Who We Are

Message from the President

President’s Message

June 2010

With summer vacation just around the corner, many of you are planning a time to get away from the normal routine.  This past month your board did just that as they got away for a day together in New York City for a board retreat.  For 9 intense hours we discussed the future of our organization.

We started with what is the box that we have created (the structure of our organization) since we began just 2 ½ years ago.  We looked at our mission, created a vision statement based on the vision statement of the International Federation of University Women, developed a list of our core values and approved our operational criteria. 

But the exciting time was when we decided that we needed to get out of this box of job descriptions, by-laws, and policies, and think creatively about how we can be even better.  Two ideas were approved immediately. 

The first is the creation of a student membership at ½ the cost of a regular membership.  We used the language of the Canadian Federation of University Women. 

We also approved the establishment of rapporteurs to identify program focuses.  See the May issue of The Flame for a more complete explanation of this exciting new role.  Ideally every member will find a way to be involved in Women Graduates-USA.  The program committee is also seeking members to expand program task forces around the issues of education for girls, trafficking of women and girls and the Ratification of CEDAW.  If one of these issues is your passion, we welcome your stepping forward to say; yes I want to be involved.

Numerous other ideas were presented.  Some that are yet to be developed include activating a resolution committee and process, creating a process for vetting issues on which we take positions and joining the Civil Society Network of the United Nations.

We discussed our involvement at the International Federation of University Women’s Conference in Mexico City as well as at the Commission of Status of Women 2011 in New York City.  Hopefully many of you can attend one or both of these meetings. 

But most of all we want to build on our uniqueness.  And in doing this we know we need to grow the organization.  Each of you can help us as everyone needs to recruit. 

Help us continue to think out of the box.  Our cardboard mailing box that started the retreat became a recyclable cloth bag that could be folded up and snapped together for each packing.  As we said when we got done, our box did not become a balloon that was full of air or helium that might float off but was grounded in practicality and reality. 

Florine Swanson

>> President's Message March 2010

>> President's Message January 2010