Dear members and friends,
We are looking back on 2024, a year with lots of highlights for ICUUWomen.
Karen Kortsch, who had served on the board for six years and as our Board President for the last four years, stepped down from her post due to term limits. The Board elected me as the incoming President, and the first thing I did was ask Karen to continue to serve our organization as immediate past-president. Karen is now serving in this role and attending Board meetings. I hope to make this a permanent Bylaw change. It is so important to have continuity.
Our biggest highlight was our fourth Convocation, and you will read more about it in this Fall 2024 newsletter and on our website. Getting together in person made me realize how limiting online meetings are. It was so good to be in a person-to-person community.
As a global organization we bring together women from all over the world, and most of the time we do this online. We are delighted that the current technology enables us to meet in Zoom calls, to see each other’s faces and celebrate together. I remember a time when a long-distance phone call was really expensive. And now I can see you and chat with you for the price of my internet access. I very much appreciate this! Being global and mostly online also has its challenges. It is much more difficult to become a member, to build community with other members, to identify volunteer opportunities and to step up and get engaged. I know you want to be an active member of our wonderful group, and we need to make it easier for you to get involved more. We need you!
This year, 11 members met in March in New York to attend the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. Next year we want to gather 30 women from around the world in New York to learn more about the work that is being done for Gender Equality (Sustainable Development Goal #5) and what we are doing in this space. We are a global partnership of Unitarian*Universalists who work for women’s empowerment through UU connections around the world. That’s our mission. We bring women together to learn from each other by sharing the good work they are doing in their communities and learning from each other. That’s how we fulfill our mission.
If you haven’t yet joined us as a member, I invite you to do this now! Look at all the work we do and imagine yourself being part of it. It makes me proud to be a part of our organization. Together we achieve so much. This invitation goes to all readers of this article.
Everyone can join in the work to make the world a little more equal and just for all. You don’t have to identify as a woman to join us at any level. The more members and supporters we have, the more we can do.
Happy reading!
Tina Huesing