Day 2 at state convention: Good Day, Irene!

Greetings from the Otesaga Hotel in beautiful downtown Cooperstown, where the women are most definitely above average! ;)

Breaking news
The state delegates overwhelmingly passed the new and improved Clean Money, Clean Elections resolution at the business meeting on Saturday morning — hurray! AAUW NYS will post it on their Web site and send some official information about it to the branches soon.

Got inspiration?
We heard from more excellent women on Saturday, at the podium and in the audience, including LAF Luncheon guest speaker Claire Shuster (more info). Claire Schuster, a tenured Associate Professor of Nursing at Berea College, spoke of her suit for sex discrimination in pay.

Patricia Smith, New York State Commissioner of Labor, related her efforts to enforce the minimum wage law on behalf of employees of New York City greengrocers (receiving $250 a week for 72 hours work), deliverymen for A and P and Gristedes (paid $2 an hour), and bathroom attendants in nightclubs and restaurants (no pay; charged $25 to $50 a week for the opportunity for tips). She pointed out that legislation is useless without enforcement, and enforcement requires budgeted money.

Christianne Corbett, Research Associate at AAUW’s national office, gave a preview of the upcoming report, “Where the Girls Are”. Both genders and all ethnic and income groups have been making gradual but steady improvement in test scores, with boys continuing to do better on average in math and girls higher on average in verbal skills. Since white, Hispanic, and Asian males continue to attend college in larger numbers that females in the same groups, the so-called “boy’s crisis” turns out to be more specifically a crisis for black men, who are far less likely than black women to earn degrees.

Carolyn Donovan, AAUW’s representative to the United Nations, updated us Sunday on her efforts on women’s education, the status of women, and women’s human rights. She has worked to include “and girls” in each statement for women’s rights. She pointed out that the United States is the only major nation of the 7 countries who have not ratified CEDAW, the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.

P. S. Has anyone heard from The Capitol Gang?

Kingston Branch Receives President's Award - Honorable Mention

It's the first night of the AAUW NYS Convention and we're already receiving recognition. This is the first year of the President's Award. The plan is to recognize two branches that implemented exemplary mission-related programs. Well, we didn't receive the award, but they felt they wanted to recognize Kingston for our use of technology. Here's Irene Miller, Ruth Wahtera, and Susan Holland with our Honorable Mention certificate. We are delighted to have our work recognized.

This afternoon at the resolution caucus, we were surprised by some opposition to the Clean Election resolution. Some members expressed concern that this effort would divert members from the AAUW NYS public policy goals. We think it is central to accomplishing our goals. So tonight the three of us worked on an amendment we'll propose tomorrow. The amendment clearly states the relationship between Clean Elections and our goals. Wish us luck.

Lilly Ledbetter was the keynote speaker tonight. Her story is compelling and it extends beyond the Supreme Court ruling.

For two decades at Goodyear Tire, Lilly Ledbetter was paid less than any man in her position. The Supreme Court ruled that since she did not file suit within 180 days of receiving the first discriminatory paycheck (even though the company forbade employees to reveal their salaries) she is unable to ever collect any back pay. A bill in Congress to make the 180 day clock start after each act of discrimination failed this week to get enough votes in the Senate to avoid a filibuster or override a veto threat.

She spends much of her time now working for passage of the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. She reported on her week in Washington and how close we came. But not close enough.

So that's the news from Cooperstown. What's happening with that tour of Washington, folks? Or, did you leave your computers home???