Brainerd Lakes Area AAUW Branch President

MEMBERSHIP

• We started our fall meeting with reflections on friendships. We considered that it is important to: “Make new friends but keep the old, One is silver and the other gold”.
• Nine (9) new members joined our branch during the past year, going from 31 to 40 members.

FUND RAISING

• We were able to meet our Brain Buster fund raising goal of $2,000.00. We will have two $1,000 scholarships awarded 2020 fall semester awarded to two Central Lakes College (CLC) students. 
• We received funding awards of $500 each for two branch projects from Minnesota AAUW. One project grant was to support  Women’s History month programming in the community. We hosted a performance of Jeanette Rankin Woman of Persistence on March 9 at CLC. Betty Folliard our other community presentation was postponed due to the COVID 19 meeting rules. Our second branch project grant award is to support the Girls Empowerment Camp scheduled for August 12, 2020 at CLC.
• We received grants of $1,000.00 each from the Women’s Leadership Fund and Minnesota AAUW to sponsor two delegates to The National Conference for College Women Student Leaders (NCCWSL). Both granting agencies have approved holding the funds to be used in 2021, as the 2020 NCCWSL conference was canceled.

AWARENESS and ADVOCACY

• We met with the Mid Minnesota Women’s Center for a facility tour and discussion of services offered to women who need safe shelter, supervised child visitation and legal support services.
• We met at the We ARE (Advocates for Reproductive Education) clinic for a tour and discussion of services offered to the community.
• We coordinated with the League of Women Voters and the CLC Diversity Club to host Women’s History programming at Central Lakes College during the month of March. 2020 is the 100th anniversary of Women’s Suffrage in the United States. It is time to celebrate being a voter and to remember the lengthy struggle to get this right.

BOOK DISCUSSION GATHERINGS

• Read and discussed six (6) books:  Why Does He Do That? by Lundy Bancroft; The Cider House Rules by John Irving; Saving the Ghost by ME Fuller; Clara and Mr Tiffany by Susan Vreeland; Becoming by Michelle Obama; and The Senator Next Door by Amy Klobuchar.

OTHER

Learned, through a presentation and discussion what the importance of our Mississippi River is to our future.