President's Message: Spring/Summer 2025

As our fiscal year ends on June 30th, it is Membership Renewal time for most of you.  You will receive a renewal form in a postal mailing soon.  Please take the time to fill out the form and return it with your check to Janice Hartman.  Her address is on the form.  I say “for most of you” since AAUW National has changed the date for renewals.  Now, for new members, your membership expires twelve months after your join date, rather than on June 30th.  However, at this time you will receive the form to fill out with your information for the Yearbook and your committee and group interests.

As I close out my second two-year term as President, I want to thank everyone for all their hard work as officers, chairs, committee members and book sale volunteers.  It couldn’t be done without you.  It has been a privilege to serve this amazing organization.  I hope you have enjoyed your membership and activities with Summit College Club and would like to continue to participate in the new fiscal year, 2025-2026.  Our Annual Meeting will be held via Zoom between June 15 and June 30.  This is when a vote will be taken on the nominations for officers for 2025-2026.  More details will be provided later when the slate of officers is emailed to you.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the annual book sale which brought in almost $14,000 in receipts this year.  The After Book Sale Party for member and non-member volunteers had to be postponed but will now be held on June 11th from 4 to 7pm.  Details will be sent later via email.  Also, on June 11th at 10am there will be a docent-led tour of Greenwood Gardens.  Hope to see you there.

Thanks to the Scholarship Committee for all their hard work in reviewing forty-three applications in order to select the awardees for six scholarships.  The awards will be presented at the June 8th 2pm Scholarship Reception in Lile Hall at Christ Church and it is a great time to celebrate the rewards of all our efforts.  We will also be donating again this year to the Union County College Foundation to provide four partial scholarships for women returning to school and in need of financial aid.  Hedy Tukey, Karen Weis and I had the pleasure of meeting two of our recipients at a March scholarship donor reception held by the foundation.

Thanks to Marylou’ Motto's outreach efforts, we are sending two students to NCCWSL (National Conference for College Women Student Leaders) this year.  Julia Nugent (2024 Scholarship Recipient) and Eden Levko (2023 Scholarship Recipient) will attend this year’s conference on 5/28-5/30/25 at the University of Maryland, College Park.  It is a great opportunity for women undergraduate students to develop their leadership potential. 

Don’t forget our upcoming program on May 3rd. The program brings together two panelists who will address navigating health and financial well-being as we get older.  This event will take place at the New Providence Memorial Library and will begin at 10:30am and end at 12:30pm.  Panelists are member Maria Tabone, MA, MS, Holistic Nutritionist, Ayurveda Practitioner and Duke University/National Board Certified Health & Wellness Coach (NBHWC) and Kathleen Lally, Retired VP of Investor Relations for Public Service Enterprise Group. As I mentioned above, our final program of the year takes place on June 11, with a guided one-hour walking tour of Greenwood Gardens in Short Hills, with an optional brown-bag lunch overlooking the gardens afterward (plan for two hours total).

AAUW-NJ is holding its annual meeting via Zoom on May 17th at 10am.  It is a good way to hear the review of the year’s activities by AAUW-NJ and all the NJ branches.

As for national, you should have received an email around April 21st letting you know of the AAUW National Election.  The deadline to vote is May 13th at 5pm.  For more information on the candidates and ballot initiatives, please visit https://act.aauw.org/MemberVote2025.

I wish you all a happy and most enjoyable summer.

Lynne Rogerson, President