News & Notes – October 18, 2019

Take Action to Regulate 3D Guns

Help stop 3D-printed guns from falling into the wrong hands! On October 23, contact your U.S. Senators and Representative to make it illegal to publish digital instructions or code over the Internet that would automatically program a 3D printer to produce a firearm. The 3D Printed Gun Safety Act of 2019 (Senate: S. 1831 and House: H.R. 3265) will prevent unlicensed individuals with 3D printers from creating plastic firearms to avoid detection by metal detectors at airports and other security checkpoints. Plastic firearms made from 3D printers also lack genuine serial numbers, a powerful investigative tool in crime solving.

Sign in red when encouraging your U.S. Senators and Representative to support the 3D Printed Gun Safety Act of 2019 and urge members of your club and family to do the same! Together, with 1,000 contacts to members of Congress on October 23, we can decrease the risk of violence from felons, domestic abusers, and other dangerous individuals. Visit the Legislative Action Center now.

Cares & Concerns 

It is with sadness that GFWC announces the passing of Sue Walker, GFWC Tennessee Past President (1996–1998). Sue is the mother of current GFWC Tennessee Director of Junior Clubs Kendra Walker Patty. Cards may be sent to the family at: Kendra Walker Patty, 2702 Lakewood Drive, Knoxville, TN 37921.

We send our condolences to the family and friends of Mariellen Lee, Past GFWC Montana State President, (1990–1992) who passed away. Mariellen was responsible for many wonderful projects, including leading the petition drive and fundraising for the new Rosebud County Library building in 1970. View her obituary.

Salute Women in the Military on November 11

GFWC needs to organize 201 more projects for women in the military to reach the 2018–2020 Administration’s goal by June 2020. Veterans Day, November 11, is an ideal time for your club to contribute to this effort and to thank women who have served in the military. Consult the Club Manual for ideas or consider how your club’s project could address specific needs in your community related to these challenges among female veterans:

• Health Care. Many VA hospitals and military clinics cannot provide basic services such as prenatal care or gynecological care.
• Unemployment. Post 9/11, female veterans have higher unemployment rates than male veterans—often resulting in homelessness, which has doubled since 2006. Often these women are divorced or unmarried and have principal custody of children, lower incomes, or physical challenges.
• Military Sexual Trauma (MST). One in four women veterans reported they suffered sexual trauma while serving in the military, putting them at increased risk for depression, PTSD, and substance abuse.

Teaming up with your local VA medical center is another option. Whichever way your club decides to help, please join us in saluting women in the military on November 11. And, don’t forget to submit your Veterans Day success stories to pr@gfwc.org to be considered for GFWC’s Blog.

Welcome an Honor Flight

Celebrate veterans with GFWC as we welcome the next Honor Flight on Tuesday, October 22 at the Air Force Memorial in Arlington, VA at 10:15 a.m. Let us know if you can make it!

Volunteers in Action

The GFWC Fairmont Woman’s Club (NE), GFWC Nampa Woman’s Century Club (ID), and GFWC South Baldwin Woman’s Club (AL) are featured on the GFWC’s Blog.

Have a success story to tell? Email pr@gfwc.org.

WHRC Call for Articles

One way the Women’s History & Resource Center helps to preserve our past is through our extensive collection of 341 oral histories. Many of these interviews were conducted 20–30 years ago and capture the experiences of a generation now mostly lost to us. Preserving these tapes helps to tell the story of GFWC and the experiences of generations of clubwomen across the country.

What is your club doing to ensure that the GFWC story will be told to future generations of clubwomen? This Fall’s WHRC Newsletter will focus on how clubs are preserving their histories. Topics can range from recording oral histories to taking care of your historic club house to donating your club’s papers to a local archive, and more. Articles must be 500 words or less, and pictures are encouraged but not mandatory. Please email your submissions to WHRC Manager Alyssa Constad.

Sunday: Advocates For Children Week

If your club still hasn’t selected an Advocates for Children Week project, there is still time to pull a project together. Consult the Club Manual for ideas.

John Hopkins Medicine’s A Woman’s Journey Conference

The 25th Woman’s Journey Conference on November 23 from 8:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. will provide groundbreaking information and access to 50+ Johns Hopkins Medicine top doctors, researchers, and faculty. The event will feature the following.

• A Breakfast keynote speaker: radio personality Maria Dennis, who will share her battle to survive Leukemia and how it continues to affect her life.
• A Lunch keynote speaker: Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute Researcher Bonnielin Swenor, M.P.H., Ph.D., who will reveal her unexpected loss of vision and how this disability has challenged her pursuit of family, career, and life.
• Seminars. Registrants choose three out of 24 seminars. Topics include: the microbiome (gut and skin), inflammation, research into reducing the risk of dementia, discoveries about the brain, mindfulness, aging wisely, hormones, and other compelling topics.
• “Ask the Expert” session: one hour at the end of the day devoted to answering your questions. Topic areas include: bladder, breast and colon cancers; reconstructive surgery; carpal tunnel; cataracts; cervical spine surgery; dry eye; eating disorders; facial plastic surgery; feet and ankles; food as medicine; hearing loss; Hep C; hernias in women; IVF; mammography; medicinal marijuana; minimally invasive spine surgery; mood disorders; physical therapy for pelvic floor; rehab for runners; sex after menopause; sickle cell disease; sinus and nasal issues; and varicose veins.

Register online! For questions, call Johns Hopkins at 410-955-8660.

Logged in to Your Profile?

If you haven’t visited the GFWC Member Portal yet, try selecting “Forgot your password?” and entering the email address with which you are receiving this News & Notes. You will then receive a prompt to check your email for a temporary login code.

Your profile is how you’ll update your contact information, make all Marketplace purchases, and much more moving forward. Please ensure all aspects of your personal profile are running smoothly in the Portal and don’t hesitate to contact gfwc@gfwc.org if you have any difficulties logging in.

Parliamentary Pointers

by GFWC Parliamentarian Deen J. Meloro

The motion to “postpone indefinitely” allows the assembly to decline to take a position on a question. Postpone indefinitely, which requires a majority vote, kills the motion for the session. At a convention, this means the motion is suppressed for the entire convention. At a meeting, it is suppressed for just that meeting and may be brought up again at another time.

This motion is especially useful in disposing of a badly chosen main motion that cannot be either adopted or expressly rejected without possibly undesirable consequences. The motion to “postpone indefinitely” must be seconded, is not amendable, and can be debated.

“Postpone indefinitely” works in the following way: Member A stands up and moves that the club support Candidate Susan, who is running for State Vice President. Many members of the club like Candidate Susan but don’t feel that the club should take a stand on any candidate. If the club votes to support Susan, it will mean that the delegates to convention are instructed to vote for her. If the club defeats the motion, it may seem to some people that the club doesn’t like this candidate. It also might create a division in the club. To save the club from any of these results, a member can stand up and move that the motion to support Candidate Susan be postponed indefinitely.  This can be done during the debate on the main motion, which is to support Susan. The debate that follows will most likely involve discussion of both motions. However, the motion to postpone indefinitely is voted on first.  If it is adopted by the majority, discussion of the original motion is dropped, and the group goes on to other business.

Questions? Email Deen Meloro.

GFWC Marketplace: Notebook

Whether it’s planning your club’s Veterans Day activities to honor women in the military or another project, the blank pages of this notebook are just waiting for your next big idea! Featuring a vintage cover of General Federation News, bring together the old and the new and get yours for $12 in the GFWC Marketplace.