I attended two workshops on Saturday morning, one on grassroots organizing and one on AAUW website tools. These were somewhat helpful, and I did follow some of the AAUW blogs during the convention, and I joined the AAUW Facebook page. These are helpful as a way of keeping in touch with AAUW public policy directions, but they don't really carry the message the way in-person speakers can.
I had scheduled a meeting with Nicole Callahan who is the AAUW leader for the National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP), an initiative for building partnerships to further education for girls in science and math. The project is funded by the National Science Foundation and the principal investigator is at the Puget Sound Learning Institute. We've been unable to get any "mini-grants" from NGCP, and Nicole had said she would help me understand why and how we might get funding for the St. George girls' science camp. We talked for about half an hour, without making any headway, and I am very disappointed in AAUW for being so intransigent about this. Although we might be able to get a grant to "collaborate" with groups in Idaho or Washington on training or raising community awareness, we cannot get a grant to support a science/math camp in Utah. Nicole recommended applying to Qwest or Intel for a grant, and although we could do that, I told her that I felt AAUW owed us more help with NGCP. In Nicole's words "That's not gonna happen."
I learned about a branch activity that is relevant to NGCP goals that is relatively inexpensive and effective. AAUW branches contact local schools and ask them to identify girls who are in junior high or high school who are doing exceptionally well in math or science, and in the spring, AAUW takes them and their parents to dinner, perhaps inviting a few local scientists to join them. This has become a very popular activity for a few branches around the country, and it seems perfect for Utah. The main problem, I heard, is convincing the local teachers to nominate the girls, because the teachers are usually very busy and unconvinced that the dinner is worthwhile. After one or two, they become fans.
After talking to Nicole, I decided to get solace in sushi, so I walked two blocks from the hotel and had a wonderful lunch, then returned for the convention's opening and keynote talk by Lilly Ledbetter.
To my surprise, Ledbetter is a powerful speaker, one who starts off telling you that she went to work for Goodyear expecting to work hard and in exchange, Goodyear would "play fair." They didn't, but she had no way of knowing that, because merely asking other employees for information might have cost her the job. She really put a face to pay discrimination. I wondered why she had put so much faith in Goodyear's pay policies, though, because back in then day, with NOW making waves, I got positively feisty about making sure my pay was in line with my colleagues. I think that the difference is that I was in a growing industry, and job security was not an issue, there were always more jobs. Listening to Ledbetter gave me more appreciation for being in a powerless situation. And, it made me mad.
There was a very long briefing on bylaws, and a very long evening discussion of bylaws. The membership requirement was the most contentious, but there was also unhappiness over the changes in how the board is selected. Some delegations were quite loud in their cheering for their viewpoints, and overall it was somewhat rowdier than I would have expected.
During the day I had a chance to talk to some AAUW staff members about some of my problems accessing the membership database and getting information about our education fund grant. I met Linda Hallman, and she is a dynamic and effective leader. She listened to me, understood what I was saying instantly, and had staff members find me and say they would help solve the problems. One problem finally did get solved (database access).
There was a breakfast Saturday morning for state leaders, and I started to get my convention "sealegs" as I got to know people and find my way through the meeting rooms.
Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut was the plenary speaker, and she was fantastic. I felt like I had been there at her side as she guided the Fair Pay Act through the House, biting my fingernails with every vote. She made politics sound like an adventure. I was so roused by her talk that I used my cell phone to send email to our senators immediately, seeking Senate action (just now, in October, I got a letter from Bennett saying that he opposed the Fair Pay Act and advocates putting more trust in employers).
In the afternoon, the vote on bylaws changes was tense. I was surprised to find that we were being asked to vote on the package as a whole, because at our state convention, I thought Betsy McDowell told us that each amendment would be presented separately. In fact, it was slightly cumbersome to separate the controversial changes from the package, but people figured out the parlimentary procedures and were able to get the membership requirement separated. All the proposed changes except the membership requirement passed. It is clear that the membership requirements will be revisited in two years, and this remains an ongoing subject for debate.
There was an evening VIP reception for state presidents and major AAUW donors, for which we were supposed to have brought fancy clothes. Your Utah president was clueless and showed up in her daytime business outfit, but it was OK, I did not get thrown out, and I even managed to talk to Lilly Ledbetter for a few minutes.
Then it was off the dinner, which was festive and fun, and a chance to meet people from other states, because we did not have enough people from Utah to fill up a table!
On Sunday there was a discussion of the AAUW public policy platform for the next two years. I remembered that I'd been part of a conference call in the winter of 2008 about this platform, and that I had mentioned that family structure was a big issue in Utah. Because the platform still had nothing about it, I decided to wade into the middle of what was meant to be a pro forma vote by offering an amendment. This was interesting, people were helping me do this, but I had to write the text of the amendment while at the mike, answering questions. The amendment supports the right to determine family structure, and it covers same-sex and multiple partner marriage. I was surprised that this passed, but it did, and several women stopped to thank me after the vote.