AAUW, SALISBURY BRANCH
AAUW: Since 1881 AAUW Salisbury Branch: Since 1951
Membership Meeting,
Thursday March 8, 2012 6:30 PM
Trinity Oaks Retirement Community
Second Floor, Special Events Room
Minutes

The AAUW, Salisbury Branch met on Thursday March 8, 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, Nancy Bilson, Edith Alcorn, Greg Alcorn, Linda Hauze, Carol Cody, Lollie Streiff, Betty Fellows, Patricia Trueblood, and Ruby Walker. The following members were absent: Lori Eberly, Ann Medlin, Becky Hammill, Bonnie Hodges, Erma Scarlette, Zebbie Bradley-Bondurant, Nicole Sherrill-Corry, Elaine Stiller, Norma Goldman, Linda Kesler, Alyce Lanier, Renee McCachren, Jeannie Sherrill, Judy Grissom, Catrelia Hunter, Carolyn Blackman, and Donna Wiseman.
Guests were: Pat Murtaugh, Donna Wilson, Lorene Leane, Kim Fahs, Ruth Meade, Pat Beck, Herb Maier, Richard Taber, Ed Hanson-Kelly, and Watson Murphy.

Brunetta Franklin, President welcomed everyone to the meeting and said that today was special in the sense that it was International Women’s Day. She also introduced our new members Ruby Walker and Dr. Patricia Trueblood. Both ladies spoke briefly about themselves and both said that they looked forward to getting active and being involved with the Salisbury Branch.

Eileen Hanson-Kelly spoke briefly about International Women’s Day, which has been celebrated since the early 1900’s in March. It was started as a way to celebrate the economic, political, and social accomplishments of women past, present, and future. Eileen introduced Dr. Roxanne Newton, Director, Humanities & Fine Arts, at Mitchell Community College who was tonight’s guest speaker. Her program was titled “Fabric of Hope and Resistance: Women on Strike”.

She was interested in labor studies and women studies due to the fact that her father was a textile mill worker in Mooresville, NC and later a brick mason and her grandparents as well as her mother were mill workers. She set about to interview women for her study but found the pool of women to talk to very small due to the low rate of unions in NC and only a few strikes occurring here. She did find one woman to talk to that was involved in the General Textile Strike of 1934 and to several others in the areas of textiles, tire workers, paper workers, and telecommunications. They all agreed to speak to her if their identity was kept confidential. She centered her talk on five women-Naomi, Linda, Annie, Millie, and Kim.

Naomi was a paper worker and participated in the paper strikes of 1974 and 2001. She was forced to quit when she became pregnant but was rehired to the “swing-shift” after her child was born. She decided the best jobs went to men so she decided to take advantage of the union’s encouragement of women to get training. She took the training to become an electrician because she felt she could be “as good as the boys”. Due to health impairments she was unable to fulfill this and the plant closed. Not being retirement age she only got a fraction of her pension. Linda worked for Southern Bell when it was mandated in 1978 that telecommunications include women and people of color. Men didn’t want women working with them and tended to talk down to them according to Linda. All workers had to climb poles with cleats as part of the training and Linda recalled sexual remarks being said when she climbed the poles and many times she was sent on jobs to neighborhoods that the men said were “too dangerous for them to go to”. Annie crossed picket lines for a union job in 1934 in Charlotte, which she found out was due to women not getting equal pay. During WW I, the union helped women to get equal pay but as soon as the war was over, these same women were fired and men were hired. Annie organized for the union and was illegally fired for this. She won after a six-year battle and received back pay and seniority. She found that fear influences people so much that many will not join a union. Roxanne noted that this is still a prevailing trait in NC thus leading to our low union participation of just 2.7% statewide. Millie is an African-American tire worker and she participated in the 1999 United Steel Workers Strike. At her plant of 1,100 workers, there were 13 women and Millie along with others assumed leadership roles in the union. Millie said, ”women will get stuff done.” Kim said in her interview that she may not have the same things in life as others but she would stand by you. She went on strike for an hour with her company in solidarity with an African group of steelworkers. Roxanne ended her program and there was discussion on women’s issues in the workplace and labor movements and ways we can be involved. Eileen thanked Roxanne for providing us with such an informative program and presented her with a copy of Sketches of Old Rowan.

Before the Business part of the meeting the refreshment break was held and Lollie Streiff and Linda Hauze provided the refreshments.

Business:
Kathy Pulliam, Secretary, presented the minutes from the previous meeting. A motion was made by Kathy Taber and seconded by Harriet Murphy to accept the minutes as presented. The motion passed.

Billie Simmons reported that the Annual Picnic would be held on June 14th at Rufty-Holmes Center in the picnic area. She said that they would be finalizing food in the next several weeks and would let us know the cost per person at that time. Edith Alcorn along with Carolyn Blackman had been instrumental in getting the plans for the picnic done.

Brunetta reported that Nicole had made the final arrangements for the Annual Brunch on April 14th at the Salisbury Country Club. The cost of the meal is $18.00 per person and reservations/checks need to be sent to Eileen before that date. Bruentta said that she would be sending out an email to all concerning the Brunch.

AAUW By-Laws Revision and Change:
Edith Alcorn reported the By-Laws change/revision memo had been forwarded to everyone and she will make sure that we are in compliance with the national AAUW By-Laws.

Education/LAF:
Holly Czuba gave an update regarding the Title IX suit victory in Indiana over the girls’ basketball games. She also spoke of an opportunity to attend a free program on March 23rd entitled “Be Who You Want to Be” by Mia Smith. Holly also told everyone that she had been accepted to be a workshop speaker at the NCCSWL conference in June. Her topic is “Your On-line Presence: Control your Brand”. She said that she would need assistance to help cover the $400 registration fee to attend. Brunetta suggested that since we only had one NCCSWL applicant, Allison Andrews, that Holly be sent in the second allotted slot. Edith Alcorn made the motion that this is done and Eileen seconded it. The motion passed. Holly thanked everyone for our assistance in this way and she looked forward to representing us at the conference.

Other business;
Brunetta reminded everyone of the AAUW NC Annual Meeting on March 30-31, 2012 at the Country Inn Suites in Burlington, NC. She would be attending and anyone else was welcomed to attend as well.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:30.

Respectfully submitted,
Kathy G. Pulliam
Secretary

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.

AAUW, SALISBURY BRANCH
AAUW: Since 1881 AAUW Salisbury Branch: Since 1951
Winter Planning Meeting,
Thursday January 12, 2012 6:30 PM
Trinity Oaks Retirement Community
Second Floor, Special Events Room
Minutes

The AAUW, Salisbury Branch met on Thursday January 12, 2012 at the Trinity Oaks Retirement Community at 6:30 PM in the Special Events Room. The following members were present: Eileen Hanson-Kelly, Holly Czuba, Kathy Taber, Billie Simmons, Kathy Pulliam, Harriet Murphy, Linda Hauze, Carol Cody, Becky Hammill, Nicole Sherrill-Corry, and Carolyn Blackman. The following members were absent: Brunetta Franklin, Dixie Scott, Lori Eberly, Nancy Bilson, Edith Alcorn, Greg Alcorn, Catrelia Hunter, Bonnie Hodges, Ann Medlin, Zebbie Bradley-Bondurant, Norma Goldman, Erma Scarlette, Elaine Stiller, Linda Kesler, Alyce Lanier, Renee McCachren, Lollie Streiff, Erma Scarlette, Jeannie Sherrill, Judy Grissom, and Donna Wiseman.

Nicole Sherrill-Corry, Program Vice-President welcomed everyone to the meeting due to Brunetta Franklin being absent due to illness.

Kathy Pulliam, Secretary, presented the minutes from November and December 2011. A motion was made by Harriet Murphy and seconded by Billie Simmons to accept the November minutes as presented. A motion was made by Eileen Hanson-Kelly and seconded by Carol Cody to accept the December minutes as corrected. Both motions passed.

Committee Reports:

Programs:

Nicole reported on the plans for the Annual Brunch in April 2012 at the Salisbury Country Club. Right now the price per person is $18.00 and this reflects what our menu choice has been. During discussion the group felt a simpler menu such as bacon and eggs may be the way to go, as there was concern over last year’s choice of the breakfast casserole. The group also asked Nicole to check into other facilities that provide meals for the 2013 Brunch such as Trinity Oaks. She said she would and would report back at the May Planning Meeting.

Nicole said that we still needed to secure a place to have the Annual Picnic in June 2012. City Park had been suggested since it was in the city and a bit more central for everyone. Another suggestion by Carolyn Blackmon was Rufty Holmes Senior Center. There are covered picnic facilities there with ample parking and the facility is open on Thursday evenings. There are rooms with kitchen use if the weather is an issue as it was in 2011.There is no cost to use Rufty Holmes only a donation of your choice. Nicole said that she would check on Rufty Holmes since it was everyone’s first choice. Debbie Suggs will cater the Picnic as she did last year.

NCCWSL:

Kathy Pulliam reported that she had received a NCCWSL scholarship application from Allison Andrews, a sophomore Theatre Education major from Catawba College and that Sara Coon, a junior Theatre major from Catawba College, was in the process of filling her application out. Both young women were very interested in attending the conference and both had worked in leadership capacities at high school and college. Kathy Taber said that she would make sure a press release would run in the Salisbury Post concerning the NCCWSL scholarship. The deadline for applying is February 29, 2012.

Discussion then began on the upcoming position vacancies of Program Vice-President and Treasurer. Eileen was interested in repeating as Treasurer and Holly Czuba was interested in the Program Vice-President if she could have a co-chair. Everyone thought that to be fine, so Nicole agreed to repeat Program Vice-President as a co-chair.

Education/LAF:

Holly reported on the upcoming screening of Miss Representation on Saturday January 21, 2012. Posters had been placed around town and several people took posters to put in additional places. Holly had 80 tickets printed and some had already been sold online. Several members took tickets to sell and this would be their responsibility to make sure the tickets were sold or returned for selling at the door on Saturday. Holly would be discussing the final details with Robert Jones from Lee Street Theatre on January 14th and she would be having a conference call with the folks from Miss Representation for discussion purposes prior to the screening. The projector is ready along with a back up if necessary. It was felt that selling concessions would be an asset to the project. Holly had a list of those interested in providing baked goods to sell. Eileen agreed to get candy to sell and Carol Cody said that she would get the soft drinks and water. Others signed up after the meeting. It was suggested to sell concessions for $1, as this would make it easy. Holly asked that everything be bagged in sandwich bags as this would make selling concessions much easier and it was suggested to put a $1 worth in each bag whether it was cookies or something like party mix.

Finance/Public Policy:

Eileen passed out copies of the Financial Report to everyone.

Carol suggested we might want to eat at Trinity Oaks prior to our meeting as Altrusa does instead of providing refreshments. She said the meal was very good and was quite reasonable at $10.00 per person. It was suggested to revisit the idea of a meal at the May Planning meeting.

Eileen asked if we wanted to provide a gift to Trinity Oaks for their graciousness throughout our meetings? Kathy Pulliam suggested that we give two copies of Sketches to their library that the residents use. Everyone agreed that was a good idea since we had plenty of copies available.

Eileen had reports concerning Public Policy for everyone to look at. The NC Public Policy dealt with Pilot Project of which our focus is “Strengthen/Enforce Title IX”. Becky Hammill, Brunetta, and Holly are receivers of information concerning this focus and will receive updates and alerts and take appropriate actions. Eileen is a sender and she will monitor legislative action on this focus and alert AAUW members through the state network. Two national policies Eileen talked briefly about were Social Security and Violence Against Women. She encouraged all of us to be active regarding these.

Membership Meeting: Minutes
Thursday November 10, 2011 6:30 PM
Trinity Oaks Retirement Community
Second Floor, Special Events Room

The AAUW, Salisbury Branch met on Thursday November 10, 2011 at the Trinity Oaks Retirement Community at 6:30 PM in the Special Events Room.  Brunetta Franklin, President, welcomed everyone to the meeting. The following members were present: Brunetta Franklin, Eileen Hanson-Kelly, Holly Czuba, Nancy Bilson, Billie Simmons, Edith Alcorn, Greg Alcorn, Kathy Pulliam, Catrelia Hunter, Ann Medlin, Harriet Murphy, Linda Hauze, Carol Cody, Becky Hammill, Bonnie Hodges, Nicole Sherrill-Corry, and Judy Grissom. The following members were absent: Dixie Scott, Lori Eberly, Carolyn Blackman, Zebbie Bradley-Bondurant, Norma Goldman, Erma Scarlette, Elaine Stiller, Linda Kesler, Alyce Lanier, Renee McCachren, Lollie Streiff, Kathy Taber, Erma Scarlette, Jeannie Sherrill, and Donna Wiseman.

Guest was Patricia Long.

Brunetta congratulated Dr. Judy Grissom on being one of three finalists for state school superintendent of the year. Holly Czuba introduced her guest Pat Long from the Leadership Rowan Class.

Kathy Pulliam, Secretary, presented the minutes and they were approved as presented.

Nicole Sherrill-Corry introduced Linda Coplin, Community Coordinator for Family Crisis Council who gave the program entitled “Domestic Violence & Rowan Family Crisis”. She began her program talking about a young man named Toby who lived in a home that had lots of domestic violence. Growing up he had seen constant fighting and battering that ultimately led to Toby committing murder and being incarcerated in prison. Toby is Linda’s nephew and she told this story to let us know that domestic violence knows no boundaries and touches all races and socio-economic levels.

She asked the question “Why don’t women leave an abusive situation?” There are many reasons why women stay. One is that batterers exploit self-esteem and have power and control over an individual. Many women will be involved with drugs because it keeps things settled. Women will walk the streets because they are safer there than at home.

Linda stated that women want to be heard and believed and the domestic violence shelter provides a safe haven for this to happen. She said that a woman leaves home about 7 times and these are the most dangerous times for her as the batterer may try to come get her back. Many times she has left with nothing but the clothes she is wearing. The shelter provides basis needs and support for her and her children. Linda told of several success stories where women and their children have made totally new lives after living in the shelter foe a period of time and leaving the abusive home for good. A small community like Salisbury offers challenges since so many people know each other and their families. There are court advocates who help victims through the judicial system and Rowan County has a Batterers Intervention System that works with all forms of abuse such as emotional, physical, and mental. She said that there are more women coming in with mental health issues, which requires more advocates in this field. The Family Crisis Shelter appreciates any donation of supplies or monetary help as the need is always there for basic needs, etc. They can accommodate 25 at the shelter and if it is full then they try to connect with other nearby shelters to provide a safe haven for the woman. Linda ended the program by saying her nephew is doing well and has developed a talent for music while being incarcerated. Nicole thanked Linda for providing such an informative program and a copy of “Sketches of Old Rowan “was given to her.

Catrelia Hunter spoke briefly about the upcoming vote in Congress concerning the United States ratifying CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women). We are one of 7 countries who have not ratified this. She had postcards for us to fill out encouraging our congressmen to vote for this law. The postcards were collected and will be sent to Congress.

Before the Business part of the meeting the refreshment break was held and Carol Cody and Kathy Pulliam provided the refreshments.

Business:

Education/LAF:

Holly Czuba gave a report on the LAF Update. Last fiscal year, AAUW disbursed $90,000 for case support and hopes to do about the same this year. AAUW stands alone in the financial support of gender-based workplace cases and highly regarded in the civil rights community for its work. She went over several most active current cases.

On Friday, November 25^th Salisbury Branch of AAUW will have an information booth during Downtown Salisbury Holiday Night Out. Holly and Brunetta will be there and any other volunteers would be appreciated. The Sketches will be sold for $20 each and the note cards for $5 each during this event.

Holly continued with the discussion of the upcoming project, the film screening of Miss Representation on January 21, 2012 at 7:00 pm.

Finance:

Eileen Hanson-Kelly, Treasurer, gave the report.  As per our Branch policies, $50 had been contributed to the Goldman Scholarship Fund and was reflected in the expenses.

Public Policy:

Eileen reported on three policies that asked members to take action on. They were the No Loopholes in Social Security Taxes Act (would lift the cap so the wealthiest 6% of Americans will be on equal footing with everyone else), Safe Schools Improvement Act (would strengthen schools’ ability and responsibility to combat sexual harassment and bullying), and Reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act.

Membership:

Becky Hammill had information available for membership. Graduate school membership is $18.81. She reminded us that $46.00 of the $49 that we pay for membership is tax deductable. Becky also welcomed our most recent new member Linda Hauze. Linda reminded everyone of the Book Group that meets on the 2^nd Tuesday of the month at 10:30. She encouraged folks to come.

New Business:

Brunetta reminded everyone of the covered dish meeting on Friday December 9^th at the Hidden Creek Clubhouse. Harriet and Watson Murphy would be hosting again. A sign-up sheet was passed around. Brunetta reminded everyone that donations for the Family Crisis Council would be collected at the December meeting along with monetary donations to the NCCWSL fund.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:15.