Notes by Nancy in response to a question about whether AAUW NC (or its branches) could/should join additional coalitions.
A bit of history here is that AAUW NC hasn’t typically put its name on lists of coalition members unless –
- we’ve been asked to join or
- a member has a burning passion about the organization
and
- the “costs” of joining a coalition are commensurate with what we can give either financially or in people power.
AFAIK, the current list of coalitions for AAUW NC is
NCWU – Denny is primary rep, and we can name an alternate. Diana Gray’s name was mentioned for that role but I don’t think that appointment ever got to NCWU (or indeed, if she agreed to accept). We have paid dues annually for more than a decade. Treka Spraggins and Terry Wall from the Raleigh branch represented AAUW NC at the June annual meeting (Denny and I were on our way back from San Diego and Diana also was out of town).
NC Women Matter – this is actually organized as a project of the Women’s Forum and I sometimes think of it as “Pat Orrange and Friends”. We’ve made financial contributions to support the meetings. Mary Peterson has been the person Pat includes when she sends messages to the “members of the coalition”. I was on the steering committee for 2011-2013 or so (kind of de facto since I was helping out with their tech) and there are AAUW members on that committee inlcuding THB members Pat, Tara Romano, Beth Messersmith, Peg Chapin, and Dana Jennigs. Lynn Shoemaker (no relation) is also a sometime at-large AAUW member (who might join Wilmington if asked). Anyway, all of them are representing other organizations on the steering committee — and while Pat is open to other folks (at least I think she and the Forum are continuing with this), I’m not sure whether we’ve got someone to recommend.
Democracy NC’s voting rights coalition – Denny has been representing us there.
NC Coalition on Aging — there was some discussion of this last spring, but I don’t know if we ever connected. [Years ago we were members based on an individual member paying the dues and going to the meetings.]
We had been members of the NCChild coalition for years– but I don’t think there was much active participation. I notice we are no longer listed on their website.
We are still listed as members of the NC Voters for Clean Elections — but I haven’t heard anything from them lately (though Mary may have)
I also remember that at least twice in the last 10 years we’ve made a donation to the Justice Center — they’re not a coalition, per se, but do seem to be doing lots of good work aligned with AAUW priorities.
I can’t think of any coalitions (e.g. STEM or C/U based) that AAUW NC has supported — though there have been individual projects that may have been captured in mini-grant reports.
JoAnn and Denny (as past treasurer) may have records of other organizations that we’ve supported/affiliated with in the last few years — but those are the ones I can think of.