AAUW, SALISBURY BRANCH
AAUW: Since 1881 AAUW Salisbury Branch: Since 1951
Membership Meeting,
Thursday February 6, 2012 6:30 PM
Trinity Oaks Retirement Community
Second Floor, Special Events Room
Minutes
The AAUW, Salisbury Branch met on Thursday February 6, 2012 at the Trinity Oaks Retirement Community at 6:30 PM in the Special Events Room. The following members were present: Brunetta Franklin, Eileen Hanson-Kelly, Holly Czuba, Kathy Taber, Dixie Scott, Billie Simmons, Kathy Pulliam, Harriet Murphy, Edith Alcorn, Ann Medlin, Linda Hauze, Carol Cody, Becky Hammill, Erma Scarlette, Elaine Stiller, Nicole Sherrill-Corry, Betty Fellows, and Catrelia Hunter. The following members were absent: Billie Simmons, Lori Eberly, Nancy Bilson, Greg Alcorn, Bonnie Hodges, Zebbie Bradley-Bondurant, Norma Goldman, Linda Kesler, Alyce Lanier, Renee McCachren, Lollie Streiff, Jeannie Sherrill, Judy Grissom, Carolyn Blackman, and Donna Wiseman.
Guests were: Kendall Moore and Ruby Walker.
Brunetta Franklin, President welcomed everyone to the meeting and introduced new member Betty Fellows. Betty said that she was with AAUW in the 1950’s in another state and had not been active since that time. She looked forward to getting active again and being involved with the Salisbury Branch.
Eileen Hanson-Kelly introduced Millie Cress who was tonight’s guest speaker. Millie is a Vice-President at First Bank. She has spent 44 years in banking working in almost every area available. She is very active in the community serving on a variety of boards as her motto is” give back to where you live and work”. Her program was titled “Financial Fitness for Women”.
Some highlights from her program were: Five Financial Workout Tips-1. Put your spending on a diet. 2. Stretch your retirement. 3. Use a professional financial advisor to stay on track. 4. Pump up your credit scores. 5. Join an investment club. Some interesting statistics that Millie told us were that 9 out of every 10 women will be solely responsible for their financial future as their average lifespan is 81 years compared to 73 years for men. Women from ages 40-79 have already dealt with a major financial crisis and half of a woman’s income is from Social Security if she is over 65 years of age. She gave everyone a true/false quiz on your knowledge of Money Smarts and it was most enlightening to all. She ended her program with some basic techniques for sound financial advice. A couple were: spend less than you earn, buy a house, pay your mortgage first and then pay credit card debts, know your credit scores, life-long saving, and have at least a six month emergency fund. Millie gave everyone a goodie bag from First Bank and Eileen presented her a copy of Sketches of Old Rowan.
A refreshment break was then held courtesy of Catrelia Hunter and Eileen.
Kathy Pulliam, Secretary, presented the minutes from January 2012. A motion was made by Harriet Murphy and seconded by Carol Cody to accept the minutes as presented and the motion passed.
New Business: Brunetta reported that we had one application for NCCSWL and that the application period would be open until February 29th. The early registration for NCCSWL would be through April 19, 2012.
Brunetta spoke briefly about the Susan G. Komen and Planned Parenthood issue and while it had been resolved the Susan G. Komen program still would not be at the NCCSWL conference and AAUW would not participate in the Komen race. AAUW would decide at a later time as to what it would do regarding the issue.
Committee Reports:
Executive:
Brunetta reported on the Two Minute Activist, which is a notification to elected officials on issues that affect women and girls. She encouraged all members to participate. Military sexual assault has and still is a problem that occurs while men and women are serving in the military. “Invisible War” is a Sundance Film Festival film that deals with this issue. According to statistics, colleagues have raped 20% of the women in service and 25% of those are the person in charge. Brunetta asked us all to become aware of this issue.
Title IX is our PPPP issue and she encouraged us to be either a sender or receiver of information relating to this active issue.
The Charlotte Branch of AAUW is taking a stance on human trafficking (modern day slavery), which has become rampant in the Charlotte area. On February 18th at 9:30 am there will be a free program at Trinity Presbyterian Church, 3115 Providence Rd dealing with this topic.
Community Day at the Salisbury Mall will be held March 10, 2012 from 10am -2pm. Non-profit groups may set up informational booths. Set-up will be from 8-9:30. We would need 2 volunteers for each time slot- 10-12 and 12-2. Kathy Taber will take a 10-12 slot along with Eileen and Harriet Murphy agreed to 12-2. Carol Cody was not sure if she could help but would check her schedule.
The Women of NC would have a dinner meeting and program in Raleigh, NC on Feb. 16th. Cost is $25.00 per person.
We would need to be electing new people to branch offices that come open in June – Program Vice-President and Treasurer. While we have people interested in these offices Brunetta felt we still needed to have a Nomination Committee to collect names for a ballot that would be voted on. Ann Medlin, Carol Cody, and Kathy Pulliam agreed to serve on the committee. Correspondence could be done by email.
The Goldman Scholars would be invited to the Annual Brunch in April and there are funds to cover them.
Education/LAF:
Holly Czuba did not have any LAF updates but she did have a report concerning the film showing of “Miss Representation” in January. Despite the rainy, cold weather, we had a profit of $456.00. Holly thanked all who had helped with this project.
Public Policy:
Several February issues were the contraceptive coverage mandate by President Obama’s health care reform and the effect on religious based employers and their female employees. AAUW believes that contraception is a part of basic health care for women and opposes the religious exemption. Female athletes score a Title IX victory when it was ruled that girls’ basketball games must be played on the same nights as boys’ games as this was making their program to feel inferior when their games were played on weeknights leading to fewer spectators and a challenge to homework assignments.
International Women’s Day is on March 8th and is the same date as our next meeting. It is the 101st year of International Women’s Day, which started as a result of the poor working conditions for women and the resulting fire in the garment district that killed so many young women factory workers. Roxanne Newton of Mitchell Community College will give the program dealing with working women in NC on strike.
Old Business:
The NC AAUW Annual Meeting will be held March 30-31.