April 2024 Meeting
Join us on April 13, 2024 at 10:00 am at the Mount Baker Encore Room for a short business meeting and a great presentation by:
Chief Rebecca Mertzig began her career with the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office in 2004 and reached the rank of Lieutenant in 2020. Her experiences include patrol, special investigations, school resource officer, civil disturbance unit, Basic Law Enforcement Academy (BLEA) TAC Officer, honor guard, peer support, and first level and middle management leadership. She both served and supervised the Office of Neighborhoods which is a co-response unit pairing deputies with social workers to encourage engagement in services. She served as the Police Chief for the City of Stanwood and the Honor Guard Commander. Chief Mertzig has 18 years of law enforcement experience and was named Deputy of the Year in 2010. Chief Mertzig has her bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Eastern Washington University.
Women have been making significant strides in law enforcement, a field traditionally dominated by men. Currently, women make up about 12% of sworn officers and 3% of police leadership in the United States. Organizations like the National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives (NAWLEE) play a crucial role in supporting and mentoring women in the field. They aim to inspire, lead, and mentor women to join and excel in law enforcement careers.
Efforts are being made to increase the representation of women in law enforcement. The 30×30 Initiative is one such effort, aiming to increase the percentage of female police recruits to 30% by the year 2030. This initiative is supported by various law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, which has pledged to work towards this goal.
Research has shown that women in policing bring unique benefits to the profession. They are often rated as more trustworthy by communities, have high levels of interpersonal communication skills, and can have a calming effect on male partners in high-stress situations. Higher levels of female representation are also associated with organizations that emphasize community policing.
The presence of women in law enforcement is not only important for gender diversity but also for the positive impact they have on policing practices and community relations.
March 2024 Meeting
Come Join Us for this insightful fun business meeting.
AAUW-WA is a charitable, non-profit organization in Washington State which works to change the climate for women and girls. We accomplish this through education, research, advocacy and philanthropy.
THE WHATCOM/BELLINGHAM BRANCH WOULD LOVE TO TALK TO YOU. CONTACT US AT whatcommembership@gmail.com
EQUAL PAY DAY is upon us again. March 12, 2024 marks the date, on the average, when a woman works to catch up to her male counterpart’s prior year’s wages. So we work 2.5 extra months in the new year to earn what a man earned last year. This is profound over her working life and into retirement. It is a penalty we pay to be who we are and is unfair.
AAUW members will vote in April to remove the educational requirement for membership. This is the next step to modernizing our organization. Over the years the work has changed and so have we. Clearly we have achieved the educational goal and we now are set to move to the future. If the college education requirement had not been in place back in the day, Eleanor Roosevelt could have been a member. Think about it!
READ OUR MARCH NEWSLETTER
- Check out RumorGuard™, our media literacy platform that debunks viral rumors.
- Explore our collection of tips and tools, which includes handy infographics that lay out common news literacy topics, like the standards of quality journalism and how to vet whether a source is legit.
- Visit our events page to join a future news literacy training.
- Browse our resource hub for everyone to find even more, including recent episodes of our podcast Is that a fact?
6 things to know about AI
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We are now on
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Contact Membership Co-chair Sandy
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AAUW Washington State Calendar
February Meeting: the Encore Room was still freezing so we went to lunch instead.
January general meeting was BRACING. Our normal venue, The Mount Baker Encore Room had no heat and the room hovered around 53 degrees.
December Christmas Party with good food, wine and friendship.
– March 11, 2023 General Meeting
Mount Baker Encore Room 10 am – In Person and Zoom
MANUFACTURED insecurity
There is a reason why there are 40 housing 
related bills currently in review in the Washington State Legislature, five of which are mobile home-related. Affordable housing and the diversity of
housing are issues locally, statewide and
nationally. Author and scholar Esther
Sullivan will be guest speaker (via Zoom) at
the March meeting.
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November 12, 2022 at the Bellingham Golf and Country Club
1:30 – 4 pm with lots of raffle baskets, vintage teapots and more
OCTOBER MEETING Sat Oct 8, 10 am at the Mt.Baker Encore Room. This gathering will be ZOOM and in person.
Our next monthly meeting is also Indigenous Day. Our guest speaker for that day is author: Annie Boochever, who has written a book on Elisabeth Peratrovich, to honor her as first native woman, to address and win over the Alaska Senate in 1945 for civil rights for the indigenous people. Elisabeth Peratrovich was a civil right activist, a member of Tlingit nation who worked for equality on behalf of Alaska Natives. The book’s name is: Fighter in Velvet Gloves: Alaska Civil Rights Hero Elizabeth Peratrovich. It is a suitable book for middle school children. According to the author, the book has been very popular in Alaska. In 2019, the year the book was released, the Alaska League of Women Voters purchased copies and distributed them to every legislator and to every middle school library in Alaska. Also, a group of Alaskan librarians funded an Alaska tour for the author to speak about the book to various schools, libraries, even youth correctional facilities in Alaska.