Welcome new members – July-Sept.

The Tar Heel Branch would like to welcome the new members who joined us over the summer:

Grace Knechtel is a long-time AAUW member who has served on the boards of both AAUW NC and AAUW NYS. She is a current member of the Raleigh/Wake County branch and joins the Tar Heel Branch as her second branch. See reasons why members of other branches join the Tar Heel Branch.

Joanne Woodard is the college/university representative for AAUW for NC State University. She took advantage of the AAUW NC and branch policies of offering state/branch affiliation to C/U reps for no additional dues. She is also in charge of the e-student affiliate program for NCSU, and any students who join that way may also affiliate with the branch (and get access to branch networking tools) for no additional fee.

Kathleen Hilton is on the faculty at UNC Pembroke, a former member of the AAUW UNC Pembroke branch who maintained her membership in the AAUW national organization as a member-at-large. With Rose Stremlau, she hopes to revive the AAUW presence on that campus, but for now, she is more tightly connected to AAUW NC.

Branch members can get contact information for each other from the branch roster at www.aauwnc.org’s “member services database.” More personal introductions are encouraged on the branch e-mail list.

Are you planning your holiday giving?

Is there someone on your holiday gift list who would benefit from a membership in AAUW? Maybe

• the new graduate who needs to be aware that “equity is still an issue”
• the new parent who can use information about how AAUW issues will affect his daughter
• the new retiree who may now have time for advocacy
• a sister, brother, daughter, son, niece, nephew or parent who may be interested in the “AAUW conversation” on such a wide array of topics

Consider the gift of a membership in the Tar Heel Branch which includes the benefits of an at-large AAUW membership as well as providing a connection to AAUW in North Carolina. This works for members who don’t live near any of the 21 community-based branches and for those who are too busy to fit “one more meeting” into their schedules. But, unlike the slightly cheaper at-large membership, the Tar Heel Branch members are connected to each other in a variety of ways and, as we grow, we hope to spin off satellites (and even new branches) in various areas of the state.

If your giftee later decides that they do want the more active membership of a community-based branch, they can transfer with no additional fee.

Gift memberships are available now, with special rates starting on November 1. Visit our gift membership page to learn  more.

Update to branch brochure

The branch brochure has been updated to account for the $5 increase in branch dues as of July 1. Please print copies to have with you when you expect to meet people who would like to learn more about the opportunity to connect to AAUW in this way that also provides the benefits of connecting to the state organization:

AAUW Tar Heel Branch Brochure, Fall 2009

Welcome new members!

Welcome to the new members who joined in May and June for the 2009-2010 year:

Mary Rack of Avon Lake, Ohio, stopped to visit both Doris Bernlohr and Nancy Shoemaker in early May, and they managed to convince her to join the branch. She has been a member of AAUW for several years, serving at the branch and state level in both Michigan and California. This new model seems to fit how she’d like to engage with AAUW over the next year.

AAUW NC past president and branch member Mary Fran Schickedantz ensures that her neice, Sheryl Ponciano of Durham, and her daugher-in-law Dianne Shickedantz of Franklin maintain membership in AAUW. She transferred their memberships from the Chapel Hill and Bryson City branches respectively since this branch’s “at-large” connection better suits their lives. However, they can still connect to AAUW NC and the branches near them.

Ronni Marblestone is a long-time member of the Raleigh/Wake County branch but has not been active for years. She renewed with the Tar Heel branch to continue her support for AAUW at the national and state level and better reflect her preference on how to connect to the organization.

Elizabeth Rogacz is a life member of the Association. Along with Pat Robinson (who joined as a dual member last fall and transferred to primary membership this spring), she is transferring her affiliation from the Cherokee County branch (which has had fewer than ten members for years) to the Tar Heel branch. It is hoped that the Tar Heel Branch will offer members in Cherokee county the opportunity to continue AAUW’s presence in the area but save them some of the work of maintaining a branch.

Sharon Trimble from Pennsylvania heard about the branch at the 2009 AAUW Convention in St. Louis. She is a life member of AAUW and joined as a dual member to learn more about this new model.

AAUW NC branch members Mary Peterson (Twin Rivers/New Bern),  Alyce Lanier (Salisbury), Lillian Van Order (Wilmington), Sandra Bernard (Asheville), Kathleen Pearre (Winston-Salem), Sandra Slates (Chapel Hill), Mari Pino Del  Rosario (Greensboro), Kay White (Chapel Hill) all joined at the end of the year to connect their branches to this new model. See reasons why members of other branches join the Tar Heel Branch.

Rose Stremlau from Charlotte is on the faculty at UNC Pembroke. The branch at UNCP disbanded several years ago, and AAUW NC is hoping that the Tar Heel Branch may help AAUW members there reorganize.

Branch members can get contact information for each other from the branch roster at www.aauwnc.org’s “member services database.” More personal introductions are encouraged on the branch e-mail list.

Branch status – 6/30/09

We are proud of

• 77% renewal rate by the July 1 deadline,
• 75% increase in the number of members since November, and
• 85% growth in the number of primary members since the branch was chartered.

• As of June 30, 20 of the 26 members who joined for 08-09 have renewed, 4 have resigned and 2 are pending.
  • The resignations include two men who were given gift memberships and two dual members from out of state.
  • The renewals include two members who switched their AAUW primary affiliation to this branch.
• We now have 42 members (counting the two pending) and 24 of them are connected to AAUW primarily through this branch. The 18 others belong to community-based branches as their primary connection – 12 of the 21 other branches in NC and one in PA.
  • 25 were AAUW branch members when joining this branch. Seven of them have transferred their primary membership to the Tar Heel Branch.
  • 7 were at-large AAUW members
  • 5 more were lapsed members
  • 5 are new AAUW members
• Map of AAUW NC Branches and Tar Heel Branch Members (as of June 20 with 31 members).
• The branch charter was approved on November 19, 2008, with 24 charter members, 13 for whom this was their primary branch, 11 who were also connected to a community-based branch.

We are now collecting dues for 2009-2010. Branch dues are $5. AAUW and AAUW NC are $49 and $11 respectively, for a total of $65 for members joining through this branch.