Text Box: Volume 29, Number 10 June/July, 2009 Page # Text Box: News & Notes Text Box: The theme was “Choices for Women in a Changing World”. All of the lunch and dinner speakers had topics relating to choice. The conference began with Friday night’s dinner and keynote speakers Dr. Gloria Salemo and Dr. Emelise Aleandri, who talked about their experiences being bullied in their jobs, their attempts to resolve the situation and how they eventually decided to take legal action. I expected their talk to have a resolution to their bullying experiences, but the matter is still in litigation. They plan to write a book about their story. Our keynote speaker for Saturday’s lunch was Cylvia Hayes, of 3E Strategies in Bend. She talked about sustainable practices in building, energy, and the economy as well as what we can do as individuals to promote sustainability. Saturday afternoon we had a Town Hall meeting about the proposed Association bylaws changes. The discussion was mainly about the Text Box: proposed change to allow anyone to become a member of AAUW, with no educational requirements. One exercise that we did was to write a list of the most influential women in our life. Then we took a look at the list to see who would not be able to be an AAUW member because she lacked the educational requirements. Women such as Oprah and Ellen DeGeneres would not be qualified. After doing this exercise, we discussed how we now felt about the bylaws change. Our Saturday night dinner featured two speakers who are doctoral candidates and recipients of 2008-9 AAUW American Fellowships. Sara Jaquette Ray read from her dissertation, entitled “The Ecological Other: Indians, Immigrants and Invalids in U.S. Environmental Thought, Literature and Activism.” Devora Shamah is a grad student at OSU. She talked about her project “Looking Toward the Future: Examining Aspirations Among Rural Text Box: Youth”. She found that if rural youth were introduced to the idea of going to college, they set college as their goal and took education more seriously. We concluded with lunch and an inspirational speaker, Tammy Baney, Deschutes County Commissioner. She talked about her life as the abused wife of a drug addict, her decision to leave the marriage, her struggles as a single parent, her accomplishments on governmental commissions dealing with children and families, and her volunteer work with many non-profit organizations. She credits her upbringing with the outlook that she could accomplish anything that she made her mind up to do. We felt that the conference was worthwhile and the presentations were informative. Next year’s state convention will be April 23-25 2010, in Wilsonville.

Highlights of the AAUW of Oregon 84th Convention in Bend, April 24-26
Text Box: Shaunia Banks, a senior at Western Oregon University, was awarded a $100 scholarship to attend the National Conference for College Women Student Leaders in June at the University of Maryland. The program, Leadership for Today and Tomorrow, is intended to build Text Box: leadership skills, advocacy, and networking. Shaunia is majoring in Social Science, and plans to attend graduate school at OSU in 2010. In her various jobs on campus, she has been a resource for students and has helped with students’ Text Box: transition to college life. Her goal is to work for a non-profit organization that helps women and children who are in difficult family situations.

Scholarship to NCCWSL Conference Awarded