Association of Universalist Women Annual Report 2008-09

Submitted by 2008-09 AUW President, Betsy Allis

Programming  
This year, AUW continued its vibrant menu of programming with a focus on spiritual deepening, community building, and engaging UUs in women’s justice work. We brought women together for our usual roster of events—our “green” Fall Kickoff, Holiday Tea, AUW Sunday and Saturday workshop featuring Ruth MacKenzie (in honor of our sesquicentennial year), a spring Retreat for 85 women, and our Year-end Potluck Gathering & Annual Meeting. We also offered seven Friday Get Connected gatherings on topics ranging from ethical wills to caring for self to deep ancestry and supported both ongoing and new Friendship Groups. In addition, we organized the fourth annual multi-generational reading of Julia Ward Howe’s Mother’s Day Proclamation and helped host the special sesquicentennial luncheon for long time members of First Universalist Church.  In support of our goal to build more coherence in our programming, the AUW board chose a program theme “Nourishment for the Journey” which linked with the Retreat theme, “Nurturing our Spiritual Garden.”  Our women’s justice program has continued to do excellent work.

Faith to Action
Voting Rights: Sacred Franchise Campaign

  1. Served as members of the Election Day Community Coalition (organized by Minneapolis Urban League) in partnering with African American churches to register over 500 voters in precincts with historically low-voter turnout and help with election-day Get Out The Vote efforts. This collaboration gave us first-hand knowledge on issues related to racism and voting per the Responsive Resolution the VR Campaign organized and passed at the ’07 UUA General Assembly.
  2. Participated in the 2008 post-election audit and Senate recount as trained, non-partisan observers.  The ‘08 election validated the integrity and precision of Minnesota’s voting systems and procedures.  Scrutiny of 3 million votes produced no allegations of identity fraud. See www.ceimn.org  report of the audit and recount observers produced by campaign partner, Citizens for Election Integrity Minnesota.
  3. Expanded our MUUSJA/AUW Working Group and programs to include more UU congregations, including First Universalist, Groveland, MN Valley, FUS, and Dakota. 
  4. Participated in two programs at UUA ’09 General Assembly related to election integrity and transparency: “Strengthening Democracy Now” on 6/26 featuring two UU Secretaries of State, Mark Ritchie of MN and Debra Bowen of CA and a workshop sponsored by our VR campaign: “Does Touchscreen Voting Violate the 5th Principle?” withUtah County Clerk Bruce Funk telling his story of how he exposed national security risks in the state-imposed touch-screen systems, his ouster from elected office, and his ideas for how to ensure fair, accurate elections.

Reproductive Justice: Sacred Choices Campaign

  1. Education—Engaged 61 youth and adults from metro UU congregations in a film showing and discussion of a film about Shelby Knox (who advocated for comprehensive sexuality education in Texas) and in signing postcards to support relevant legislation. The campaign also engaged UU women in reflecting on the Faith & Choices with a PSD workshop in April and F&C groups at MN Valley and White Bear UU Fellowships.
  2. Witness & Advocacy—Advocated for comprehensive sexuality education and choice on MN Pro Choice Lobby Day by delivering signed 124 postcards to state legislators.  Helped mobilize engagement of 25 UUs in the Multi Faith Pro-Choice prayer service on Good Friday.  Supported staff of key metro abortion clinics with “thank you bags” on the day of Good Friday protests by the religious right.
  3. Strengthened campaign partners in their social change work—Raised more than $1300 for campaign partner, the MN Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice and staffed RCRC table at PSD meeting. Supported Reproductive Justice campaign leader, Jody Beresford and UU seminary, Kelli Clement in their work on the RCRC board. Donated money and supported activities and work of the MN UU Social Justice Alliance in return for significant staff support by MUUSJA organizer, Ralph Wyman. 
  4. Leadership Development—Engaged five campaign members in attending a MUUSJA workshop called “Organizing in a Movement Moment.” Supported campaign member Kathleen Hollinger in becoming MUUSJA board chair. Kathleen will be mentored by outgoing chair.

Organizational Development  The AUW Board also focused on some special projects to strengthen our organization. Here’s what we did:

  1. Established an Executive Committee (AUW pres., secretary, and treasurer) to organize Board work.
  2.  Improved the way we manage our finances with a new budget format, an effort led by Liz Permar. We tabled these goals: to solicit workplans/budgets from all areas of AUW as part of developing next year’s budget and developing spending guidelines and an online payment mechanism. 
  3. Improved our membership system with a new Membership Form that can be completed online and a roster meticulously updated by Martha Bird Moulai.  To attract members, we developed a new brochure, and membership form, a banner, and some new displays for the AUW Table. We provided a way to sign up for programs online and more financial support to enable women in need to attend our programs. We tabled several other goals—a photo directory, a strategy for tracking member involvement, and leadership development opportunities.  AUW membership totaled 119 this year. 
  4. Increased involvement by young women in AUW by at least 10-15.
  5. Improved our process for recruiting Board candidates with more analysis of board needs and more dialogue with board candidates, an effort led by Kit Ketchum.
  6. Improved our programming with an initiative to surveyour membership about the Friday Get Connected program and to write reports about events with enough detail to enable new leaders to step in and successfully plan programs. Jeni Klotz led these projects.
  7. Enhanced AUW’s visibility with an amazing new website with multiple paths and many visuals thanks to our web designer/developer, Judy Goebel. In January we introduced our beautiful new brochure and banner, designed by Kelly Newcomer. And Kathy Urberg continued to embellish our already wonderful online newsletter. Sandra Breuer kept our events calendar updated. We also created a Communications Committee to oversee projects and create a communications’ protocol.  Kit Ketchum began operationalizing our Gmail office so board members can more easily access board documents.
  8. Continued our tradition of honoring special contributions plus the work we did together as part of our annual meeting. This year we honored Frank Bacon, Judy Goebel, Mary Junge, Kelly Newcomer, Joyce Sutherland, Caren Stelson, and our interim minister, the Rev. Charlotte Cowtan.
  9. Organized an AUW GA Task Force to determine programming for GA 2010, to be convened by new president, Liz Permar. 

Gift to First Universalist Church
The Board also presented the church with a gift of $4500 to be used for the purchase of a new dishwasher.

We warmly thank the women of AUW and our beloved ministers for all they did to strengthen and deepen our organization and our community of UU women!  

  
     
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