Friday, April 24, 2015

State Convention Photo Summary

Eight members traveled to Austin to attend the state convention April 10-11.  The Hormel Historic Home was an excellent site for the conference.  Speakers from the Association and a dynamic LAF speaker (Kathy Bull) connected attendees to how AAUW works to accomplish its mission.  Here are a few photos from the conference.





Immigration was April Theme




Emily Good, Staff Attorney for Research, Education and Advocacy at The Advocates for Human Rights spoke to us about the subject of immigration.  Her presentation included information on the legal process of immigration and a bit about the immigration court system.  Options for legal immigration include: having a family member in the United States already, coming as a refugee, or winning the ‘green card lottery’. She briefly reviewed major immigration law from the Immigration Reform and Control Act (1986) to the Homeland Security Act (2002).  The immigration court system is seriously overburdened with only 200 immigration judges in the entire country (3 in Minnesota). There was a lively discussion after her remarks.

Groundwater Issues was March Subject




Diedre Coleman, a Master Water Steward with the Freshwater Society presented an interesting program about the Freshwater Society and its efforts in the areas of groundwater sustainability, fighting pollution in lakes, rivers, and streams, especially from non-human sources such as storm water runoff.  While governments at the federal, state, and local level have water pollution prevention programs, water does not follow political boundaries, so in Minnesota, we have watershed districts to coordinate programs across political boundaries. The Master Water Stewards program is currently a pilot project.  It involves 60 hours of classroom training, outreach work, a capstone project, and stewards must commit to 50 hours of volunteer time to work on water-related projects.

OOPS!


Looks like I kinda forgot to update the blog last month---so here comes a bunch of stuff to catch you up on MetroWest activities.