I'm officially announcing that next year will be the year of AAUW visibility and membership- through advocacy and activism. FL AAUW needs to work on two fronts. We need to continue to work tirelessly as mentors for women and girls - in the classrooms and in the workplace. We are the best of the best in this.

We must also actively work for choice, for affirmative action, for public education, for adequate childcare, for equal pay for equal work, and for the improvement of the status of women in general. As Ambassador Carol Moseley-Braun has so eloquently stated, we must "liberate the human spirit from the bondage of gender limitations."

Our roots are in activism - from Marion Talbot's struggle to find adequate employment for women college graduates to women's suffrage to our history-making attack on McCarthyism to ERA, AAUW has been in the forefront in promoting the rights of women and girls. Today we need to make our voices not only heard but also recognized. This is important not only to effect our mission but also to expand and grow our membership. When I call my Congressional representatives in Washington and mention AAUW, there is an immediate recognition factor. We need to establish this same recognition in the state of Florida.

We have not, and cannot, do this alone. We must work, next year and in the years to come, to build coalitions with other groups that support our goals - on the community, state, and federal levels. We must raise our voices, increase our visibility and thus reinforce our credibility and promulgate our mission.

At the march on Tallahassee against "The One Florida Initiative," Jesse Jackson, King, Mfume, Hill and Meeks chose to march with Sandy Bernard. That was not by accident but by calculation. AAUW represents a moderate, educated voice in a political climate that more and more is tending toward the moderate center. We must take advantage of this climate and use it toward our mission! We can do it - we must do it!

Women must start speaking with a collective voice toward collective goals. In the coming year Florida AAUW intends to use this voice and let it be heard for equity for all women and girls!

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