Today, 6/17: Branch Meeting and Annual Picnic at 4

AAUW Kingston Branch Meeting and Annual Picnic
Thursday, June 17, 2021
4 PM to 6 PM

We’ll be meeting at the beautiful
Robert E. Post Memorial Park
515 Park Road, Kingston

Even if you didn’t pre-order a meal, please come anyway!
Bring food, drink, and a place setting for yourself, if you’d like.

We have the small pavilion for the entire day if you want to come early and enjoy the Hudson River. Bring a folding chair if picnic benches are not your favorite.

We’ll also have live music featuring Barbara Dempsey and Company.

More info: Lynn Gore, 845- 687-9210, lynngore54@gmail.com

Thursday, May 20 at 3 PM ET: May Branch Meeting with Guest Speaker (online)

AAUW Kingston May Branch Meeting
Thursday, May 20 at 3 PM ET (online)

Guest Speaker: Lisa Cypers Kamen
Stress Overload Syndrome and Pandemic Life:
The Path to Recovery, Healing the Invisible Wounds

Come experience a return visit from our speaker Lisa Kamen from last spring’s popular series.

“Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it’s less good than the one you had before. You can fight it, you can do nothing but scream about what you’ve lost, or you can accept that and try to put together something that’s good.” – Elizabeth Edwards

Stress Overload Syndrome (SOS) is a by-product of prolonged exposure to adversity. Although modern life is full of demands, deadlines, frustrations, hassles, and challenges, the pandemic life has been the thin mint. In fact, stress is so common that we have adapted to it being a normal way of life. SOS is not fun or pretty regardless of when, where, why, or how stress rears its ugly head.

Join us to reflect upon the stressors and successes of life amidst Covid and learn strategies to shift your mindset and bolster emotional fitness.

Lisa Cypers Kamen is a lifestyle management consultant who explores the art and science of happiness in her work as a speaker, author, and happiness expert. Through her globally- syndicated podcast, books, media appearances, and documentary film, Kamen has impacted millions of people around the world. Check out her podcasts here: www.harvestinghappiness.com

If you need help with Zoom, email Lynn Gore (lynngore54@gmail.com) prior to the meeting.
Also, please contact Lynn to request the 5/20 meeting information. Join us on Zoom!

— Susan Holland, susan-holland@usa.net, 845-389-3961

Vote by 5 PM ET on 5/17 in the very important 2021 AAUW National election

Have you been getting emails about the AAUW National election? For example, I got the
first one on April 7 from Shannon Wolfe — Subject: Vote now to shape AAUW’s future.
Check your in-box for this (or a similar) election email from AAUW National.

Before you vote, please make sure you review the following important election information:

2021 Vote: Bylaws Amendment (Very Important! Eliminates the degree requirement!)
https://www.aauw.org/resources/member/governance-tools/national-election/2021-comment-bylaws/

We’re also voting on:
Candidates for the Board of Directors (https://ww3.aauw.org/board-candidates/)
Public Policy Priorities (https://www.aauw.org/resources/member/governance-tools/national-election/2021-comment-ppp/)

Now, click on the big orange Vote Now button in your election email from AAUW National.

In a new tab, you will see the 2021 AAUW NATIONAL ELECTION screen with your name, address, member ID, and voter PIN. Make your selections, then click the green Review and Vote button. Review your selections, then click the green My ballot is complete. Cast my vote button. You will now see the 2021 AAUW NATIONAL ELECTION screen again, now with this message:
Thank you for voting.
Your vote has been recorded.

For questions about the voting process, call AAUW National at 800-326-2289 or email:
connect@aauw.org

So, please remember to vote by Monday, May 17 at 5 PM ET!

Let me know if you need more information.

— Susan Holland, susan-holland@usa.net, 845-389-3961

3/18 at 3: Branch Meeting with Guest Speaker Fred Dust

AAUW Kingston Branch Meeting with
Guest Speaker Fred Dust, author of
Making Conversation 
Thursday March 18, 2021
at 3 PM on Zoom

Making Conversation: Seven Essential Elements of Meaningful Communication

Conversations are one of the most fundamental means of communicating we have as humans. At their best, conversations are unconstrained, authentic and open–two or more people sharing thoughts and ideas in a way that bridges our individual experiences, achieves a common goal. At their worst, they foster misunderstanding, frustration and obscure our real intentions.

How often do you walk away from a conversation feeling really heard? That it moved the people in it forward in some important way? You’re not alone. In his practice as a designer, Fred Dust began to approach conversations differently. After years of trying to broker communication between colleagues and clients, he came to believe there had to a way to design the art of conversation itself with intention and purpose, but still artful and playful. Making Conversation codifies what he learned and outlines the four elements essential to successful exchanges: Commitment, Creative Listening, Clarity, and Context. Taken together, these four elements form a set of resources anyone can use to be more deliberate and purposeful in making conversations work.

Fred Dust is the founder of Making Conversation, LLC and works at the intersection of business, society and creativity. As a designer, author, educator, consultant, trustee, and advisor to social and business leaders, he is one of the world’s most original thinkers, applying the craft and optimism of human-centered design to the intractable challenges we face today. Using the methodology in his book Making Conversation, he has been working as the Senior Dialogue Designer with The Rockefeller Foundation to explore the future of pressing global needs; and with The Einhorn Collaborative and other foundations to host constructive dialogue with leaders ranging from David Brooks, Reverend Jenn Bailey, and Vivek Murthy to rebuild human connection in a climate of widespread polarization, cynicism and disruption. He is also proud to be faculty at the Esalen Institute.

As a former Global Managing Partner at the acclaimed international design firm IDEO, Fred works with leaders and change agents to unlock the creative potential of business, government, education, and philanthropic organizations.

For the Zoom link, abd/or if you need help with Zoom, email Lynn Gore (lynngore54@gmail.com).

There will be break-out rooms and time for questions after the presentation.

This meeting is open to AAUW Members, SSIP members and friends.

We look forward to seeing you tomorrow, March 18 at 3 PM. We will open the meeting at 2:45 PM so that everyone can get settled in and greeted.

2/18 at 3: February Branch Meeting (online)

February is Heart Health Month and AAUW Kingston will be having a special presentation, Stress and Your Heart, from the American Heart Association, on Thursday, February 18 at 3 PM.

Join us for a 45-minute overview about stress and its effects on your heart, followed by tools and activities that you can easily incorporate into your everyday life, presented by Danielle Schuka, a Registered Yoga Teacher, of the American Heart Association. You’ll need a quiet spot, an outfit you can move your arms and legs in comfortably, a pad of paper, pen or pencil, and an open mind.

More information and a Zoom link will be sent out closer to the date.

2/10 at 4: February Branch Social Hour

AAUW Kingston and
Barbara Van Itallie, AAUW-NYS Treasurer
& AAUW Poughkeepsie member,
Invite you to a

Virtual Social Hour & Gab Fest
A Lighthearted Goodbye to 2020

Wednesday, February 10, 4 PM

With interactive Zoom activities: music, videos, chatting, quizzes, humor.
Bring pencil and paper. Barbara has a whole bag full of ice breakers and
tricks to keep the event lively. Join us and bring a friend who has not
participated before.

Contact Ruth Bean for Zoom information.

Register Today! 1/23 Branch Meeting & Fundraiser Luncheon with guest speaker!

AAUW Kingston
Branch Meeting & Fundraising Luncheon

Saturday, January 23, noon

Women Empowering Women:
How you can get involved –
It’s a lot easier than you think!

Guest Speaker: Jordan Scruggs and students

Originally from the mountains of Western North Carolina, Jordan arrived in the Hudson Valley by way of Connecticut, where she received her Masters of Divinity from Yale in 2015. She worked as the Director of Community Ministries for Saint James United Methodist Church in Kingston for six years, where she connected members of the congregation with the local community in faith-based social justice work for poverty alleviation and building social equity.
Presently, Jordan works for SUNY Ulster Community College as the director of New Start for Women. New Start helps women in Ulster County with limited resources to obtain an education, skills, and the professional network needed for gainful employment and provides the necessary supports to eliminate barriers to their success. As a result of this work, Jordan is passionate about asset-based development and cultivating human resilience in the face of trauma.
In addition to her work with New Start, Jordan is also a member of several local boards, including Kingston Midtown Rising, Inc. and the Rising Hope Prison Education Initiative.
Jordan lives with her spouse, Kevin, and their daughter, Sage, in Kingston, New York.
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This is an important fundraiser for our group.
Please consider donating generously to allow us to
continue to provide scholarships to area students.

We will have a brief business meeting.
There will be time to greet our friends and share our thoughts in breakout rooms.
We’d love to see your lunch! There will be time to show us your lunch creation, too.

Please send a donation of $35 (recommended) by Thursday, January 21.
Pay as little or as much as you want for our scholarship fund.
Send checks made out to AAUW Kingston to our treasurer:

Marjorie Bot
58 Twin Ponds Drive
Kingston, NY 12401

RSVP: Lynn Gore*, lynngore54@gmail.com
The Zoom info will be sent to registered attendees on 1/22.

* From Lynn: “If you have never tried to Zoom, please email me.
I would be happy to help you ahead of the meeting.”

January literary group: 1/19/21 at *11:30 AM*

Please note the time change for this month!
January literary group
Tuesday, 1/19/21 at 11:30 AM
Speak, Memory:
An Autobiography Revisited (1966)
Vladimir Nabokov ‘s classic autobiography is no dry recital of dates,
names, and addresses. Instead, it is an impressionistic whirl through the author’s family history (including a gallery of Tartar princes and fin de siècle oddities). And Nabokov’s account of his tenure at St. Petersburg’s famous Tenishev School — where he counted Osip Madelstam among his schoolmates — offers a lovely glimpse into the heart of Russia’s silver age.
Call, text, or email Susan H. (susan-holland@usa.net, 845-389-3961)
and she will send you the Zoom information. Join us!

December meetings & more!…

Hi all!
Check our branch website calendar for more details about the online meetings
and other branch activities that are happening within the next week or so.
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– Sunday, December 13, 6 PM
Film discussion – Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter (2014) 

– Tuesday, December 15
Because we are unable to collect toiletries for Family of Woodstock Women’s Shelter in person
this year, please consider making a donation so that we can purchase toiletries. A donation
in any amount is greatly appreciated! So by today (12/15), please send a check made out to
AAUW Kingston (write toiletries on the subject line) to Marjorie Bot (check your newsletter
or directory for her address). Plus, please see the P.S. below – thanks!

Wednesday, December 16, 3 PM
Branch meeting & annual holiday party!

Wednesday, December 30, 3 PM
Board meeting

Note: There’s no Literary Group meeting this month. We’re reading Speak. Memory
by Vladimir Nabokov for our January 19 meeting.
————————————————————————————————
Take care, be well, and happy holidays to you and yours!…Susan H.
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P.S. Gift-giving in the spirit of the season
As you enter into the holiday spirit and consider how you can share and give to others, consider
making a donation to AAUW. If you would like to have a direct and local impact, a donation to
the AAUW Kingston Scholarship Fund helps two SUNY Ulster graduates each year continue their
education. It also provides gift cards to needy families with children in Ulster County schools.
You can help by making a check out to AAUW Kingston (write Scholarship Fund on the
subject line). Send it to Marjorie Bot (check your newsletter or directory for her address).

Some upcoming meetings and events!…

Hi all, Happy Autumn!
Check our branch website calendar for more details about some of the online meetings that are happening within the next month or so. 
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Sunday, November 8, 6 PM
Film discussionThe Chambermaid (2019)

Wednesday, November 11
Veteran’s Day

Tuesday, November 17, 1 PM
Literary groupMy Home is Far Away (1944) by Dawn Powell

Wednesday, November 18, 3 PM
Branch meeting with guest speaker Brooke Nelson

Thursday, November 26
Happy Thanksgiving!

Wednesday, December 2, 3 PM
Board meeting
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Take care…Susan H.