AAUW NV Convention

I’ll be attending the AAUW NV convention as a member of the AAUW Leadership Corps. They are looking at creating a virtual branch, and I’ll be talking about the Tar Heel branch experience, contrasting that with CA Online, and helping them address the questions of

  • What would a virtual branch be expected to accomplish?
  • Who would need to be involved in the project?
  • What best practices have emerged that Nevada can pick up?

[I’ve heard that the AAUW Membership committee is working on that last question — or something similar — but I haven’t had any direct contact with them.]

I’m also looking forward to attending the AAUW Action Fund training for Nevada as an impact grant state.

AAUW NC Annual Meeting

I’ll be attending the AAUW NC annual meeting as the past-president of AAUW NC, president of the Tar Heel branch, AAUW NC web manager, general communications consultant, and a member of the Leadership Corps.? I’ll be giving a workshop on using technology to improve efficiency and effectiveness, an update of a session I’ve given a few times before. I’m planning to talk about

  • Member services database
  • Membership payment program
  • Site resources for branch web sites
  • How branches can start using social media to expand their communications

I’ll also be participating in the branch presidents council meeting and the full annual meeting to help pass a resolution against the amendment in “defense of marriage” (and attack on families) that will be on the NC primary ballots on May 8.

The meeting is March 30 and 31 in Burlington, NC.

Leadership Corps

Hi, all. I’ve been recently appointed to the AAUW Leadership Corps for 2011-2013. I haven’t been through the orientation/training yet, and this is a new AAUW structure (formed in 2009) so it’s possible what I hope to accomplish and the way the corps works won’t match. But for now I expect my focus to be:

  1. Help spread the word about the success of the AAUW Tar Heel (NC) Branch. I discussed this at the AAUW Convention Workshop on Alternate Leadership Structures (see the workshop handout which includes two pages on the THB). I believe that each state would benefit from starting such a branch (or, perhaps, reconfiguring an existing “online branch” to more closely match the THB model) to support those members who live far from all geographically-based branches or for whom the nearby branches aren’t a good “fit”.
  2. Continue my 15-year effort to improve adoption of technology to advance the mission of AAUW. In 2001-2003, as a member of the AAUW Program Development Committee, I’d hoped to initiate publication of a “Technology ToolKit”. The world has changed a lot since then, but there is still a possibility of AAUW providing a framework to help members scale technology challenges for the benefit of AAUW and other aspects of their lives. This has been a multi-faceted journey, and I hope, in particular, to learn more about the new Site Resources program that AAUW is launching to support branch/state web sites and how I can support the members taking advantage of this.

I look forward to talking to many of you over the biennium.