Reminder emails with the same information as the original are going out every Monday during the April 3- May 15 voting period. Use these same instructions to find any of them.
Email went out on April 3 to the members in good standing as of March 15. The email headers look like:
Be sure to check your Spam folder for the message. [If you use Gmail, you can enter “vote@simplyvoting.com in:all” into the search box to run the search that will include the Spam, Promotions, and other folders, not just your Inbox.]
Once you’ve opened your voting email, it will give you two ways to find your ballot:
I. A method you can save for later (maybe at a “voting booth” at an in-person meeting)
To vote, please visit: https://aauw.simplyvoting.com/ Then enter: Elector ID – ###### – your AAUW member ID Password – XXXXX – a password unique to you
Julia Brown, Malinda Gaul, Lisette Garcia, Elizabeth Haynes, and Joe Bertolino
Paper ballots
There were 4250 domestic paper ballots and 13 international paper ballots sent.
Email bounces
There were 3101 emailed ballots that were marked “undelivered”. Of these,
1381 were rejected with a code that usually means too many messages were sent in too short a time. Almost all of these rejections affected comcast.net addresses. AAUW is working with SimplyVoting to find a way to retry those deliveries.
173 were sent to people who had unsubscribed from SimplyVoting emails.
62 were returned marked spam
The remainder bounced with various messages – mailbox not found, mailbox full, etc.
We are working with leaders in the states to get information to the branches where emails bounced. We will provide some specific information to help ensure members do get the reminder emails (e.g. If the message was “mailbox full”, delete some emails. If the message was “spam”, ensure vote@simplyvoting.com is in the email contact list.)
The following states have volunteered to help with this effort as of April 10. AR,CA,FL,HI,IA,IL,IN,MD,MI,MN,MO,NC,NJ,NY,OR,PA,SD,VA,WA,WI
One of the upsides of the post-pandemic world is how we’ve all learned to embrace Zoom. The national board and other national leaders have been able to meet regularly with representatives of the states every couple of months. To facilitate those discussions (and help make scheduling easier), they’ve split the states into ten different “regions” as marked on the map below.
This map shows that in every region of the country, more than 50% of the voters approved the change in 2021, and that half of the regions supported it with the 2/3 majority required to change the bylaws.
The individual state results varied more widely. For the 24 states/territories with 50 or fewer votes recorded, the percent voting “yes” ranged from 30% to 100%. For the 29 larger states, the range was 40% to 84%. There were 12 states/territories with “yes” votes from fewer than 50% of their voters, six large and six small.
For a bit more about 2021 results by region, see this document. If you are a state leader who wants to see your 2021 results by branch, please contact info@openupaauw.org.
Posted inNews|Tagged2021, 2024|Comments Off on One more summary of the 2021 vote
Please check that your contacts have the information they need to understand why a strong majority voted YES in 2021, and encourage them to help us put this issue to rest in 2024.
Here are some examples of how to get the word out:
Here’s a new PowerPoint suitable for branch meetings or other gatherings.
Send the Talking Points document as a quick read for those who haven’t yet considered the issue
And if you can’t find a time to present the PowerPoint, you could share this 12-minute version that AAUW OR recorded, featuring AAUW super volunteer, Randa Blanding:
Posted inNews|Comments Off on Time for more outreach
Voting starts on April 3 and runs through noon May 15. There is still time to learn about the issue and share what you find with others. Here are some key links:
Page 12: Any woman who has received a degree in Arts, Philosophy, Science or Literature, from any college, university or scientific school, which may be approved by the unanimous vote of the Executive Committee, is entitled to membership in this Association.
Page 10: [After listing the 17 initial members] It is of interest to note that, with four exceptions, no one of the group had been out of college more than five years, and six had graduated that year or the one preceding.
So it may be assumed that there was no requirement for a degree higher than a baccalaureate. Indeed of the eight institutions granting degrees to the initial members, four were “Colleges” (Oberlin, Smith, Vassar, Wellesley), not “Universities”.
Some confusion arose during the webinar Q&A around when the word “baccalaureate” was introduced to the bylaws and if its introduction meant a lowering of standards. Ms. Miller clarified:
It’s not that there were zero members with Bachelor’s degrees in our membership, it’s that from the perspective of the by-laws, in 1961 AAUW became more inclusive by acknowledging all Bachelor’s degrees equally as qualification for membership, as they had masters and doctorate programs decades before.
Email, 3/13/2024
Associate Memberships
As early as 1901 Associate Members who had not earned “approved” degrees from institutions on “the list” were allowed. That category was removed from the bylaws in 1957 a few years before the whole idea of a requiring a member’s degree to be from an “approved” institution was replaced by accepting anyone with a baccalaureate or higher degree from a regionally accredited institution.
It came up in the webinar in the context of discussing Eleanor Roosevelt’s membership. She was given (an Associate) membership as the First Lady of New York State even though she had not pursued any higher education.
Associate memberships were mentioned in the bylaws until the major changes introduced in 2009. Since no new Associate members had been admitted after 1957, all such members would have qualified for 50-year status and, presumably, their renewals were handled on a case-by-case basis after 2009. Here is what the 2003 Bylaws says about them:
Associate members are those who were admitted prior to July 1, 1957, upon completion of at least two years of nonprofessional work as would have been credited toward an approved degree in any college or university on the Association membership list at that time. None shall be admitted after that date. Associate members shall be members of the branch and state only and shall maintain their status as associate members until their resignation from the branch in which they are currently enrolled. Associate members currently enrolled in a branch shall be permitted to transfer to another branch, provided the number of associate members in that branch does not exceed twenty percent (20%) of the total membership of the branch. The total dues paid by associate members to a branch shall be the same as those of members of the Association and shall include a subscription to the Association publication distributed to all members. Associate members may not serve as a state officer nor as branch officers fulfilling the functions of president, membership, program or finance.
Scanned from “2003 Charter and Bylaws”
This is the one time when AAUW made its requirements less inclusive. Open Up AAUW opposed a bylaws change in 2017 that would have introduced a similar two-tier membership system. That amendment failed by a very narrow margin.
Posted inHistory, News|Comments Off on More on AAUW History
Please write info@openupaauw.org with information about any other states that have passed resolutions or otherwise voted to engage their members in support of passing the amendment in 2024. Please include a link to the information as posted on your website, if applicable.
The following questions have come up since the campaign started. Here are the answers we’ve received from AAUW:
What’s the “official” date when memberships will be checked to get the list of voters? The list will be pulled on Friday, March 15. Memberships must be current as of that date.
Is there a different date when the emails will be pulled to send to SimplyVoting? No, same date.
What happens if someone changes their email in the Community Hub after the list is sent to Simply Voting? The ballot will be sent to the previous address.
When will the nominations for board members to be elected be posted? First day of voting (April 3).
Is there anything else that will be on the ballot besides the open membership amendment change to the bylaws and the Director elections? No, just directors and open membership
There was also a comment that some members still resist the idea of online voting and prefer a paper ballot. Short of stopping all email from AAUW (see #3), those on the call didn’t think there’d be any option for getting one. Let us know if that has changed. No, we only send paper ballots to those without valid email addresses.
Won’t students have to pay full dues if this passes? No. The board may set special dues levels for students and has expressed an intent to do that. See the third bullet in the “Amendment Summary” section on the aauw.org page about the Amendment noted below where it says “to permit the board to set different dues for student members as previously allowed”
What will the email message that has information on voting look like? The email with a voting link, an Elector ID, and a password will come From: AAUW <vote@simplyvoting.com>
Will we be able to use Internet connected computers as “voting booths” at branch/state meetings to help people vote? Yes, as long as the member brings the information with their voting password to the meeting. A voting booth set to go to aauw.simplyvoting.com will accept the Elector ID (the AAUW Member ID) and password to give access to the ballot.
What will the envelope containing the ballot look like (when the paper ballots are mailed to members who have no email address on file or who have blocked mail from AAUW)? The ballots should arrive in early April in envelopes that look like this:
Open Up AAUW 