2022-2023 Activities

Monthly Coffees
Monthly coffees will be held at 10:30 am on the 3rd Saturday of the month at the Crack of Dawn.

Quarterly Birthday Dinners
Quarterly birthday dinners will be held at 5:30 pm on the 1st Wednesday of February May, August and November. Location TBA.

Candidate Forums
Thursday, October 6, State Senate District 19, and State Representative District 19A;
Rice County Commissioner, District 3.
Faribault City Council Chambers, 5:30 pm
Thursday, October 13, Faribault School Board, 5:30 pm, Faribault City Council Chambers.
Thursday October 20, County Attorney and Rice County Sheriff, 5:30 pm, Faribault City Council Chambers

Halloween Breakfast, Sunday, October 30, Faribault American Legion.

Tri-Branch Luncheon, Saturday, April 22, 2023, Northfield, Ruth’s on Stratford, 410 Strafford Lane, Dundas

Annual State Meeting, Spring, 2023 TBA

Book Sale, Faribo West Mall, TBA

Branch Meetings; Branch Meetings will be held at the Rice County Historical Society, with the business meeting at 6:15 pm and the program at 7:00 pm
September 26, Laura Sterling, Manager of the Faribo West Mall, What’s New at the Faribo West Mall
November 28, Silent auction for local scholarships. Bloom, Decorating for the Holidays
December 19, Holiday Gathering at the Cathedral, 6:00 pm. Members provide hors d’oeuvres and a jar of peanut butter to donate to the Ckommunity Cafe. Barb Dubbels, Night Before Christmas Collection.
February 27, Carolyn Treadway; Women in Politics
March 27, Gloria Olson, Aunt Maude and the Mayo Women
April 24, Trac;y; Corcoran, Director of Teaching and Learning, Faribault, Teach What, Says Who?
May 29, Annual Picnic; catered meal by Arna Farmer.PlaceTBA

2021-2022 Activities 

Quarterly Birthday Dinners will be held at 5:30 pm on the first Wednesday of February;, May, August and November, Location TBA.

Monthly Coffees will be  held at 10:30 on the third Saturday of the month at the Crack of Dawn.

Halloween Breakfast, Sunday;, October 31, 2021 at the American Legion from 8:00 am until 12:00 pm.

Social Saturday, January 15, 2022; Kathy Larson and Pauline Schreiber will arrange activities for us,, including Meditation by Mary Niermann and Isabell O’Connor

Tri-Branch Luncheon, Saturday, April 23, 2022, 11:30 am, Owatonna Arts Center, 435 Garden View Lane.

Book Sale, Faribault West Mall, May 18-24, 9:30 am – 7:30 pm.

State Convention, Friday, April 29, 2022  through Saturday, April 30, 2022, St. Cloud, MN

 

About us.
The Faribault branch is committed to the AAUW mission. The mission statement appears in our membership brochure and every issue of our newsletter. We center our programs on women presenters as well as women’s issues.

Our November meeting includes a silent auction to raise funds to support the AAUW Legal Advocacy Fund (LAF).  LAF helps women who file law suits because of salary inequities, sexual harassment, or unequal treatment on the job.

Every third year we host the Tri-Branch Luncheon, a tradition we have long shared with the Northfield and Owatonna branches.

This year we will host the AAUW State Convention on Friday-Saturday, April 27-28!  Our convention theme is “Come Grow in Faribault.”

We strive each year to find ways to make AAUW a recognizable and proactive group in the Faribault community. For many years we have particitpated in Faribault’s International Festival that is held in August in Central Park.  We provide information about our branch and offer many youth activities.  Our programs are open to the public.

Our first program of the year is “Getting to Know You”. This meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. on September 25, 2017 at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church. A short ice breaker activity will follow the business meeting to allow members to chance to socialize and to learn more about each other.  A summary of our other meetings can be found under “programs.”

For years we have hosted candidate formums for state legislature, city council, mayoral, and school board candidates.  These are held at City Hall and are broadcast live on FCTV.

Our annual book sale has become an anticipated event for members of our community. We gather and store books during the year and then in April or May we set up the sale at the Faribo West Mall.  In recent years, we have chosen to extend beyond the weekend to garner more revenue. In addition to our scholarships, the sales also help fund Project STAR, a program that allows us to present a book to each child at preschool screening.

We host an  annual Halloween Scholarship Benefit Breakfast.  While providing importart monies for scholarships, it is also a fun time for our members to get to know one another and a way to get people in the community to learn about AAUW.

 Each year, during women’s history month, the Faribault Daily News publishes four or five articles written by our members. The themes have varied over the years. Some years we’ve focused on local women.  For over 20 years we have participated twice yearly in the Minnesota Highway Clean-up program.

 In 2017. a committee composed of the following branch members (Cyndy Harrison, Kathy Larson, BettyHarmsen, Karen Rasmussen, Pat Rice and Gloria Olson)  met several times to  draft a proposal to rename our local airport field in honor of WWII pilot and women’s rights activist, Liz Strohfus. They presented their proposal to the Airport Board and Public works Director, Travis Krenske. They also shared their ideas with several community groups, including the American Legion, and received their endorsement.  The proposal was pre-approved by a joint meeting of the City Council and then by the full City Council and by the  FAA (Federal Aviation Administration). On June 24th, 2017, a ceremony  with a large number of citizens and dignitaries in attendence, including Senator Amy Klobuchar, designated the field the Liz Wall Strohfus Field.

 

 

 

For many years our branch has sponsored a book club which meets monthly. Many, but not all books chosen to be read are authored by women.

For the past two years, an emphasis on “social” events has been a great success.  This year four popular social ideas will include: coffee on the 3rd Saturday of the month seeing a movie, celebrating our birthdays, and a morning book club!

Faribault Branch table at International Festival