March 2016 Newsletter
Membership Update
The Membership Committee is working hard looking for new members, but can always you’re your help. Please send the name of ONE (or more) prospective member(s) to Jan H. or Carol J. along with their e-mail address. Jan and Carol will take it from there.
Service Update
Empowerment: The next activity at Columbine at The Lowry Apartments will be Tuesday, March 22, at 6 p.m. We will be decorating plastic and foam Easter eggs. Barb has the supplies. We will need some munchies (we are encouraging the women to have dinner in advance). Rather than chips and sweets, we thought we would bring a vegie tray and mixed fruit to nibble on and iced tea. Contact Mary if you will be there.
Service Funds Distribution: Come to the March general meeting to vote on distribution of the service funds raised in the 2015-2016 fiscal year. If you did not receive an email from Mary with the worksheets and brief discussion of the service committee’s recommendations, please contact Mary.
Excelsior: The 2016 Triumphant Faces Gala is scheduled for April 30 at the Sheraton Downtown Denver Hotel from 5:30 to 11 p.m. 6 to 7 volunteers are needed. The theme is “Speakeasy Soiree”. More details to follow.
SafeHouse: SafeHouse is getting ready to send the Spring fundraising letter so they need help to stuff, stamp, sticker, and seal the envelopes (about 2,000 letters). Volunteers are needed either Monday, April 4th, 2016; 5:30 to 7:30 pm, or Tuesday, April 5th, 2016; 12:00 to 2:00 pm. Please contact Shannon Boltz directly at sboltz@safehouse-denver.org or phone (303-302-1626) if you can help.
Women’s Homelessness Initiative: The next event will be in June. More details to follow.
Bring donations of toiletries and nonperishable food to the meeting. Mary will collect for donation to our various organizations.
Finance Update
The golf tournament has been scheduled for Monday, June 20, 2016 at Red Rocks Country Club. Save-the-Date cards are being mailed this week. So, it is time to start recruiting your teams and searching for sponsors. Sponsors are the lifeblood of the tournament and ensure a successful tournament.
The Finance Committee is also planning a wine tasting for late summer, early fall. A date certain will be set before the golf tournament so that the wine tasting can be advertised there.
Program
The next general membership meeting will be on Thursday, March 24, 2016. Same time and place – 6 pm at the University Club. RSVPs (only if you will not be coming) are due to Emma Hanson by Monday, Mach 21, 2016.
Our speaker this month will be DoraLee Larson, Executive Director of the Denver Domestic Violence Coordinating Council which manages the Denver Metro Domestic Violence Fatality Review, will be speaking to our club. The Denver Metro Domestic Violence Fatality Review committee has existed since 2008 and is considered the most research-based DV Fatality Review in the country.
Advocacy Update
Legislative awareness is an important part of Advocacy. We have had a number of bills affecting women in children during the current Colorado Legislative Term. Here is the status of a few.
Here is an update of pending bills and notes per The League of Women Voters of Colorado:
SB 22 Child Care Assistance Cliff Effect Pilot Program (STATUS PASSED) will allow more counties to pilot methods to help low income working families transition off child care support without a sudden drop in financial resources. Ten counties have participated in the initial program funded in 2014. More counties can now join without additional funding which allowed strong bipartisan support.
HB 1224 Treat Trafficking of Children as Child Abuse. Current law requires county departments respond to reports of child abuse and neglect within families and may provide services. This bill adds human trafficking of a minor for involuntary or sexual servitude to the definition of “abuse” or “child abuse or neglect” for dependency or neglect. It requires services be rendered immediately. This could be accomplished without additional funding.
T.R.A.P HB 1203 provides for the Colorado Attorney General to responsible for inspection of Women’s Health Clinics. It calls for attorneys to set standards for abortion clinics. The bill calls for appropriation of $186,000 for a physician to consult. The League calls this bill a “gross violation of patient’s privacy.”
HB 1294 is proposed to fill the gap in the Affordable Care Act. Although contraception and voluntary sterilization is covered, there are over-the-counter contraceptives that are not covered under state law. This bill seeks to clarify.
Don’t forget Equal Pay Day coming up April 12th. This date symbolizes how far into the year women must work to earn what men earned the previous year. More information is available at www.pay-equity.org.
A fascinating article in the March 11 issue of the Wall Street Journal called “Real Fixes for Workplace Bias.” The author, Iris Bohnet, discusses how in the 70s women made up approximately 5-10% of orchestra musicians. Tryouts were changed so that all musicians played behind a curtain and guess what? Now women make up almost 40%. She discusses what it would mean to transfer such insights into ordinary work environments. Her book is: What Works: Gender Equality by Design.