Read AAUW of OK President Faye Henson's letter below and see how one person can make a difference. She took a chance, contacted her local media about an AAUW cause she believed in, and landed herself an interview on a local TV station's morning show.
8/24/2006
Dear AAUW/OK board members,
This is a relaxed message as I survived an interview on live TV with Robin Marsh on KWTV Channel 9. It's 3:37 p.m. and I can say that I am much more at ease than I was at 6:30 a.m. setting in the Channel 9 studio in OKC waiting to go on the air.
Last week I received the Action Alert which encouraged us to notify the media about the upcoming Women's Equality Day recognition for August 26, 2006. Well I got my little mouse busy and sent messages to ABC, NBC, and CBS plus my local newspaper. THEN came the reply e-mail invitation asking, "Would you like to come and visit with Robin Marsh on the Morning Show at 6:45 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 24th?"
At this point I checked my pulse, and took a deep breath, and replied "I can do this." I had a chance to visit for a short (2-1/2 minutes) during which we talked about Women's Equality Day, the importance of getting women to vote especially since it was such as hard won right, and then I mentioned the AAUW Women-To-Women Voter Education campaign. I had my "The Power of One Vote Poster" ready, but didn't get to flash it. I had sent the producer the aauw.org web site in background information, but it wasn't shown.
We talked about pay equity issues, and how AAUW/OK is planning to encourage communities to host activities that encourage women to register, become informed on the issues, and vote. While we visited, images of historical and current women in various activities were displayed. They did use the pay equity figures from the e-mail message that came from AAUW. So all in all, I think it was a success.
I also shared the fact the National Women's History Project has an outstanding video that depicts the events around the passage of the 19th amendment. The HBO produced film/DVD is entitled "Iron Jawed Angels". I have the video if anyone would like to review it. It runs for about two hours so is too long for a branch meeting, but would make a nice event during women's history month in the spring or as an idea for scheduling next August 26th.
I got balloons and a little quiz to put in the middle of our tables for our Weatherford AAUW meeting on 8/26/2006. Of course, as I drove home, I kept thinking about how I could do a better job if this situation ever presented itself again. Live and Learn!
Thanks for letting me share, and hope that challenges of your day aren't getting the best of you. We are here to support each other, so let me know if I can listen to you some time in the future.
Sincerely,
Faye Henson AAUW/OK State President 2006-2008
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