Middlebury Convention Scrapbook -- page 3
The afternoon featured a lively panel of successful young women introduced and moderated by Gail Smith, Associate Director of Athletics at Middlebury College.
At some point during the presentation they dubbed themselves the
"FOG" (Friends of Gail) Club.
State Senator Claire Ayer continues to work part time as a registered nurse while serving her third term in the Vermont State Senate. (She also earned a Middlebury College degree, cum laude, while raising her three children.) She is Vice Chair of the Senate Finance Committee and serves on the Government Operations Committee.
In January 2007 Claire was elected Senate Majority Whip.
Claire spoke about possible ways to use that leadership position (she declined to be the "lunch bitch") and how to mingle and work with the men in the State Senate. She explained that a weekly get-together of female Senators for a simple evening meal and relaxation in someone's home had evolved into an important and "safe" networking opportunity as well as a much needed break. Could this be the start of an "old girl network" in the Senate?
Kylie Quesnel graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture and now manages her family's large dairy farm in Addison County. She regaled the audience with tales such as the Semen salesman asking "Hey little girl, where is your daddy?" She didn't skip a beat, but just told him that he would have to deal with her if he wanted to do any business with the dairy farm.
Kylie holds many local, regional and national leadership positions in a field that is traditionally male. She explained how her father ran an advertisement for a farm manager and eventually asked his daughter to write her own contract. She was a much better candidate than any of the others (all male) for manager of the farm.
Judith Irving joined the Vermont Commission on Women as Coordinator of the Vermont Women's History Project in 2004 after serving as Executive director of Vermont Interactive Television for sixteen years. Judith is a Middlebury College graduate.
Judith spoke of the growing pains of both organizations and the difficulties of securing funding. She also spoke of the connections she made while serving on many boards within the state and as an Associate of the Vermont Leadership Institute of the Snelling Center for Government. She was instrumental in founding the Women in Technology Program at Vermont Technical College that was also supported by Vermont AAUW branches in its early years.
Amy Sheldon is president of Landslide, Inc. where she provides natural resource planning, watershed assessment, GIS mapping and other services to individuals and organizations. She detailed the difficulties this job occasionally presents when dealing with male clients.
Amy is also an ongoing instructor for the National Outdoor Leadership School, leading expedition style courses in the wilderness. Amy has a degree in Economics from Middlebury College and a Master's degree in Natural Resource Planning from UVM.
The last speaker of the Middlebury Convention was New England Regional Director Patricia Ho. She gave us a sneak preview of the new Pay Equity Study "Behind the Pay Gap" which was officially released on the following Monday with much media coverage.
Patricia also updated Vermont members on the restructuring of national AAUW which will start with bylaws changes at the national convention in Phoenix. The restructuring will bring the Educational Foundation and Association much closer together and eventually result in one national organization and board. This structural change is being implemented after a two-year long study with input from 11,000 members nationwide. Its purpose is to streamline the organization so that it can be viable for many years to come.
