President's View
Three years ago, a stranger in this Promised Land, I relocated in
Glendale and I promptly joined this AAUW branch. Six months later
I agreed to serve as membership vice-president. While I continued
to get lost in the complex canyons, intersections, cross-connecting
highways, overpasses, treacherous ramp ways, upon the January 2009
resignation of Mary Miller (now deceased) I became your interim
president, and later agreed to serve this 2009-2010 term.
In Cleveland, Ohio I had served on several boards: the Case Western
Reserve University Board of Directors; Faculty Council at Cleveland
State University, Program for Action in Education. For several
years I also served as vice-president in the Cleveland League of
Women Voters, etc. etc. Those
were single-purpose organizations in contrast with AAUW's complex
mission of running monthly programs, raising monies for two
scholarship programs, and monitoring variegated activities engaging
the membership. In the last year and a half I learned the
machinations and procedures of this very structured branch with its
rich history and customs. As my term unfolded I used this monthly
column to thank those members who assisted me in my service. Once
again, to those people I offer my humble thanks as I return to
all-night reading sessions and babysitting my grandchildren.
J.C. Chauvin-Byer, your president-elect, has played many key roles
in this branch, and she is eminently qualified to lead us. For
several years J.C. has worked on programming, and this past year she
and her co-vice-president Norma Cunanan, provided exciting and
relevant speakers for our branch meetings. This year she has also
been a dynamo in successful fund-raising: she created and hosted the
Santa Party in December, and she was a leading light in our Wine 101
event. Most important: J..C. secured the Oakmont Country Club for
our branch meetings, and this regenerated our attendance. Just
recently JC represented our branch at the California AAUW
convention, and that experience will no doubt fuel her knowledge in
the coming year.
Most important, J.C. Byer frequently evidences what Ernest
Hemingway called "grace under pressure." Example: this past year a
speaker did not appear on time at the Oakmont because she had gone
to the wrong county club. This was "EEK" time, but with calm
dispatch J.C. directed the speaker to continue on to our venue. Then
when the speaker arrived without technical equipment J.C. enlisted
the club staff to set up their screen and slide projector, and J.C.
helped the speaker use it.
Finally, our president elect brings us significant experience from
the business world in which she worked in marketing, budgeting, and
planning. Surely this tiny chatelaine of a mountain-top home could
have been the prototype for the proverbial "energizer bunny."
Sheila Mulligan Koster
2009-2010 President, AAUW Glendale Branch |
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