Jane Winter

Jane is a newer member who moved from Marin County to Colfax and bridged over to our Branch last year. She was looking to join a Branch near her Colfax home and found us to be a friendly bunch and a good fit! On top of that, Jane is currently the Public Policy Chair of the Marin Branch, moving between the two Branches to satisfy the demands of each. She has brought her public policy experience and wisdom to us by joining our Diversity Equity and Inclusion planning group and has been meeting with the group all year, focusing on outreach to the local Indigenous People, the Nisenan. Jane is involved in Tech Trek in Marin, and also joined our Tech Trek Committee. To top it all off, she’s volunteered to be a Dorm Mom this summer at Tech Trek camp at UC Davis.

Many of you know that Jane is an avid hiker. Last summer she substituted for Rose Tammi as Hiking Group leader when Rose was away for the summer. Jane expanded our hiking activities to two a month, offering a huge shot of energetic camaraderie for many of our members at a time when we needed to feel connected. Several times she had to be flexible and pivot to alternate times or places for hikes, because of challenges presented by extreme heat and wildfire smoke. Steady as a rock, Jane agreed to continue guiding the Group and she
took on leadership of it this past fall when Rose needed to extend her time
away. Jane’s commitment to sustaining our Hiking Group came just at the right
time…we are so fortunate to have the benefit of her experience and expertise !
All of this is a pretty remarkable record for a new member, albeit a member who
is not new to AAUW, but new to our Branch.

Diane Kellegrew

Diane joined us in January 2021, after moving to Nevada County from
Ventura in Southern California. She didn’t let Covid stand in her way
when she wanted to relocate and she didn’t let being a “newbie” stand
in her way in getting involved with our Branch! Soon after Diane joined
us, Bup discovered that Diane had experience in guiding groups to
develop Strategic Plans. She asked Diane if she might help us work on
updating our Branch’s plan. Diane agreed, and spent many hours on
this, during the summer of 2021, working with Bup and Deb York, and
helped lead the Board retreat on the Strategic Plan. She continued to
lend her expertise to the Board as it worked to develop the Plan last
fall.

Diane also volunteered last summer to work with a small group of
members on fundraising ideas. She helped us to brainstorm common
needs and ideas for possible revenue streams that could support Local
Scholarships, AAUW Fund, and Tech Trek, and cover operating
expenses. Her expertise helped us frame our challenges and possible
solutions in new ways.
In addition, this new member took on a Board position, that of the
Financial Underwriter Development Chair. She has brought fresh ideas
to expand our support from underwriters and strengthen our outreach
to local businesses. Diane’s work with the Underwriter Plan resulted in
the sponsoring of our recent program by Bodacious Blooms. In her
spare time she joined one of our book groups and presented two
topics at Great Decisions. Great job, Diane!!

Mari Weaver

Mari has been one of the Program VP’s for this year. She carried on in
the job under extremely difficult circumstances and never let the ball
drop. Because of the Pandemic rules she had to see and learn how to
zoom the meetings and do other complicated things.
She also had an added burden after the Great Storm in that she had
many trees down and it took an extremely long for power to be
restored and the trees dealt with so she could live in her house.
She had to rent a room in Auburn to have a safe place to reside. Of
course, that entailed many trips back and forth dealing with the storm
issues as well as Program issues.
With the uncertainties as to whether the program would be live or
zoomed it made a big job even bigger. And to top it off she is agreeing
to be the Program Chair again next year, and for that we are all very
grateful.

Sue Miller

Sue has been an incredibly dedicated and hard worker contributing to
the Branch in so many ways. She did the Lodestone for 4 years and she did a great job of it. Her graphics did so much to enliven the newsletter and all the other extra things she brought to the Lodestone
made it an enjoyable read.
She has contributed in so many other ways as well. She was active in
the Neighborhood Circles during the pandemic and contributed several
items for the Facebook fundraiser. She is very active in the Arts and
Crafts Group and volunteers for whatever Community
Services Project we have, such as the Christmas presents. She sewed
stockings for the Christmas gifts she we gave to the children of CASA.
Sue also joined the committee to develop community services ideas a
year ago and she is on the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion steering
committee. She has also been a great resource as a photographer. She
always steps up to do whatever needs to be done.