September Trip Planned

Linda Gold and the American Association of University Women present:

Michelangelo & Monet’s Giverny in the Finger Lakes

September 7-8, 2008

$465 per person based on double occupancy/ $100 single supplement

Slip away and indulge yourself for two days of magnificent art and a stay at a luxurious four-star inn in the Finger Lakes Wine Country. Whether you’re sipping wine, soaking in the beautiful mineral pool, or discovering the joy of seeing Michelangelo’s drawings, this will be a trip you’ll never forget. Bring your camera, your sketchbook and your watercolors: this is a setting to inspire artists and art lovers alike.

We’ll be privileged to view the exhibit, titled “Michelangelo: The Man and the Myth,” organized by the Casa Buonarroti in Florence, Italy, in association with the Syracuse University Art Galleries. The exhibition will include more than a dozen original drawings and writings by the Renaissance master. Since there are few drawings and no paintings or sculpture by Michelangelo in current American art collections, this exhibition will temporarily more than double the number of Michelangelo masterpieces in the United States, presenting a unique opportunity for those who have never seen his original work. These treasures are rarely seen in public, even in Florence, because they need to be kept protected from the damaging effects of light. Our tour will be self-guided, allowing us enough time to view the original work of this Renaissance genius.

Accommodations are at the Mirbeau Inn and Spa in Skaneateles, NY. This four-star resort is an absolute wow, reminiscent of an old world country estate. All guest rooms feature a cozy fireplace, gorgeous oversized bathrooms and a view of a pond and impressionist gardens inspired by Monet’s home in Giverny, outside of Paris. You’ll view the waterlillies, the blue footbridge and the hanging wisteria. Our four-course dinner at “Giverny” is an elegant, culinary treat. The luxurious, world-class spa has a sauna, exercise room, and large aqua terrace with waterfall, open hearth, heated towels and steamy in-ground whirlpool.

We’ll visit the complex of MacKenzie-Childs, an internationally acclaimed design firm with the most unique, whimsical, creative home furnishings collection that will knock your socks off. We’ll take a tour of the restored 1870 Victorian farmhouse, sit by the duck pond, view the beautiful gardens, or browse the magnificent gift shop. Before leaving the area, we’ll stop for a wine tasting at the King Ferry Winery. On the return trip we’ll enjoy a delicious box dinner with wine while reminiscing with old and new friends about our memorable Finger Lakes experience.

The fee covers the motorcoach, luxury accommodations in a four-star inn, five meals including one dinner in the four-diamond restaurant of the inn (one lunch is dutch-treat); admission to Michelangelo: The Man and the Myth, tour of MacKenzie Childs Victorian farmhouse, private tour and wine tasting at the vineyard, handling of one piece of luggage and all gratuities.

The bus leaves on Sunday, September 7, at 8:15am from the front of the Monticello Government Center on North Street and 9:30am from the rear of the former Ames parking lot (now Steve & Barry’s) in the Kingston Plaza. To reserve, make your check payable to “AAUW – Kingston”, include your phone # and mail it to: Linda Gold, 1 Jacobs Lane, New Paltz, NY 12561. For further information, call 845-255-5256 or email artladyLG@aol.com. Specify “art tours” in the space for “subject” so that your message is not deleted. A deposit of $200 is due with your reservation and full payment is due by August 5. There will be no refunds after August 5, unless the spot is filled. Your early sign-up is needed since the hotel has to be paid in full and cannot guarantee holding the rooms beyond the date mentioned. The assigned bus seating is on a first-come first-served basis. We’re looking forward to sharing this trip with you.

President's Letter: AAUW Diversity Scholarship Party

Past President Arlene Bruck mentioned last winter that it had been the AAUW custom to have a summertime cocktail party with spouses and guests. That idea sounded great fun to me. It has since grown into an informal gathering with wine, soft drinks and appetizers in a charming Rondout art gallery. Arlene is planning the food, so please contact her with what you will bring. She also has a letter I have written for merchants to take to your favorite store for a donation platter or bottle. Doris and I are doing the publicity. We ask you to bring a guest or two -- the space is large enough for that! Also there's a pleasant collaboration between area poets and artists to view. Mostly it's a party yet also a fundraiser for our Kingston High School Diversity scholarship and gift card program. We would love to have your RSVP so we can plan well. Affectionately, Garnette




DATE: Saturday, July 19
TIME: 4 - 6 p.m.

LOCATION: ASK Gallery
97 Broadway, Rondout, Kingston

VisuaLit Art Show
artists inspired by literature

with appetizers, wine
and
soft libations

"Grace" by Anita DeFina Hadley

Suggested donation $15 for Kingston High School AAUW - Diversity Scholarships
Additional contributions appreciated yet any amount welcome

Everybody come, enjoy the evening. Bring friends.

Chairperson Arlene Bruck (corrected phone number 845- 331-3015)



If you cannot come and wish to contribute, send checks to Kingston AAUW
PO Box 14, Glenford, NY 12433. For AAUW information, call 845-704-2120

Invitation designed by Garnette Arledge

Kingston's Lisa Library needs volunteers to help get new books to underpriviledged children

Recently I met with a team of six retired teachers from Poughkeepsie AAUW Branch at the non-profit Lisa Library, located at 77 Cornell St across from the 'new' Kingston main postoffice. The room is filled with bookshelves of publisher's over runs, all brand new children's books that need to be easily scanned and shipped out to prisons, after-school programs, and underfunded children's libraries. The prison project entails providing the incarcerated with recording devises and books age appropriate as bedtime stories for their children back home, i.e. Bedford Hills Women's facility.

Lisa Library's manager, Elisa Gelibtier, who lives in Saugerties, would welcome a team of us coming in for two hours once or twice a month to help. There's no lifting of heavy boxes involved. Please email me with your interest at kaauw12401@gmail.com. I will coordinate with Elisa and all interested to set up a beneficent time. Elisa was happy we might come, especially as their air conditioning starts this week. See below for the email from Betty Harrel of the Poughkeepsie Branch. Let's grow a Leading to Reading project here. Then we can donate to Ulster County groups through Lisa Library as Poughkeepsie does in Dutchess. Let me know about your enthusiasm. Cordially, Garnette,

Dear Garnette, As part of the Poughkeepsie Branch Leading to Reading project, we have been volunteering at the Lisa Libraries warehouse in Kingston. It is a foundation which donates books to groups working with underprivileged children across the country. They've donated a number of books to our project, and we wanted to thank them in a small way.

They recently installed a computer system and are in the process of entering their inventory into the system. Some of our members are going up this summer to help. They're also very interested in working with the Kingston Branch.

Do you think any of your members would be interested in volunteering? I can put you in touch with the manager, Elisa Gelibtier. We've enjoyed working with her and I know she'd love to work with your branch as well.

Thanks for your help!

Betty Harrel

Garden City AAUW Celebrates "Clean Elections" Resolution

Past and Present Presidents of Garden City AAUW and Public Policy Chairperson meet Assemblyman McKevitt (left to right) Georgene Harrison (Co President), Margaret Delahunt, Rose Ann Palmer (Public Policy Chairperson) Assemblyman McKevitt, Mary Knox, Jane Cox (standing) and Sylvia Ebert (Co-President)


Nice going AAUW Garden City! Read this Clean Elections article in the Garden City News:

Women (AAUW) are in a celebratory mood over passage of a 'Clean Elections' resolution at the organization's annual state convention. (See end of article to read the resolution} The branch Public Policy Study Group chose 'Clean Elections' for its annual project, then arranged to have a Resolution: Clean Money: Clean Elections presented by its author, Ms. Irene Miller, AAUW member and member of the Board of Trustees of 'Citizens' Action New York' at the New York State AAUW convention at Cooperstown in April. The resolution passed by an overwhelming majority vote and will be presented to the New York State Legislature.

The reason for celebrating is that 'Clean Elections' could save taxpayers lots of money, allow candidates to run for state offices without begging for dollars, and restore the principle of one person, one vote. How? By providing full and equal public funding to all qualified candidates who refuse private money so that they can feel free to work in the public's interest rather than in that of contributors to their next campaign." [Read more]

That's the kind of press we need all over the state. And, our own Kingston Branch member (Public Policy Chair) Irene Miller, wrote and sheparded the proposal through the state convention. Thanks, Irene.

6/24/08: Annual meeting and picnic

Tuesday, June 24
4 PM to 7 PM
Rotary Park at Kingston Point
Delaware Avenue (end), Kingston

The park has a pavilion, gazebos, and a scenic view of the Hudson River. Parking is ample and convenient.

What to bring:
- A salad or dessert to share
- Your choice of beverage (no glass containers, please)
- Your checkbook to pay your dues ($67 to AAUW Kingston)
- Your appetite!

The annual meeting will be brief. We'll be electing officers. Here's the slate:

President: Garnette Arledge
Program Vice President: Bette Nitzky
Corresponding Secretary: Denise Springer

Thank you to our outgoing officers! —
Anne Gordon (Program VP) and Kathy Pauker (Corr. Sec'y)

Reminder to go on AAUW Trips; New Trip Coordinator Needed ASAP

Please click on the link to the right for Trip Reservations and information. Some delightful opportunities ahead.

However, I have just accepted a demanding position and will be unable to continue as Trip Coordinator. The detail work has been streamlined as part of my commitment to fill in. So thanks to our high-technology mentors, now passengers are able to register directly on-line into a nifty tally sheet, actually a Goggle spreadsheet. No more hand entering or excel speadsheet. It's really become so efficient, there's little fuss any longer. Also you get to work very, very closely with Vivi, which could be a joy for you. And go on these great trips as well as the honorarium stipend. Please consider carefully, talk with Vivi. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity for this position in this past year and find I cannot do both new job and trips.

Branch awards and recognition!...

....received at the 2008 AAUW-NYS Convention in Cooperstown

President's Award: Honorable Mention
for our Communication Upgrade Project (CUP)

Bina Roy Blue Ribbon Award
First Place in NYS in fundraising for the Bina Roy Partners in Development Program

Educational Foundation
Tenth Place in NYS in total contributions
2007 contribution: $1,377.01 (per capita: $12.29)

Legal Advocacy Fund
- 5% increase in giving for 2007
- Kingston is a Star Branch (we raised $5 or more per member)
- LAF Major Donors 2007, NYS LAF Giving Circle , $50 to $99
Susan Holland

Membership recognition
Keys to the Future: Every Member Get a Member
Kingston is one of the NYS branches in the Association Hall of Fame with credit for members who have recruited new members (7/06 to 4/08)
Bette Nitzky recruited 12 new members during this time frame.

From: Eileen Hartmann, AAUW-NYS Membership VP (now AAUW-NYS President)
To: Bette Nitzky -- "Congratulations! You are an Association Hall of Fame Member! Thank you for your membership recruitment efforts for AAUW-NYS 2007-2008!"

Emerging Leaders 2008
Ruth Wahtera served as newsletter editor and created the Communication Committee. A former hospital administrator, she used her leadership skills and technological expertise to become the Web consultant. The branch Web site / blog includes community enrichment features, personal essays, and an event calendar. It has had more than 700 unique visitors from 160 different countries.

Newsletter of Excellence Award
For the Kingston Branch Focus (congrats again, Ruth!).

The Clean Money, Clean Elections resolution proposed by Irene Miller was passed!

AAUW BOOK CLUB Reading List for Sept. ’08 to June 2009

From Marjorie Regan:

1.Sept. 16, 2008 The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid . Changez, a Princeton educated Pakistani has a wonderful job in NYC until 9-11 changes everything.

2.Oct. 21, 2008 Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. A Baptist Missionary from Georgia, brings his wife and four daughters to the Belgian Congo. He doesn’t understand the culture or the events as the country becomes Zaire. “ The women tell the tale.”

3 Nov. 18, 2008 Memories, Dreams and Reflections by Carl G. Jung. This is Jung’s partly autobiographical exploration into the psyche. He works to create balance and harmony and to “integrate spirituality and unconscious realms.”

4.Dec. 16, 2008 Vivi Hlvasa will help us explore the poems in Section 2 of the looseleaf binder that she has assembled. The binder can be purchased or borrowed from the library.

5.January 20,2009 The Grave Diggers Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates. NYT book review says this is the story of “a woman whose family fled Hitler, and she, in turn flees the dangerous men in her life.”

6. Feb. 17,2009 The Known World by E. P. Jones. Before the Civil War, a black slave buys his freedom and then buys black men to work for him.

7. March 17, 2009 The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton. This heroine in early 20^th century New York has no fortune and is unable to find her place in the upper .level of society. Fictional depiction of the rigid class system of the time.

8. April 21, 2009 Enemy Women by Paulette Jiles- (BCB) Adair Colley, an 18 year old girl in Missouri at the time of the Civil War is arrested by the Union Army as an Enemy Woman. She is interrogated by a Union Major and they fall in love.

9. May 19, 2009 Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. A hurt Mt. climber builds schools in Afganistan. This is a true story.

10. June 16, 2009 Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane. Henry Fleming is a teenager who joins the Union Army during the Civil War. He is fearful of killing and dying and friends betray his fears. His wound is the red badge of courage. This is a coming of age story that does NOT glorify war. It has been called the first modern American novel.

Photo by Diamond Geyser

Transitions - Claire Knickmeyer

Our best wishes go to Claire Knickmeyer and her husband as they begin a new phase in their lives. We'll miss you and wish you well.

Our move is planned for June 20 and I am really sorry to miss the picnic - always a highlight for AAUW members, but since I won't be there to say "Goodbye" to all of you, I'll take this opportunity to say that knowing and working with you - and you - and you too, was a real blessing to me.

The Kingston Branch is a wonderful group of women (you didn't need me to tell you that!) and it's been a privilege to serve with you all. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I'll send our new address and phone # (when we have both - soon, I hope) so that you can let me know when you want to visit us at Ann's Choice in Warminster, PA.

Fondly, Claire Knickmeyer

Claire contributed to our branch in too many ways to list. She was president from 2002-2004 and, with her husband Ken, published our directory.

Branch Voter Registration & Education Drive

From Janine Mower:

The AAUW Branch voter registration and education drive will begin in July with a TV show on Woodstock public access channel 23 - date and time to be announced.

Volunteers are welcome to come to Mower's Saturday, Sunday, and Wednesday Markets to staff a card table

for voter registration and education beginning Wednesday, July 2. I will provide the card table; volunteers need to bring their own folding chairs. I will obtain the voter registration forms from the board of elections.

More details to follow in the next week or so; watch the KAAUW blog.