS Northern District State Conference The AAUW-VA Conference on 18-19 April is getting close. The conference speakers focus on our state priorities and issues that are relevant to women and girls. There is also some play involved like the Ash-Lawn-Highland tour of James Monroe’s home. Actually, there isn’t enough space to list all the fun events so you just have to come and see for yourself. Don’t miss this opportunity to celebrate AAUW of VA’ 90th anniversary. Get all the information you need at http://aauw-va.aauw.net/ . Equal Pay Day Resolution Northern District Co-Representatives Caroline Pickens and Jeanne Elmore are sending the following letter to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors asking them to support a resolution for Equal Pay Day on April 14. The resolution is attached to these Updates. Dear Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, Attached is a resolution submitted by the eight branches of AAUW (American Association of University Women) that are in Fairfax County: Alexandria, Fairfax City, Falls Church Area, McLean Area, Mt. Vernon, Reston-Herndon, SpringfieldAnnandale, and Vienna Area branches. Together more than 500 women belong to these branches and are your constituents. We are asking the Board of Supervisors to adopt this resolution for Equal Pay Day, which is April 14. As you will see from the resolution, there are numerous reasons for supporting this resolution. We greatly appreciate your consideration and support. Caroline Pickens and Jeanne Elmore Northern District Co-Representatives AAUW of Virginia Voting for AAUW Please be sure to vote for AAUW using the ballot information in your current AAUW Outlook. The instructions are in this Spring/Summer 2015 Outlook. Current Issue: Spring/Summer 2015. If you look at the back cover of your Outlook Magazine, you will find your member number and your voter pin. You need each of those to vote. There is an insert in the Outlook numbered E1 – 20. On E2 the instructions for voting are listed. The following pages list the Public Policy Updates to vote on, then 12 Proposed Bylaw changes, and lastly you need to vote for the President, Vice-President, and select 10 of the 15 candidates for AAUW Director. This is your chance to be heard. Please take the time to do this. Mark your calendar. April 15 Online Voting Begins. Vote early!!!! 2 State Elections and Voting Yes, we have state elections to complete. Voting will begin on April 27 and end on May 27, 2015. You will receive emails to alert you about voting. Do not miss them. They will come from AAUW National and will have AAUW of Virginia Voting in the Subject Line. We have to vote for three candidates, Cyndi Shanahan, VP for Membership and Branch Development, Angela L. Conroy, VP for Finance, and Sherry Warren, Recording Secretary. The email will have your member number and pin. You will need them to vote. Any questions please call me, Mary K Johnson, 703 913-9490. I will walk you through this process if you are struggling. We need at least 7% of the state to vote under our bylaws. I want ALL of Springfield-Annandale members to vote. Mary K Johnson PROGRAM NEWS April 23 Meeting – Annual Diversity Awards April is the month that provides us the opportunity to meet the inspiring high school winners of the Diversity Awards It is definitely one meeting that you will not want to miss. It will be held on Thursday, April 23 at 7:00 PM at the Greenspring Retirement Community. A map of the Greenspring campus is attached to direct you to parking and the meeting room. Here are all the details. The Student Diversity Award Committee has selected our winners for the 2015 award. They are: Kasana Nguyen from Annandale HS, Anastasia Slepukhova from Lake Braddock, Myles Turkson from Lee HS, and since West Springfield HS did not put forward any applications this year, the committee chose another student from among the applications submitted by the other three schools. Aparna Chera from Lake Braddock will also be honored at the ceremony. Myles Turkson is the first male to ever win this honor in the 15 years that the award has been given. Kasana was chosen for the work she has done at the Leewood Health Center and her leadership with Annandale’s Softball team. Anastasia is being honored for her work writing and directing a video to be used in Fairfax County Schools educating students about the many holidays and cultural events that fellow students observe in the hopes of helping each other to understand and appreciate their differences and similarities. Myles won the award for his work in creating a nonprofit organization, “Cleats for Africa”, that supplies athletic equipment to young children in Ghana. Aparna will receive her award for her work with an orphanage in Chennai India. The committee will be meeting these students on April 6th for a dessert evening to prepare them for the awards ceremony which will be held Thursday, April 23 at 7pm at the Accotink Room in the Village Square section of the Greenspring facility. Once again the Apple Federal Credit Union has donated a monetary award for this event and will send Dawn Davis, an officer with the Credit Union to say a few words at the ceremony. We hope to see all our members at this event. Debbie Bullock Diversity Committee Chair 3 May 21 Program – Manzanar and one Family’s Experiences The Thursday, May 21 meeting will take place at 7:00 PM at the Braddock District Supervisor’s Office in Kings Park. We are pleased to have as our speaker, Elaine McCarthy. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, all those of Japanese descent living along the west coast of the Americas were uprooted and evacuated to relocation camps. Manzanar, in California, was one of those camps, the one where Elaine McCarthy was born. She will speak to the significant historical backdrop of the internment experience. Then, fill it with personal accounts about what the historical documents and books don't tell you -about the human stories during that time. Some are humorous, some tragic, and all interesting. Movies At Midweek Save the 4th Wednesday of April, April 22, for another morning movie in our ongoing MOVIES AT MIDWEEK at Cinema Arts. We'll again lunch and discuss the movie at First Watch, also in the Fair City Mall shopping center. Check your e-mail the Friday before to catch which movie was chosen and the time. We'll meet near the ticket booth shortly before the scheduled showing. See you at the movies! Dine Around The April Dine Around will be held on Monday, April 27 at 5:30PM at the popular Spartans Family Restaurant located in the Burke Village Center 9542 Burke Road Burke, VA. Please call Linda Kamen at 703 451-5109 by Saturday, April 25 if you plan to attend. STEMtastics On Saturday, March 21, our branch partnered with McLean, Fairfax City, and Vienna branches to sponsor STEMtastics, a career day event designed to inspire middle school girls to pursue careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields. STEMtastics 2015 was held at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale. Female presenters led hands-on STEM-related workshops for students, and parents attended informational workshops on topics such as high school resources and college financing. Approximately 30 presenters, 300 middle school students and 50 volunteers came together to make it a successful and enjoyable event. We want to especially thank our many member volunteers who made the day possible. Ann Sauberman, Susan Burk and Ginger Caress STEMtastics Committee 4 PUBLIC POLICY Equal Pay Day Equal Pay Day is April 14! Equal Pay Day is the symbolic day when women’s earnings will “catch up” to men’s earnings from the year before. There is good news and there is bad news. AAUW’s report "Graduating to a Pay Gap” found an unexplainable 7 percent difference in the earnings of male and female college graduates one year after graduation, even after accounting for many factors including college major, occupation, industry, sector, hours worked, workplace flexibility, experience, educational attainment, enrollment status, GPA, college selectivity, age, race/ethnicity, region, marital stats, and motherhood. Clearly the wage gap exists. On March, cloture on a Senate motion to proceed on the Paycheck Fairness Act was rejected by a margin of 7 votes (the vote was largely on party lines). The good news is that both Senators Kaine and Warner voted in support of the bill. The Paycheck Fairness Act was introduced one year ago on April 1, 2014 and sponsored by outgoing Maryland Senator Barbara Mikulski. The other good news is that we distributed a large number of copies of AAUW’s report “The Simple Truth About the Gender Pay Gap” during the STEMtastics event at NOVA recently. So, hopefully, many more people with daughters now have information they may not have had before. If you have family or friends in other states, please let them know about this and encourage them to find out how their senators voted and encourage them to support this important legislation. Equal Pay Day Event at George Mason University The Sojourner Truth Lecture will take place on Tuesday, April 14 (Equal Pay Day) from 1:30 – 2:30 PM at George Mason University in the Johnson Center Room E #334. Dorothy Roberts, Professor of Law and Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania will present the lecture entitled “The Biopolitics of Policing Black Women’s Bodies”. A book signing and reception will follow. For more information, call 703 993-2896. Federal Lobby Day Please note that the date for this year’s Federal Lobby Day, which is held under the auspices of the AAUW Lobby Corps, has been changed to Thursday, May 14, 2015. AAUW of Virginia members will be matched up with experienced Lobby Corps members and assigned Congressional offices to visit that day to lobby about legislation. Although it is too early for the schedule to be finalized, please anticipate that we will be getting an early start that day. This is a fun and eye-opening way to promote AAUW’s priorities. Please let Susan Burk know by April 23 if you plan to participate this year, and provide the name of your congressperson. Susan Burk Public Policy Chair 5 IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER  Tuesday April 14 Equal Pay Day  Tuesday April 14 Sojourner Truth Lecture at GMU 1:30 PM  Wednesday April 15 AAUW National Voting Begins  Wednesday April 22 Movies At Midweek Cinema Arts Fairfax AM  Thursday April 23 Diversity Awards Greenspring 7:00 PM  Monday April 27 Dine Around Spartans Family Restaurant 5:30 PM  Monday April 27 AAUW of VA Voting Begins  Thursday May 21 General Meeting Braddock District Supervisor’s Office 7:00 PM The AAUW Mission Statement: AAUW advances equity for women and girls through advocacy, education, and research. 6