Join us! Amelia Reising, the executive director of Adventure! Children’s Museum, will present at our November branch meeting. She is a 2002 graduate of the University of Oregon. Having worked as an apparel clerk, bookseller, pizza chef, display artist, bookcover designer, and preschool teacher, she currently uses skills learned along the way to run children’s museum she founded in 2015.
When Leah Murray and Sheila Ramerman delivered the mini-PCs to the Ophelia’s Place office in Eugene a couple of weeks ago, their gratitude was profound and their excitement about the possibilities was infectious, as shown in the following below. Ophelia’s Place is currently planning their fall 2024 programs and activities, so we’ll be communicating with them over the summer to define how this branch can help their clients with research and applications for college and scholarships using those mini-PCs.
If you haven’t voted yet, check your email inbox for your electronic ballot. Your personalized email may show “AAUW” as the sender, but the email address is vote@simplyvoting.com. This message contains your electronic voting credentials. If you can’t find that email, email connect@aauw.org ASAP with your name and email address, and request that another electronic ballot be sent to you.
If you need a refresher on the ballot issues, visit National Election 2024.
It’s important that your voice be heard!
Jenifer Willer, City Engineer for Eugene, is the recipient of this year’s Breaking Barriers Achievement Award (BBAA). The Annual Awards Celebration will be held on Wednesday, May 1, 2024, via Zoom, beginning at 7 p.m.
Agenda for BBAA Presentation
After 7:40 p.m., more awards and recognitions will be presented. You are welcome to stay or leave this virtual event.
To register for the digital event via Zoom, find the March 29 email from AAUW of Oregon with the subject line “OR News: Annual Meeting Edition.” Scroll through the message until you see the May 1 Annual Awards Celebration, and click the button “REGISTER: Awards Celebration.”
Jenifer’s Bio
The AAUW Eugene-Lane Branch nominated Jenifer as a stellar example of a successful woman in a male-dominated field. Receiving the American Public Works Association (APWA) award as one of the Top Ten Leaders of 2022 increased her local visibility. She used multiple interviews and news articles to promote the need for women in engineering.
Jenifer also created and received budget approval for a new city Equity and Accessibility Analyst position in the Engineering Division. The position leads efforts to implement the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) Transition Plan for the public right of way, provides training to staff, and supports the equitable implementation of city projects.
Jenifer has many professional technical and managerial accomplishments, such as spearheading an environmentally friendly sustainable pavement preservation program and connecting directly with city residents to ascertain how to improve things, furthering inclusion. To support Eugene’s Climate Action Plan, Jenifer obtained approval and funding for a Climate Action Analyst position within her department. This position provides a dedicated, focused resource to identify ways to implement the plan, such as where and when to plant trees and identify strategies and tools to reduce greenhouse emissions for projects.
Eugene’s dedicated bike lanes are another significant public works project led by Jenifer and her team. These new lanes are creatively engineered to prevent cyclists from riding on sidewalks or the wrong way in an auto lane and improve traffic safety for drivers and cyclists.
Jenifer embodies professionalism, expertise, and personal dedication to improving the quality of life in her community through the advancement of public works services and technology. She has demonstrated the ability to succeed in her chosen field and to encourage and mentor new civil engineers. She has worked to educate others and continually seeks opportunities to talk about the field and its importance to all in their daily lives and their communities. Jenifer’s work at the City of Eugene supports AAUW of Oregon’s sustainability, equity, diversity, and inclusion goals.
Jenifer continues to reach out to the community with interviews and articles – to educate the need for women engineers. She emulates all the leadership qualities promoted by AAUW— communication skills, leadership skills, facilitation skills, inclusivity, collaboration, and partnerships. She is a role model for women and girls in much more than her engineering career!
AAUW of Oregon proudly recognizes Jenifer Willer as a “breaker of barriers!”
Looking for a home for used toothbrushes? Need to shred old tax returns? We’ve updated our list of recycling options!
Get ready for this year’s Oregon Community Credit Union (OCCU) Shred Fest! At this free event, OCCU provides onsite shredding of your sensitive documents. It’s open to the public.
This event is always well organized and staffed, and the drop-off process is quick and easy. Once again, OCCU is partnering with Food for Lane County and will accept your optional donation of a nonperishable food item.
Can’t attend on May 4? OCCU members can also take their old documents to any OCCU branch for shredding, April 8-May 10.
Recyclables accepted:
Recyclables accepted:
The county will connect you with a registered volunteer community collector who will accept your clean, dry #2, 4, and 5 plastics at no cost. Only labels from pill bottles must be removed. Email the county at plasticscollection@lanecountyor.gov, and provide your full address.
QSL Print Communications: Sadly, this Springfield business no longer accepts recyclables because of a lack of space. We’ll call them next spring for an update.
Saturday, March 9th, 10 am
Branch Meeting featuring Emily Reynolds, Director of Education & Outreach, BRING Recycling. To read the complete post, click Continue Reading.
Recently, we compiled a batch of branch memories about beloved members who passed in 2022-2023. To read the complete post, click Continue Reading.
If you are looking for ways to clean out your house, garage, yard, or office.. there is an ‘earth-friendly’ option available for you! Continue reading
I’m sure many of you joined AAUW as a way to participate in a community organization, so now’s your chance. Please consider volunteering for one of these positions – I’d love to have you on the board next year! Also keep in mind that we can have “Co-VPs” if that seems like an easier way to manage the work.
~ Membership VP: Provides member services and information.
What she really does: supports current members by providing membership information and
reminders; identifies opportunities to recruit new members (social media, community events,
branch events); welcomes new members; maintains the branch membership directory and the
Member Roster in the Community Hub at aauw.org; attends monthly board and branch meetings.
Helpful skills: outgoing & friendly; consensus building; good at planning and goal setting.
~ Communications VP: Provides visibility for AAUW Eugene-Lane’s mission and programs among members and external audiences. What she really does: coordinates all publications and media exposure for the branch and branch meetings (drafts monthly newsletter content, places public notices about branch meetings, determines if interim Reader Board communication is needed; social media accounts and postings, website content); maintains the branch e-newsletter list. With the president, monitors branch phone and email contacts; attends monthly board and branch meetings.
Helpful skills: organized; computer/website/email familiarity. Basic understanding of publications, social media, website management is desired but not crucial.
~ Secretary: Records minutes of board meetings and branch business meetings.
What she really does: records minutes of branch business meetings and board meetings, provides draft minutes to the board for acceptance/revision, keeps accepted minutes on file; periodically adds accepted minutes to branch archives; has a copy of current Bylaws and Policies and list of current officers and committees on hand at each meeting; may write letters or other communications at the request of the board.
Helpful skills: organized, detail-oriented, familiar with word processing applications (Microsoft
Word, Google Docs) and online document storage (Google Drive)
OUR BASKETBALL TEAM SCHEDULE
We have received word that we are sponsoring the Churchill/Willamette team of the Kidsports girls’ middle-school basketball program. Their season began January 21 and will run to mid-March. We are more than welcome to attend their games. (It’s a lot of fun.)
Here’s the schedule, as we have it:
Saturday, Jan 21, 10:20 Cal Young MS, east gym 2555 Gilham Road
Sunday, Jan 22, 5:00 Madison MS, west gym 875 Wilkes Drive
Saturday, Jan 28, 9:00 Cal Young MS, west gym
Saturday, Feb 4, 11:40 Kidsports Fieldhouse, MS BB court 1 2054 Amazon Parkway
Saturday, Feb 11, 3:40 Madison MS west gym
Saturday, Feb 18, 5:00 Madison MS, west gym
Sunday, Feb 19, 3:40 Kidsports Fieldhouse, MS BB court 1
Saturday, Feb 25, 10:20 Cal Young MS, east gym
Saturday, Mar 4, 10:20 Kennedy MS small gym 2200 Bailey Hill Road
Saturday, Mar 11, 3:40 Kidsports Fieldhouse, MS BB court 1