WILPF Set for a Dynamic 2020: All Aboard!

By Darien De Lu
WILPF US President
December 10, 2019

WILPF US depends on volunteer energy to move forward our work on issues, as well as our internal organizational work. With several new committees starting up, and other committees welcoming new members as they continue their work, January is a great month to look into something new. Due to generous volunteer involvement in 2019, we can celebrate many major accomplishments.  Nearly all of these projects have succeeded through our members’ cooperative work on WILPF committees.

In the pivotal election year of 2020 we’ll be embracing opportunities. With member help, we’ll be spreading WIPF messages through expanded social media use, developing more effective communications, rolling out a new website, and helping our members gain knowledge and skills.

Are you ready to get involved in something beyond the limits of your local community? Would you like to get to know other WILPFers by working together with them toward meaningful goals? I invite you to review this list of current and in-formation ad hoc committees. Do you have the interests or skill sets to add something useful?

If none of the new ad hoc committees call to you, we offer other opportunities to make a difference in 2020! Beyond the ad hoc committees, our program-focused issue committees always welcome new members. We have various other kinds of ongoing committees – some of which I mention below – and the standing board committees.  (Membership in the standing committees, listed in the Bylaws, is by appointment or election.  Potentially qualified WILPF members are welcome to contact me (at president@WILPFUS.org) for further information. )

So what are some of our 2019 accomplishments?

Were you one of the many people who responded to the online member survey about Program 2.0? If so, thank you, and the results are in! On all the questions, WILPF members overwhelmingly supported this proposal, which re-envisions the structuring of our issue-related work. Special appreciation goes to Ellen Schwartz of the Holistic Committee for her work on the survey. The members’ stamp of approval follows up on Program Committee review and Board approval of Program 2.0. Holistic Committee member Marybeth Gardam offered major contributions to formulating the proposal.

Now, after nine month of meeting, that committee has nearly completed its work of identifying and introducing ways to make our program-related work more coherent and strategic. The next steps will involve you, the members. Now is the time to give your suggestions to the various issue committees:  What issues are you or your branch most involved in?  Do you have ideas for actions?  Contact the issue committee chairs to let them know!

Also successfully reorganized, with new faculty/coordinators, are our United Nations Commission on the Status of Women Programs. As the UN CSW Programs Committee, Board members Jan Corderman, Mary Hanson Harrison, and Eileen Kurkoski offered major help in this transition. Now we’re seeking volunteers to help the committee promote these two programs, the Practicum and Local to Global. Even if you can’t commit to the committee, perhaps you know of college or university students with interest in the UN or international women’s issues? They have only until December 20 to apply for the March 2020 Practicum! Also, for WILPF members who qualify for Local to Global, that same December 20 deadline applies.

We won a substantial grant, thanks to the work of the Grants Committee, skillfully led by Marguerite Adelman with assistance from Eileen Kurkoski! Our Earth Democracy Committee, especially committee chair and Board member Nancy Price and activist Randa Solick, worked hard preparing a grant proposal to support our The Pentagon: Exposing the Hidden Polluter of Water project in California (read the December 3 eAlert “Don't Miss Seeing This Movie -- and Taking Action!”). It’s not only our California members who will benefit from the March speaking tour and related events. Already, members in our Burlington, Vermont Branch are looking into having activist researcher Pat Elder speak about military pollutants in their area.

As part of our program revival, a number of our issue committees are reorganizing, incorporating new leaders, members, and issues. Our two steadiest committees, Middle East and Disarm, are both finding ways to refocus and reprioritize their work. Cuba and the Bolivarian Alliance is strategizing how to respond to renewed US aggression and intervention in Latin America. As mentioned above, Earth Democracy is highlighting public awareness of and actions around the military’s disregard for its environmental damage and the resulting health effects. Advancing Human Rights is inviting interested WILPF members to join in and select among many human rights issues for focused activism. And Corporations v. Democracy is not just reorganizing – they’re choosing a new name to better reflect their expanded concerns.  Please welcome this renamed issue committee:  Women, Money & Democracy.

With so much happening, don’t get left behind! Consider our many committee options and contact me at President@wilpfus.org for more details.