Carolyn H. Garfein, of Alpharetta, Georgia, was recently elected to a two-year term as president of the AAUW Board of Directors. The election was held at the 2009 AAUW National Convention in St. Louis, Missouri, which was attended by more than 1,000 members representing more than 1,300 AAUW states and branches.
As your new president, I am looking forward to working with you, along with AAUW Executive Director Linda Hallman and our staff, to help AAUW build on our successes, forge new ground, and continue to break through barriers for women and girls.
These are exciting times for AAUW and our nationwide community of committed activists, tireless volunteers, and generous supporters. With strong indications from the administration and Congress that there are real opportunities to advance the objectives of the women’s movement, the time to amplify AAUW’s leadership voice is now!
And AAUW has any number of tools — from snail mail to Twitter, our blogs, op-eds, and local programming — to get our message out, pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, strengthen Title IX, back discrimination litigation, and support our sisters in the nontraditional fields, just for starters.
It’s been two weeks since our 2009 National Convention in St. Louis, and I felt it was important to share my initial impressions and reach out to you via YouTube. When I was visiting the national office last week, the AAUW staff and I quickly put together a video message, which was shot with a handheld camera. While we plan to fine tune our production abilities in a cost-effective manner, I think it speaks well to the ingenuity and resourcefulness of AAUW staff to produce this video without using outside vendors. So stay tuned, because more video messages will come in the future!
Thank you for supporting AAUW’s work to break through barriers for women and girls. If you have any questions or comments, please e-mail media@aauw.org.
Carolyn,
You are a good choice to move AAUW into all the 21st century forms of communication so I wasn’t surprised to see and hear you on U-tube. Know that many of your friends think you are the right person to lead our organization through the necessary “challenges” that we and all women’s organizations are facing today.
Mary
Carolyn,
Congratuations on your election! I am delighted to see someone with a strong branch and state background in this leadership position at a time when branches need envigorating. That will require support from headquarters to implement the online membership and online dues-paying structure.
BTW You might remember me from AAUW Atlanta. I am now in Richmond, Virginia and a member of AAUW Richmond and AAUW Bon Air branches.
Wishing you the best of luck with the challenges you face!
Jane