A Message from the President of AAUW

Heather Abushanab

A Message from the President

In June, a new board will be installed and planning for the 2025-2026 year will begin in earnest. As I prepare to leave the position as president of the branch, I look back in awe at all the branch has accomplished in the last two years. We have rebounded spectacularly from the lean Covid years, with more activities than ever and a branch membership that is the envy of all AAUW CA.
With only a few hiccups and a bit of tech anxiety, the board has embraced our
new Microsoft tools which allow us to host online meetings, store, and share
documents, and have AAUWRedlands.org email for professional communication with the outside world. Now that we have storage space, the branch has embarked on an ambitious archiving project to organize our records going forward and to identify and preserve past, important records.

We managed to update our strategic plan for the first time since Covid, and we have begun to implement the goals established in that plan.
STEM Initiatives continue to be a shining example of the big things we can accomplish together. Our two STEM conferences and Tech Trek each faced some significant hurdles this year due to school scheduling conflicts, the illness of a key Tech Trek leader, and the search for a new keynote speaker for our conferences.
These and other challenges were met with confidence, resilience, and success.
Our College and University Partnership team has begun to expand their reach while continuing to strengthen the relationships we have already established. As this program gets bigger, it brings new opportunities and new challenges to the branch. This year, we participated in the MLK peace walk at the University of Redlands and collaborated with them on University Women’s night at the theater department’s presentation of Bull in a China Shop. We are actively recruiting for a CSUSB student intern to work with FilmFest. We are sending two students to the newly independent NCCWSL conference and hope we can expand this to several more students next year when the new program is better established.
This year was the first time we sponsored members of AAUW to participate in Leadership Redlands. We hope to sponsor an additional member in 2026, and we are actively looking for new ways to provide educational and
leadership opportunities for women in our branch. There are many branch programs, committees and smaller tasks that will benefit from additional workers and leaders. As I transition from president to nominating committee chair, I want to find ways for you to contribute to the branch that are empowering and energizing. If you have not found your AAUW niche yet, I would love to talk to you about how you can benefit from AAUW and how AAUW can benefit from your skills!
It has been both a joy and an honor to serve as president over the last two years. I could not have done it without the strong support of the amazing women who served on the board with me, and especially last year’s
co-president, Marilyn Shankar, and this year’s co-presidents elect, Amy Bisek and Kathryn Brown. These three women are so accomplished and truly dedicated to the mission of AAUW. I loved working with them and will
miss our nearly daily interactions! Next year’s board is equally strong due to the diligent work of the nominating committee under Marilyn’s leadership. The future of our branch is certain to be bright.

Heather Abushanab
President, AAUW Redlands Branch