I am really looking forward to the coming year.  As a branch, we have so many good irons in the fire!  Co-President Jody will report in this space also about her foci for the year , so stay tuned for that.

I will focus on three areas that address our (local and national) need for younger member involvement and recruiting.

1. The first is called the Younger Women’s Task Force. https://www.aauw.org/membership/ywtf/

I am actively looking for someone to start this for us here in Puerto Rico. YWTF members are automatically AAUW members. They will be a semi-autonomous group from our branch and will have their own organizational structure, officers, program etc. The group is designed to be a social justice focused organization for women in their 20s and 30s. Because their concerns and issues are closely aligned with ours, the “semi” in the semi-autonomous will be our branch support, via womanpower, experience and resources.

2. The second initiative I would like to get started this year is an effort to recruit college and university partners (C/U Partners https://www.aauw.org/membership/college-university-partner/ ). Not only are the students of partner organizations all eligible for AAUW e-student affiliate membership, but are candidates for many other programs that AAUW has – both nationally and locally. Locally, for example, they become NCCSWL applicant material, and nationally we can make sure they know of the grants and fellowships they can apply for.

Additionally, my third initiative for this year, Tech Savvy requires a C/U partner campus on which to conduct the workshop. A C/U partner also gives us where to push for other AAUW grants like the current one offered through AAUW by Pantene on combating gender stereotypes.

3. The third initiative, as I mentioned, is bringing Tech Savvy to Puerto Rico (https://www.aauw.org/what-we-do/stem-education/tech-savvy/ ). Tech Savvy is an expanded and scripted version of our homegrown STEM BRIDGE initiative that has tracks for both the girls and the adults who advise them (parents and teachers, school counselors, etc.) Once we have at least one C/U partner we can begin to prepare our application to become a pilot site in 2016. A lot of advance work and planning will be necessary even to submit an application, so I want to get started now.

If you are interested in working with me, or just giving me your opinions on these endeavors, email me at aauwpr@gmail.com

Betsy Parker, September 2014