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Annual Report 2006–2007
The Columbia branch’s publication Notable Women of Missouri was featured at the Public School recognition banquet held at Stephens College in October. Carlynn Trout, Jane Biers, and Lisa Schenker displayed the binder with the laminated biographies that has been distributed to all elementary schools in the Columbia Public School District. They also sold some copies of the bound version. Additional bound copies have been sold throughout the year. The project also formed part of a presentation that Carlynn Trout made to the Missouri Association of School Librarians in April. The Branch has written a publication proposal and submitted it to Pebble Publishing, Rocheport, but has not yet heard back.
Four branch members (Liz Bailey, Jane Biers, Janet Groat, and Alice Reese) served as judges for two AAUW awards during History Day, held on Saturday, April 14. Holly Burgess coordinated the judges. AAUW awarded a prize to Brittany Golden, from Carthage Junior High School, for her performance “A Healing Hand: The Triumph of Clara Barton.” The exhibit prize went to Haley Brownfield for her display “Nellie Bly: Triumphant Power of the Pen.” Haley is also a student at Carthage Junior High School. The Columbia branch appreciated that Betty Takahashi and Jeanne Shull from St. Louis joined Joan Gones, the History Day chair, as judges.
The branch did not award its $500 Eva Johnston scholarship this year because of a lack of applicants. Beginning in 2008 the conditions for the award will change. The scholarship will be awarded to a female returning student in any Boone County two- and four-year post secondary educational institution.
Betty Cook Rottmann, Grace Butler and Janet Groat attended the annual Missouri Women’s Network Lobby Day in Jefferson City on March 27. Grace Butler attended the Missouri/Kansas Leadership Convention in Kansas City on April 21, where the branch was awarded five stars in the AAUW Missouri Star Awards Program (for Leadership, Programs, Visibility, Educational Foundation, and Public Policy). Christine Roberson, Jane Biers and Fran Beach attended the Women’s Leadership Conference on the MU-Columbia campus on March 3. Betty Cook Rottmann participated in the Columbia Public Schools Community Engagement Task Force. In January, the branch hosted the Missouri State Board meeting.
The branch celebrated the 125th anniversary of AAUW with a proclamation from the mayor of Columbia and a reading of “Marion Talbot Speaks.” Planning is underway for the branch’s centennial celebration, to be held on Saturday, October 13. The Centennial Committee (Nancy Campbell, Liz Bailey, Jane Biers, Diane Brukardt, Grace Butler, Betty Eyestone, Alice Reese and Betty Cook Rottmann) has been meeting. In May, Milbre Burch, Patti Doyle, and Carolyn Mutrux, journalism student intern, began participating in the planning and publicity for the event .
The program for the year presented a variety of topics. The season began with a focus on AAUW–a presentation by Lynne Roney and Shirley Breeze. We toured the Historic Missouri Theater in downtown Columbia and learned about the campaign to restore it. Two programs concentrated on education of young people: “Stand By Me,” a discussion of the mentoring program at West Boulevard Elementary School, and “Sharing the ‘Magic of Chemistry’ with Girls Scouts.” The annual meeting in celebration of Women’s History Month featured a talk “Sisters under the Skin: Women of Color in Antebellum Missouri.” A program in celebration of Black History Month was cancelled because of bad weather. The final meeting of the year concentrated on LAF with a reading of scripts describing some of the cases supported by AAUW.
The branch continued as a Partnership Friend with Eugene Field Elementary School. We have arranged for a Starlab planetarium to be brought to the school in the fall of 2007. Our five-year partnership with Field School was recognized at the Partners in Education Recognition Breakfast on May 9. As a result of the program given by Dr. Sheryl Tucker on “the Magic of Chemistry,” Field School fifth graders visited the Career Center in Columbia. The class, organized by Christine Roberson and her colleague Rebecca Pisano, gave the students the opportunity to participate in one of the chemistry modules originated by Dr. Tucker.
Membership in the branch is a continuing area of concern. An attempt to interest local MALs by inviting them to the Holiday event in December elicited no response, but one MAL will join the branch for 2007-08. The official number of members for 2006 was 45, a decline of two from the previous year.
Fundraising was quite successful, and special thanks go to Betty Burchett for her contribution of Christmas ornaments for sale in December. In 2006 the branch donated $68.00 to LAF and $275 to EF. Sale of Notable Women books brought in $405 and participation in Macy’s Shop-for-a-Cause $412.11. At the end of FY 2006-07 the branch had $442 earmarked for the Eva Johnston scholarship. These funds will be carried over into 2007-08.
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Annual Report: 2005-2006 The Columbia, Missouri Branch successfully completed the initial stage of its project to enhance the teaching of Missouri history at fourth-grade level by producing written biographies of Notable Women of Missouri. The branch is most grateful to Carlynn Trout, the writer, and Mary Dahm, the designer, for their excellent work. Every fourth-grade class room (58) and media centers in all nineteen elementary schools in the Columbia Public School system now has a binder containing thirty biographies. The Social Studies Department of the Columbia Public School had previously purchased binders for each media center in the schools. These contained the twenty biographies produced in 2004 and 2005. A 2005-2006 Columbia Public School Foundation grant enabled the research on, and production of, ten additional biographies, and wider distribution of the complete binder throughout the school system. In addition, the branch gave a copy to Stephens College Elementary School and to the Gifted Program in Columbia, and also sent copies to J. S. Chick and E. F. Swinney Elementary Schools in Kansas City and to Bryan Hill Elementary and Adams Elementary Schools in St. Louis. It also plans to give one to a school in Springfield. A grant from the Women's and Gender Studies Program at the University of Missouri-Columbia made distribution of these five copies possible. Thirty biographies is a rich research resource for fourth-grade students. The branch will use 2006-07 to explore possible methods for further distribution throughout the state and to consider whether to continue with the project and produce additional biographies. As a Partnership Friend with Eugene Field School in Columbia, the branch worked with fourth-grade teachers Erica Borcherding and Shannon Bruns and participated in Lunch and Learn with the students. Nine women shared their experiences at these sessions: Sue Bader, Jane Biers, Grace Butler, Ellen FIottman , Alice Reese, Erica Pickard, Christine Roberson, Betty Cook Rottmann, and Lola Southall. A steering committee – Elizabeth Bailey, Grace Butler, Betty Cook Rottmann, and Diane Brukardt – arranged for certificates to be made listing the students in the fourth-grades who had used the biographies of notable women for their research in 2003-04, 2004-05, and 2005-06. Betty Cook Rottmann had the certificates framed for display in Field School. The committee also had buttons made for current fifth- and fourth-grade students. The buttons, which proclaimed them Field Pioneer Researchers, were produced courtesy of the Western Historical Manuscript Collection. Jane Biers and Alice Reese presented the certificates to Field School at the final assembly of the year, and the teachers handed out the buttons to the students afterwards. Seven branch members participated as judges for two AAUW awards during History Day, which was held on Saturday, April 8, 2006. Holly Burgess coordinated the judging. The AAUW judges awarded a prize to junior Alexandra Thompson for an individual exhibit on Jane Addams: Innovator, Reformer and Social Activist, and to Mikayla Todd for her presentation on Samantha Smith: A Ten-Year-Old Stand in History in the individual entry category. My thanks to Liz Bailey, Holly Burgess, Grace Butler, Betty Eyestone, Ellen Flottman, Marianne Fues, and Linda Wise for participating in the judging. The Branch awarded the Eva Johnston scholarship of $500 to Becky Chapman, a sophomore at Columbia College, majoring in criminal justice. Betty Cook Rottmann and Grace Butler attended the annual Missouri Women's Network Lobby Day on April 5 in Jefferson City. Jane Biers, Betty Cook Rottmann, and Grace Butler attended the Missouri Leadership Conference at Lake of the Ozarks on April 21-22 and the Southwest Regional Conference in St. Louis on June 9-11. Stephens College and the University of Missouri-Columbia joined AAUW as university/college members. The program for the year presented a variety of topics: Kate LeRose, winner of an AAUW History Day prize for 2004, opened the year with her performance recreating the life and work of Martha Graham; Jane Phillips, director of development for the University of Missouri's new Life Sciences Center gave branch members a tour of the facility; Gary Kremer, executive director of The State Historical Society of Missouri, talked about the treatment of female felons in Missouri from the early 19th century to the present; Jackie Litt, director of the Women's and Gender Studies Program at the University, of Missouri-Columbia, discussed the impact of globalization on working mothers; Judy Baker, Missouri State Representative, 25th District, gave an overview of the year's legislative action; and theater students from Stephens College gave a well-attended performance of the reader' s play "Reviving the Dead Ladies: The Women's Rights Convention of 1850." Held at the Daniel Boone Regional Library, the presentation was attended by almost 60 people. My thanks to Joy Underwood for arranging the program and to Patti Doyle for organizing the costumes. As usual, the branch collected gifts for Missouri Girls Town at its holiday social in December. At this meeting Lynn Wosilait gave a demonstration of music for the dulcimer. The number of members in the branch continues to be cause for concern. We have lost two members through death, Averil Schenk and Lenore Paulus. Others have decided not to renew. As of this writing, only 37 members have sent in their renewals. Fundraising was successful. At the September meeting a lottery drawing of donated items raised $206.10 for the Educational Foundation; with carry-over from the previous year a total of $250.81 was contributed to the Educational Foundation in 2005. A raffle of a pair of Christmas stockings made and donated by Betty Burchett brought in $259 for operating funds. Sale of books at several meetings and an individual contribution raised $100 which was contributed by the branch to the Legal Advocacy Fund in 2005. Several branch members participated in a survey on diversity identities of women, instituted by Candace Korasick, Ph.D. candidate at MU. Congratulations to Grace Butler on becoming an honorary life member, a well-earned recognition of her 50 years of active membership in AAUW. ----- Jane Biers, President |