Volume 79, Issue 4

March/April President’s Message

Dear Arlington AAUW members,

Our Arlington AAUW Annual Meeting will take place on March 25 at 1:00 pm at Lubber Run Community Center on George Mason Drive. We are looking forward to seeing you in person and having the chance to catch up before the meeting begins.

Our annual meeting has two purposes this year: a business meeting where we will elect new officers for the 2023-25 terms and approve the minutes from the March 2022 annual meeting and a program presentation to learn more about the latest issues in Title IX.

The Nominating Committee must have 5 members as directed by our Bylaws and met twice to nominate candidates for the open positions of President and Vice-President for Communications Programs.  This year the Nominating Committee had four Board Members Karen Darner, Marjorie Hobart, Sara Anderson and Meg Tuccillo and two branch members, Barbara Smith and Michele Milden. 

Slate of Candidates for 2023-2025

President: Theresa Bratt

Co-Vice-Presidents of Programs: Barbara Smith and Barbara Gallagher

Vice-President of Communications (newsletter and website) Joy Gatewood

2^nd Vice President for Membership Candace Lilyquist, Treasurer Mary Spatz, and Secretary Denise Hassanein will continue in their elected positions for 2023-24.

Finally, we are very grateful to Karen Darner, Terry Bratt, Meg Tuccillo, Teri Doxsee, Carol Dabbs, Susan Senn, Priscilla Becker, Marjorie Hobart, and Sara Anderson, who served on the Board for the past two years and returning officers Denise Hassanein, Candace Lilyquist and Mary Spatz for their dedication to the goals of AAUW.  Thank you, too, to all our members for your dedicated participation in Arlington’s American Association of University Women!

Sincerely,

Karen Darner and Terry Bratt, Co-Presidents

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Membership Meetings

Thanks to those of you who were able to join us for an informational session with Dr. Heyn from Marymount to learn more about her research study on healthy aging in Arlington.  Watch for further updates as the ALOHA Study moves forward.

Join us March 25th, 1 PM at Lubber Run

Our annual meeting is coming up on Saturday, March 25^th at 1 pm at Lubber Run Community Center.  In addition to the important work of electing new officers for our branch, we are delighted that Dr Laura Finkelstein, Associate Vice President of Student Health and Well-being & Title IX Coordinator at Marymount, will prove a video updating the work of the university on Title IX issues.

Upcoming Meetings

April is the month when we have the great opportunity each year to hear from some of our best and brightest young women in Arlington Public Schools who have won awards for their Science Fair entrees.  This STEM-focused evening lets us hear about their work and join in celebrating an AAUW STEM scholarship winner.  This is always a stimulating and interesting evening – we will meet via zoom on Monday, April 17^th at 7 pm for this event – stay tuned for the link closer to this event!

Remember to join us on May 15^th at 7 pm at The Woman’s Club of Arlington for our annual awards evening where we present 2 student scholarships and celebrate our Educator of the Year in person!

Finally, keep Tuesday, June 6^th at 7 pm open on your calendar as we are preparing a collaborative event featuring an impressive panel on women’s finances with the Arlington Commission on the Status of Women.  This is an event you’ll want to tell your friends about and invite them to join us.  More to come soon!!!!! 

Meg Tuccillo, VP Programs

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Let’s Talk About Books

The March meeting for Let’s Talk About Books is Tuesday, March 28, 2 pm at the home of Terry Bratt.  Our book selection is A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell.

Our April meeting will be Tuesday, April 25 at  2 pm on Zoom and our book selection is  Lady in Waiting by Anne Glenconner.

Shortly before each meeting Terry Bratt will send an invitation with her home address or the Zoom information. So, watch your email and come join the fun!  Look forward to seeing you then.

Go to the Let’s Talk About Books page to see all the books we are reading for the 2022-23 year.  Here are links to the Master Book List so you can see what we have already read.   List by title – List by author Let me know if you  have any problems with the files. 

Barbara Gallagher, Let’s Talk About Books Chair

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Membership

Our chapter has successfully navigated the transition to an online membership application process. Please share this link with anyone wishing to join. https://www.aauw.org/resources/member/why-join/.  Encourage them to enroll in the same possibliites that brought you to AAUW. This is a great group of smart and talented women seeking to better understand their community and the world around them while making a positive impact.

Special thanks to Mary Spatz who spent many hours working to reconcile previous paper applications and the online process. Change is good, but not easy. Another special appreciation to Virginia Sorkin for contacting individuals who needed support with the process of joining online. Theresa Bratt kept us all moving especially with the National AAUW staff.

Current Membership Statistics

Candace L. Lilyquist, VP Membership

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Lunch Bunch

The day of the meetings has changed to Thursdays. Please contact Mary Beth Pelosky or Meg Tuccillo if you would like to join us once, twice, or every third Thursday of the month! We provide sliced chicken, a big salad, cookies and a fruit at each meeting. Our theme for this year is “The Immigrant’s Story”.

Mary Beth Pelosky, Lunch Bunch

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Title IX: Karen Darner Remembers 50 years and Counting

The first Arlington governmental committee I was appointed to when I served on the Committee on the Status of Women was one that organized a group of women to work with school administrators and elementary and secondary teachers to help put in place a response to have Title IX in the public schools. The women on the committee from the Status of Women were Republican and Democratic supporters of equal pay for women, passage of Title IX to help equalize sports offerings in high school and college settings, and the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment among the States. We were to work with high school administrators on the requirements for Title IX as it began in our public schools.

It was a very tough audience in each secondary school, and administrators began by grilling us on how the “need” was determined, and the concern that money would be diverted from boys’ sports programs to begin the girls’ sports competition. Occasionally a teacher would ask questions on how the implementation and monitoring of compliance would be achieved. Many suggested they were encouraged to participate in developing a compliance model for the schools.

In general. staff at all four high schools were not comfortable, nor supportive of the changes that were about to be made. But … we plowed ahead for the next ten years to fund and establish a variety of quality sports programs, for secondary school girls in Arlington. Our Arlington Public School’s Human Relations Department provided numerous enrichment courses to all staff in elementary and secondary grades, and Arlington co-sponsored workshops with American University. Scholarships or women in athletics became a reality,

The Virginia Education Association established additional workshops in regional areas that provided teachers and principals and professors of college education courses with background information about Title IX, what our responsibilities as educators were to our students to comply, and we trained may classroom teachers on how to monitor what their school districts were doing to comply with the 1972 federal law. During the next year, with Eleanor Saslaw, a Fairfax high school counselor, who eventually became a member of the State Board of Education, Mimi Dash, a Fairfax classroom teacher, and I, a speech and language therapist in Arlington Public Schools,  traveled around the state .

We compiled ideas for implementation of not only Title IX intentions, but ways to increase teachers’ awareness of sex role stereotyping in their teaching of students of all ages, and how to provide instruction in a nondiscriminatory manner. Fortunately, many people offered ideas and we were able to distribute these lesson plans and instruction materials when we presented  workshops, most of which were held on Saturdays.

At one time, we thought Title IX and reduction of sex-role stereotyping would never be eliminated, but eventually we realized that as both were presented in school districts, teachers began to recognize the potential of equal access to sports programs – a wealth of extraordinary scholarships for girls and women and success in high school and college, and then lead to professional careers. And, when a student heard that “s/he” could attain academic or athletic success. it opened her or his eyes to that possibility, no matter what gender.

One final note – A Fairfax Circuit Court Judge, Johanna Fitzpatrick was on a panel with me one year as we celebrated Women’s History Month, She had become a judge many years before, when her son was very young, and she was about to be sworn in as a member of the Virginia Court of Appeals. She said that recently her son had asked her ,”Mom, can a man become a judge, too?” “Of course”, she said with a smile. “If he works very hard and is qualified”.  You see – her son had only known and seen a female judge, his mother, all those years, So the hope continues that more and more young children will be exposed to women AND men in a variety of occupations and professions, including elective offices – and then they will be able to envision no barriers to their participation and success in the future.

Karen Darner, Co-President

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AAUW Calendar

Our AAUW Calendar has moved to google which means you can check it online from the website or subscribe and see it directly on your phone or laptop! Additional information about the events is available by clicking the item.  Contact Teri at newsarlvaaauw@gmail.com if you have any questions.

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Arlington AAUW Executive Committee 2022-23

Term began July 1, 2022

• Co-Presidents: Terry Bratt (2021-2023) and Karen Darner (2021-2023) presarlvaaauw@gmail.com
• First VP for Programs: Meg Tuccillo (2021-2023)
• Second VPs for Membership:  Candace L. Lilyquist (2022-2024)
• Third VP for Communications: Teri Doxsee (2021-2023) newsarlvaaauw@gmail.com
• Secretary: Denise M. Hassanein (2022-2024)
• Treasurer: Mary Spatz (2022-2024)
• Public Policy: Sara Anderson