February 2020

http://medford-nj.aauw.net/

AAUW's Mission Advancing equity for women and girls through

advocacy, education, philanthropy and research

The Monthly Newsletter of the AAUW - Medford Area Branch

PINELINES

Mark Your Calendar

Tuesday, February 11, 7:15 pm

General Meeting

Linden Room, Medford Leas

Tuesday, February 18, 2:00 pm

Lit Group—A Place for US

Home of Bea Chawla

Thursday, March 5, 7:00 pm

Willingboro AAUW—featuring Madge Powis

Burlington County Library, Westampton

Tuesday, March 10, 7:15 pm

General Meeting

Linden Room, Medford Leas

Tuesday, March 17, 2:00 pm

Lit Group—Still Life with Breadcrumbs

Saturday, March 21, 11:30 am

Book and Author Brunch

Medford Leas, Holly Room

Saturday, April 18, 10 am

AAUW NJ Annual Meeting

Sunday, April 26, 2020

Science Slam

RCBC, Mt. Laurel

Friday, May 1, 2020

Teentech, RCBC, Mt Laurel

President’s Message

February commemorates Black History Month. We annually recognize and reflect on the many achieve-ments by African Americans who continue to contrib-ute all year long in the history of our nation.

Our branch is gearing up for our annual Scholarship Brunch, featuring children’s author, Courtney R. Dunlap with her newly released book “The Rumble Hunt-ers.” Invitations have been mailed and emailed. Be sure to sign up soon as we have seating for 90 and spaces go very fast for this very popular book and au-thor event. It will be held on Saturday, March 21, from 11:30 am-1:30 pm at Medford Leas. Registration fee is $35.00 per person.

The deadline for our NCCWSL college scholarship to attend their annual conference in late May in College Park, MD is quickly approaching (due by February 3). Please have your juniors in college submit their ap-plications soon.

Mark your calendars for our meeting with our Willing-boro members, featuring speaker/storyteller Madge Powis (Topic: Working Women of WW II) at the Bur-lington County Library, Westampton, for Thursday, March 5, 2020 from 7:00 to 8:00 pm.

This year, AAUWNJ’s Annual Meeting will be held on Saturday, April 18 from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm at the Rutgers Club in Piscataway, NJ. Look for registration information soon on the state website: https://aauw-nj.aauw.net/.

Please donate an item for our Medford basket for the Annual Meeting and remember to bring it to our April 14 meeting at the latest. We will discuss various themes at our February meeting.

Looking forward to seeing all of you on Tuesday, February 11 at 7:15 pm in the Linden Room in Medford Leas. — Mary Switzer

PINELINES Medford, NJ February 2020

Lit Group

In A Place for Us, Fatima Farheen Mirza tells the story of a family. Parents Rafiq and Layla must reckon with the choices their children make. Mirza takes us back to the beginning of this family’s life: from Rafiq and Layla’s own arrival in America from India, to the years in which their children tread between two cultures, seeking to find their place in the world, as well as a path home.

Please join us on Tuesday, February 18, 2 pm at the home of Bea Chawla for a discussion of this deeply affecting book. Please RSVP to Bea if you plan to attend.

Tricia Reace & Helen O’Neill

Volunteers Needed

Volunteers are needed to make our Book and Author Brunch a success. Members are needed to staff the sign-in table, serve mimosas, provide assistance to our guest speaker after the brunch. We also need dona-tions of sparkling white wine to make the mimosas. Please contact Tricia Reace or Mary Switzer if you can contribute in any of these ways.

News from National

2020 Vision: The Gender Agenda

Join AAUW CEO Kim Churches at 3 p.m. ET on Jan-uary 28, 2020, for the inaugural webinar in our 2020 convening series. It will cover our equity pri-orities for this year at the federal, state and local levels.

Link for the webinar: https://www.aauw.org/event/2020/01/2020-vision-the-gender-agenda/

AAUW-Supported STEM Act Becomes Law

In December, the bipartisan Building Blocks of STEM Act was signed into law, with a little help from AAUW Lobby Corps. The legislation expands educational opportunities in math and science for young women and students of color. Thanks to Ne-vada Senator Jacky Rosen for championing the bill!

Calling All Artists

Are you a passionate painter? A skillful sketch artist? Do you have a great eye for photography? If so, AAUW offers the perfect opportunity to show off your artistic talents — by submitting to our 11th annual art contest! The contest opened Janu-ary 7. The rules are simple: submit your photog-raphy or a digital image of your painting or sketch through the AAUW website by January 28. We en-courage you to consider works that speak to AAU-W’s mission of advancing gender equity.

Member Greetings

Happy Birthday to our members

celebrating this month

Tina Wetterau

Helen O’Neill

PINELINES Medford, NJ February 2020

Medford AAUW Annual Book and Author Brunch AAUW Medford is delighted to introduce our speaker for the 2020 Book and Author Brunch to be held on March 21st at Medford Leas, Courtney B Dunlap, the author of The Rumble Hunters, scheduled for release in February 2020.

This raucous tale comes from the creative mind of first-time author, Courtney B. Dunlap. She smiles now, but as a kid, Courtney was a scaredy-cat and would never dream of exploring in the dark. She’s got a hunch that amongst her younger readers, she’s not alone. For those whose childhoods are a faint memory, The Rumble Hunters might remind you of a time when you, too, heard your first curious bed-time sounds.

Courtney is married to Curtis, the love of her life, who willingly endures her famously corny jokes. She has the great honor of homeschooling three of her four beautiful children! When she’s not tackling les-son plans or chasing her (almost) toddler, Courtney writes curriculum for The Gospel Project for Kids with LifeWay Christian Resources. She is also a sometime blogger over at www.able2teach.com. You can also follow her on Instagram at the handle @courtney_b_dunlap.

PINELINES Medford, NJ February 2020

Keeping in Touch In addition to this newsletter, there are many ways to keep up with what’s going on at AAUW.

On our branch website (http://medford-nj.aauw.net/), you can find a “public” version of our newsletter, upcoming events, and other branch information, and links to some of the sites below.

Want to know what’s going on at State? You can find them on line at http://aauw-nj.aauw.net/ and sign up there to have news delivered straight to your mailbox.

State also maintains a social media presence on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/aauw.nj/), and LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8469639/profile.

AAUW National (http://www.aauw.org) also has mailing lists, and has an active presence on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/AAUW.National/), Twitter (https://twitter.com/AAUW and https://twitter.com/AAUWPolicy) and LinkedIn: (https://www.linkedin.com/groups/76663/profile).

Officers Wanted

Want to do more? Or maybe enhance your resume? Officers are needed! If you are interested in any of these positions, please contact Mary Switzer. Most do not take a great deal of time and are rewarding ways to get in some volunteer credits. You can also get to know your fellow branch members better. The team needs you!

Make Your Voice Heard Do you want to make your opinion heard?

For issues directly related to AAUW’s mission, you can sign-up for AAUW’s Two—Minute Activist at https://www.aauw.org/resource/two-minute-activist-mobile/. You’ll receive an email with links to send a note to your congressional delegation.

For these and other issues you can also reach out directly to your representatives.

Senator Cory Booker

CAMDEN OFFICE Phone: 856.338.8922 Fax: 856.338.8936

WASHINGTON OFFICE Phone: 202.224.3224 Fax: 202.224.8378

EMAIL: https://www.booker.senate.gov/?p=contact

Senator Robert Menendez

BARRINGTON OFFICE Phone: 856.757.5353 Fax: 856.546.1526

WASHINGTON OFFICE Phone: 202.224.4744 Fax: 202.228.2197

EMAIL: https://www.menendez.senate.gov/contact/

Representative Andy Kim

WILLINGBORO OFFICE Phone 856.703.7200 Fax: 856.369.8988

WASHINGTON OFFICE Phone: 202.225.4765 Fax: 202.225.0778

EMAIL: https://kim.house.gov/zip-code-lookup?form=/contact/email-me

Mr. Menendez and Mr. Kim also send out regular newsletters if you provide them your email address.

2019/20 AAUW Medford Area

Executive Board

President Mary Switzer

VP Finance Mary Ann Brookes

Secretary Jackie McGuinness

Literature Group Co-Chairs

Helen O'Neill Tricia Reace

Hospitality Bea Chawla

Newsletter Coordinator Tricia Reace

PINELINES Medford, NJ February 2020

By joining AAUW, you belong to a community that breaks through educational and economic barriers so that all women have a fair chance. In principle and practice, AAUW values and seeks a diverse membership. There shall be no barriers to full participation in this organization on the basis of gender, race, creed, age, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, or class.

PINELINES