Susan Burk & Leslie Tourigny

Co-Vice Presidents for Program

We are very excited to begin a two-year term as the Co-Vice Presidents for Program and look forward to working with all the branch program officers.  Thanks to all of you for volunteering for this critical branch position.

As we see it, programs are the connective tissue of AAUW. They connect our mission of advancing equity for women and girls to our actions, and in doing so, connect us to AAUW National, AAUW of Virginia, other state affiliates, other branches, our local communities, our country, and to the global community. There’s no end to the innovation and creativity we can bring to our programs, and also no need to always be reinventing the wheel.

Branch Program Officers
You can find a short position description on the AAUW of Virginia website. As soon as we receive a full listing of new and continuing branch program officers beginning on July 1, 2024, we will be getting in touch with you all and scheduling a virtual meeting.

2024-2025 Program Priorities
There are several top program priorities for this program year:

• AAUW of Virginia’s Centennial Celebration and 2025 State Conference – On March 28, 1925, the seven existing AAUW branches in Virginia voted to form the Virginia Division of AAUW. Our centennial celebration will be held on March 28-29, 2025, at the Sheraton Suites in Old Town Alexandria. Our State Conference will be held on March 29, preceded by preconference activities on March 28. The conference will be hosted by Northern District branches, but assistance from any AAUW-VA member will be most welcome.
• Increasing Opportunities for Branches to Collaborate on Programs It is no secret that a lot of work goes into developing and presenting programs so we will work on increasing opportunities for branches to collaborate on programs. This has the potential to divide the workload among branches and increase the number of attendees.
• Facilitate the Sharing of Information About Branch Programs  Together we will develop a template so that branches can provide overviews of their best programs to share with other branches.

Resources

1. Beginning during the pandemic, AAUW National began holding a series of excellent webinars on a variety of mission-related topics. Some of these may be useful as branch programs: https://www.aauw.org/resources/programs/webinars/.
2. Also, AAUW National has developed a series of toolkits that contain information that is also helpful when developing programs.

Please let us know when you have program ideas to share with the wider AAUW-VA membership.  Our programs are the best way to engage our members and others and to spread the word about AAUW-VA.