As AAUW member Vivi Hlavsa says, “The YMCA doesn’t limit its members to the young, males, or Christians. Opening our membership doesn’t mean we have to take the U out of AAUW.”
You can support open membership in many ways. Here are a few of them.
- Let us know you’re with us by filling out this form!
- You can simply add your name/State to the list of supporters (check back in December as we release that)
- You can give us your email address to stay in touch with campaign updates.
- You can volunteer to help out in ways that suit your skills and time.
- Tell your networks that you support the change — we find that just getting people to think about the issue and how there’s a disconnect between the requirement and the current purpose (“advancing gender equity for women and girls”), can change minds. (Post a selfie showing your support.)
- Become a local activist — by talking about this issue in your branch and with your AAUW friends. Watch for tools to be released here to make those discussions easier (and fill out the form to give us your email address). In the meantime, our Discussion Points is a good place to start. But do take what you’ve learned in your “having difficult discussions” training and really listen to those on the other side.
- Donate a few dollars — If you can make a contribution to help offset costs, please do. (Note, this is not a tax-deductible contribution. Any money left at the end of this project’s lifetime will be donated to AAUW.) Here’s how.
Open Up AAUW 