By: Daneene Monroe Rusnak
2^nd Vice President of Advocacy, NFBPWC 2020-2024

 

As we work towards achieving gender equality, we must take concrete steps to support the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). To help in this effort, we have put together a checklist of action items that can make a real difference in advancing women's rights. We encourage you to review these action items and consider how you can contribute to the cause. Let's work together to ensure that all individuals, regardless of gender, have equal rights and opportunities under the law.

 Use our One Click Politics widget to tell your members of Congress to support SJ Res 4 and HJ Res 25 to remove the arbitrary deadline on the ERA

• Bonus points if you use the widget to make calls to your MOC

• Extra bonus points if you use the social sharing buttons to post the campaign on social media

• Extra, Extra bonus points if you record and send a video.

Consider using this virtual background for your submission (and anytime you're in a virtual meeting!)

QReview the Republican Cosponsor/Discharge Petition Targets. lf you reside in the states of Representative on these lists or have organizational members, family or friends who do, please reach out to them

OThe Discharge Petition for H.3. Res. 25 will move the bill out of committee without action by the committee chair onto the House floor for a vote. It needs 218 signatures, as oL176/24, 203 blouse members had signed the Petition. We are 15 signatures away from getting the bill to the floor. Adding seven or eight of these Representatives shouldn’t be that hard, but they need to know that our ERA advocates are watching: Discharge Petition Outreach list of  current cosponsors.

QSign the national student-led Sign4ERA petition 

OThis national petition campaign supporting the Equal Rights Amendment, initiated by Hunter College students, now has nearly 8O,000 individuals signed up supporting the ERA. The Petition Campaign is an easy way to get members, friends, colleagues and members more involved in getting the ERA Across the harsh line

NFBPWC members are invited to join the A-Team for the next Advocacy Committee Meeting on February 8, 2024.

Vice President of Advocacy, Daneene Monroe Rusnak, will preside as the Committee Chair as we discuss current and future issues, initiatives and goals.

Time Zones:7pm ET | 6pm CT | 5pm MT | 4pm PT

How: Online via Zoom. Details will be provided upon registration.

Who:All interested members are welcome.

Helpful Links:

• Committee webpage

• Projects we are currently focused on 

• View the 2022-2024 Advocacy Platform Flyer

Register at:  https://nfbpwc.wildapricot.org/event-5485102

By: Kathy Kelly
1^st Vice President of Membership, NFBPWC (2021-2024)

Welcome BPW Washington!

It’s official!  We have a new Affiliate charter for Washington state.  We want to congratulate President Rosalind Scott and the 17 Founding Members and welcome them back to BPW National and International.  We are looking forward to many more BPW WA joining us in the months ahead.

Patrice Beckwith	Judith Johnson-Keyt
Betty Buckley	Milly Lewendon
Katerina Canyon	Katherine Meade
Diane Duranti	Jacqueline Petrick-Lee
Peggy Harris	Patty Slagle
Michael Healy	Nancy Sorensen
Evelyn Hinken	Sylvia E. Valine
Jayne Huston	Margaret Way

NEW AND RENEWING MEMBERS IN JANUARY

RENEW	Dr. Trish Knight	Virtual (Gypsy)
RENEW	Michele Guarino	Virtual (Maine)
RENEW	Barbara Schmouder	Virtual (PA)
RENEW	Titilola Adisa	Virtual (Georgia)
RENEW	Daneene Monroe Rusnak	Virtual (Ohio
New	Roberta Sexton	Michigan
New	Dana Brown	Michigan
New	Patrizia Hironimus	California - Chico
RENEW	Carolyn Grady	Virtual (Wisconsin)
New	Carolina Flores-Helizon	California - El Monte
New/Renew	Betty Allums	California - Berkeley
New/Renew	Theresa Amador	California - East LA Montebello
New	Lalwani Muskan	California - Burbank
New	Stacy Gonyou	Colorado - Boulder
New	Frances August	Colorado - Boulder
New	Tracey MacDermott	Colorado - Denver
RENEW	Linda Miller	Virtual (Ohio)
New	Denise Stepanik	Pennsylvania
New	Beth Gibson Lilja	VPennsylvania
New	Elizabeth (Anne Marie) Mitchell	California - East LA Montebello

2023 Membership Reconciliations

I want to personally thank the Federation and Affiliate presidents, membership chairs and others who supported the process to report our year-end membership numbers to BPW International.  Although we did experience some attrition with two clubs folding, we are so excited to report that, at this writing, we are reporting 439 NFBPWC members, 24 students for a total of 463 members.  The 2023 official count was 342 members. That is an official 35% increasein our overall NFBPWC membership.  Well done ladies!

In a time when most community service organizations are declining, BPW continues to attract amazing women from all over the United States who share our mission to be the leading advocate for working women.

We continue to reach out to lapsed members with the hope of converting them back to active membership. To support this effort, the Membership Committee developed a lapsed-member survey to (1) re-engage that member, (2) discover what brought them to BPW initially and (3) support them in finding their BPW niche.  Please find that survey in the Member Resources section (Members Only login) on the NFBPWC website.

We did need to add some members who were missed in the National database.  Be sure to forward your new member’s name, email and club to newmember@nfbpwc.org so we can get welcome them and give them access to all our benefits of membership.

The Membership Committee wishes each of our BPW Sisters a Happy 2024! We have some big plans for this year!

Next, get ready for our BIG membership drive: 

Double or More in 24 

with a chance to win fabulous prizes with every new member you bring in before the National Convention next summer.  More details will follow shortly via email.

The National Membership Committee usually meets on the first and third Mondays of each month, holidays excluded.  In February, we plan to meet on the 5^th and 19^th.  We welcome members to join us and learn more about the tools and events NFBPWC offers that can support your club to “Double or More by ’24!”

Contact Kathy Kelly, vpmembership@nfbpwc.org for more information.

CSW 68 March 11-22, 2024

If you missed our January 23^rd webinar on the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) please contact Kathy Kelly for the recording or check out the CSW portal on our website.  Also, Kathy is collecting NFBPWC members’ names who want to attend and share a room with another member (or 2 or 3) to save on hotel costs.

We have two options in New York City with excellent room rates.  Djenabou Bou is serving as our NFBPWC Travel Agent.  Contact Kathy or Djenabou for more information.

Leadership through Collaboration

NFBPWC offers innumerable leadership opportunities for members at the local, national, and international levels. On February 17^th, NFBPWC and BPW International leaders will be participating in a program to support growth, understanding, and comfort zone for members of organizations, to take positions of leadership, set a clear vision, and make informed decisions for different levels of leadership (https://www.nfbpwc.org/event-5523806). This is an opportunity for members to learn more about being a leader in our organization as we approach the NFBPWC Biennial Conference where nominated members will run for National office. Looking forward to March, BPW International is offering all members the opportunity to apply for the Leaders’ Summit, an in-person event in NYC that will be held immediately prior to the 68^th Commission on the Status of Women (https://www.nfbpwc.org/event-5554512).

We are excited to announce that the partnership between BPW Canada and NFBPWC will bring our organization back to the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) with an approved Parallel Event for the 4^th year in a row! The hybrid event will take place on March 13, 2024, and is a collaboration between the two BPW International Federations (BPW Canada and NFBPWC). NFBPWC Young BPW Emily VanVleck and BPW Canada Past National President Karin Gorgerat are collaborating to bring us another excellent event titled “Global Collaboration to Tackle Period Poverty” (https://www.nfbpwc.org/event-5585243). As we receive more information about other CSW68 events hosted by international members, you will be able to find that information here: https://www.nfbpwc.org/UN-CSW/.

It is my pleasure to formally announce that registration is open for the 2024 NFBPWC Biennial Conference: Equality Has No Deadline! July 18-21, 2024, in King of Prussia, PA. Advanced registration for both members and guests will be available through March 15, 2024. Hotel registration links are also available. This event will offer you the opportunity to connect with other National and International members in Pennsylvania with an incredible schedule already set and continuing to grow. Register here: https://www.nfbpwc.org/event-5451639. The Executive Committee has worked very hard to provide members with the best possible rate for registration by offering Sponsorship Opportunities which can be accessed through this link: https://www.nfbpwc.org/event-5577085. We are pleased to let you know that we have already procured four sponsors to help fund this summer’s event! There are sponsorship opportunities from $100 - $10,000 and EC Secretary, Sondra Nunez, will be leading this effort.

We continue to create programming for our members and guests that increases our propensity for connection and our ability to empower women. There is more to come during the last six months of this term and we cannot wait to share our community with our current and future members!

I look forward to celebrating and honoring one another, as each member brings their own gifts to the conversation.  The women of today need to hear us. The women of tomorrow want to see us standing strong against misogyny, racism, violence, and injustice. We have the power to make a difference as we continue to honor our interconnectedness as humans, more specifically as women.

NFBPWC will continue to light a path for our future that promotes justice, solidarity, diversity, inclusion, innovation, and celebration in 2024. Sending personal wishes of celebration, health, and progress around the globe!

Kind Regards,

Megan Shellman-Rickard, NBPWC President (2020-2024)

By:  Sandra Thompson
NFBPWC’s Immediate Past President

We have lost another female trailblazer, Supreme Court Justice, Sandra Day

O’Connor. She was the FIRST woman to serve as a Supreme Court Justice.

She was born in 1930, in El Paso, Texas. She was the daughter of a rancher and was raised on a 198,000-acre ranch in Arizona. At the age of 16 she enrolled in Stanford University. She graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in economics in 1950. She remained at Stanford Law School. She served on the Stanford Law Review. Day received the Order of the Coif, indicating she was in the top 10 percent of her class.

Upon graduation from law school in 1952, O'Connor had difficulty finding a paying job as an attorney in a law firm because of her gender. O'Connor found employment as a deputy county attorney in San Mateo, California, after she offered to work for no salary and without an office, sharing space with a secretary. After a few months, she began drawing a small salary as she performed legal research and wrote memos.

When her husband John Jay O’Connor was drafted, she decided to go with him to work in Germany as a civilian attorney for the Army's Quartermaster Corps. They remained there for three years before returning to the States where they settled in Maricopa County, Arizona, to begin their family. They had three sons: Scott (born 1958), Brian (born 1960), and Jay (born 1962). Following Brian's birth, O'Connor took a five-year hiatus from the practice of law.

O'Connor served as assistant Attorney General of Arizonafrom 1965 to 1969. In 1969, the governor of Arizona appointed O'Connor to fill a vacancy in the Arizona Senate. She ran for and won the election for the seat the following year. By 1973, she became the first woman to serve as Arizona's or any state's Majority Leader. She developed a reputation as a skilled negotiator and a moderate. After serving two full terms, O'Connor decided to leave the Senate.

In 1974, O'Connor was appointed to the Maricopa County Superior Court, serving from 1975 to 1979, when she was elevated to the Arizona State Court of Appeals. She served on the Court of Appeals-Division One until 1981 when she was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Ronald Reagan. She retired in 2006. When she first arrived at the Supreme Court there was not even a women’s bathroom.

According to her son, Jay’s, eulogy that she brought a formidable energy to her personal life as well, her son noted that her way of relaxing after a long day at work was “three rounds of tennis or 18 holes of golf.” She was a voracious reader and a dancer along with her husband. She even took disco lessons. Her son also said that she honed her skills questioning attorneys by grilling her sons why they were out late on a Saturday night. Her son said that her final message to her three sons was “Our purpose in life is to help others along the way.” He continued “What a beautiful, powerful and totally Sandra Day O’Connor sentiment.”

Wishing you all a happy, joyful, peaceful and healthy 2024!

By:Sondra Nunez
NFBPWC Secretary 2022-2024

NFBPWC National Board Meeting:

New Date: January 30, 2024

Time: 5PM PST | 6PM MT | 7PM CT | 8PM EST

Time zone tool: Convert Time ZoneInstantly | Time Difference Calculator

Main Topic: 2024 Budget

We will be sending an email requesting a written report from each officer, committee chair, and affiliate president. Please be prepared to submit your written reportby January 20, 2024, to secretary@nfbpwc.org.

All members are welcome and guests are encouraged for this Board of Directors meeting. We continue to highlight this term's theme to "Cultivate Connections, Create Community" with the focus issue of Women on the Move.

• Zoom details to be sent after registration.

BPW International Theme 2021-2024: New Actions through Cooperation

By: Daneene Monroe Rusnak, 2^nd Vice President of Advocacy, NFBPWC 2020-2024
Equality Has No Deadline!

Take Action on the ERA! Equality Has No Deadline!

****One Click Politics landing page for NFBPWC****ERA Action on NFBPWC Website

Link to ERA virtual backdrop for download:Equality Has No Deadline VirtualBackdrop

NFBPWC members are invited to join the A-Team for the next Advocacy Committee Meeting on February 8, 2024.

Vice President of Advocacy, Daneene Monroe Rusnak, will preside as the Committee Chair as we discuss current and future issues, initiatives and goals.

Time Zones:

7pmET | 6pmCT | 5pmMT | 4pmPT

How: Online via Zoom. Details will be provided upon registration. Who:All interested members are welcome.

Helpful Links:

• Committee webpage

• Projects we are currently focused on

• View the 2022-2024 Advocacy Platform Flyer

Register at: https://nfbpwc.wildapricot.org/event-5485102

By: Kathy Kelly
1st Vice President of Membership, NFBPWC (2021-2024)

The Membership Committee wishes each of our BPW Sisters a Happy 2024! We have some big plans for this year!

FIRST, LET’S WELCOME NEW AND RENEWING MEMBERS!

RENEW	Elizabeth Herrell	Ohio
New	Jacqueline Petrick-Lee	Washington
RENEW	Janice Freel	Texas
New	Pamela Richards	US Virgin Islands (!!!)
New	Kim Collier	South Carolina - Student
RENEW	Beth Gibson Lilja	Virtual – Minnesota

Next, get ready for our BIG membership drive:

Double or More in 24

with a chance to win fabulous prizes with every new member you bring in before the National Convention next summer. More details to follow in February.

The National Membership Committee usually meets on the first and third Mondays of each month, holidays excluded. In January, we plan to meet on January 8^th only. Join us to learn more about the tools and events NFBPWC offers that can support your club to "Double or More by'24"

Contact Kathy Kelly, vpmembership@nfbpwc.orgfor more information.

And finally…

What is CSW? And what the heck are all these acronyms???

Join us on Tuesday, January 23, 2024, for an informative program to learn more about BPW’s Consultative Status at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.

We’ll discuss the agenda (Side Events vs. Parallel Events, SDGs, Priority Theme and Review Theme), BPW-sponsored events, Leadership Summit, Gala Dinner and other social activities like Broadway shows and dinners out. I call CSW my “Global Slumber Party” as we expect over 100 BPW sisters to join us from around the world. We’ll share best practices for how to get there,

what to wear and where to stay. We’ll leave plenty of time for Q&A. We hope to address all your questions and concerns so that you will join us March 11-22, 2024, in New York City!

Register at: https://nfbpwc.wildapricot.org/event-5548719

Let’s Do More Together in 2024!

 The New Year is a great time to celebrate our membership in this amazing organization by cultivating connections and creating community in 2024!  We know that collectively; our influence is stronger. We can empower each other by creating new opportunities for networking, burgeoning friendships, and collaborations.

There is a humble sense of accomplishment and immense gratitude to our members for what we have done as an organization in 2023. We have created an organization where women from all walks of life network to make a difference in gender equity while we continue to support each other as we continue the fight. Our committees and taskforces have facilitated achievements of success and recognition. We are indebted to each other for the many volunteer hours that have made a true difference for women. Thank you to every member for your commitment and invaluable contributions. I’m deeply grateful to all of you for making NFBPWC a membership organization that truly can move the needle for women and women’s issues.

We leave 2023 with sadness as we mourn the loss of BPW members who graced our organization with their presence and inspiring leadership. Let us all take a moment to remember those who walked these proverbial halls before us and ensure that their legacy carries through for another 100 years!

We continue to create programming for our members and guests that increases our propensity for connection and our ability to empower women. In 2024 NFBPWC will have its Biennial Conference in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania from July 18-21, 2024 with the theme: “Equaliy Has No Deadline!” (https://www.nfbpwc.org/Biennial-General-Assembly)  BPW International will hold their triennial Congress in Mar del Plato, Argentina from November 17-21, 2024 with the theme: “New Actions through Cooperation.” (https://www.bpw-international.org/events/bpw-international-congress-argentina-2024/) There is more to come this year and we cannot wait to share our community with our current and future members!

I look forward to celebrating and honoring one another, as each member brings their own gifts to the conversation.  The women of today need to hear us. The women of tomorrow want to see us standing strong against misogyny, racism, violence, and injustice. We have the power to make a difference as we continue to honor our interconnectedness as humans, more specifically as women.

NFBPWC will continue to light a path for our future that promotes justice, solidarity, diversity, inclusion, innovation, and celebration in 2024. Sending personal wishes of celebration, health, and progress around the globe!

By: Sandra Thompson
NFBPWC’s Immediate Past President 

I would just like to take this time to wish all of you a very happy and healthy holiday season.  I hope that you enjoy it with family and friends.  Below is a poem that I found that my mother had sent out to friends and family many years ago.  I wanted to share it with you.

Holidays

There is a list of folks I know

All written in a row

And every year at holiday time

I go and take a look

And that is when I realize that

These names are a part

Not of the book they’re written in

But of my very heart.

For each name stands for someone

Who has touched my life sometime,

And in that meeting they’ve become

The rhythm of the rhyme.

I really feel I am composed

Of each remembered name.

And while you may not be aware

Of feeling quite the same

My life is so much better

Than it was before you came.

For once that you have know someone

The years cannot erase

The memory of a pleasant work

Or of a friendly face.

So never think my holiday cards

Are just a mere routine

Of names upon a list,

Forgotten in between.

For when I send a holiday card

That is addressed to you

It’s because you’re on that list

Of folks I’m indebted to.

And whether I’ve known you

For many years or few.

In some way you have had a part

In shaping things I do.

So every year when the holidays come

I just realize anew

The biggest gift that God can give

Is knowing folks like you.

By: Sondra Nunez
NFBPWC Secretary 2022-2024

To my NFBPWC sisters near and far, Happy Holidays! Yes, I specifically wrote Happy Holidays because I often hear and see conflict, drama and offense surrounding this one simple phrase. Many argue in December, it’s Merry Christmas and nothing else. But to some it is Happy Hanukkah, Happy Boxing Day, Happy Kwanzaa, or any number of other phrases that significantly represent the true meaning of the season in ways personal to each person. 

For me, December with all its many holidays and personal traditions, represents a time of joy, reflection, and renewal. 

Joy: I count it a joy I am able to give to others. I count it a joy seeing the faces of those big and small light up as they share holiday traditions with those they love. I count it a joy to spend time preparing gifts for those who need a little bit of help this year. I count it a joy spending time in celebration with friends and family.

Reflection: For me, the holidays, especially the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, is when I spend the most time reflecting on every life blessing and how I might be able to share what has been given to me with others. I reflect on those who are suffering, on those who are battling illness, or the loss of loved ones and I pray they will find peace. There is reflection of the accomplishments and challenges of the year and how I might do better, be better in the future.

Renewal: In many ways the month of December represents renewal to me. It is the signal of the end of one year and the beginning of the next. It is a time to allow myself to let go of offenses and to ask for forgiveness for those I might have wronged. For me, December offers the opportunity to show up for others in the best way possible and offers a glimpse of the person I want to become. 

No matter how you celebrate this time of year, whether this year was difficult, successful or a combination of both and more, I pray you and your loved ones will be blessed with joy, peace, and love. No matter the holiday you are celebrating, I wish you continued and lasting happiness.