Annual Branch Meeting Recap

This year’s annual meeting took place on Tuesday, June 16 and was both a celebration of our successes in this past year and a preparation for the year to come. In a beautiful office space provided and catered by Perelson Weiner, President Raegan Sealy opened with a review of all of the accomplishments of AAUW in the 2025-26 season. This included a recap of events, such as the International Women’s Day brunch and the fellows reception, a breakdown of the consolidation of all AAUW Metro resources into one Google Drive, and the shift from social organization to a purpose-driven organization. 

Jessica Sims, 2025/26 Treasurer, then ran through a recap of how the numbers blossomed this year, including the rising number count, the booming bank balance, the increased fundraising, and the many grants received. This put into perspective all of the work that has been done over the year to advance the organization and how far we have come. She also briefed us all on the ongoing shift from a 501C4 to a 501C3 in order to receive donations. 

After reviewing the details of this past year, Raegan began to look ahead, specifically at the upcoming Girls In STEM program. She summarized the new mentorship program, matching AAUW

fellows to high school juniors, making a tangible product from the Girls In STEM meeting and shifting the audience from middle school girls to high school women, creating an alumni community like never before. The goal is to create a scalable template so that this event can be replicated across the country by other AAUW branches. Because of how ambitious this event is, AAUW Metro is creating a specialized Girls In STEM board and doubling the board to manage the planning. 

Branch members then quickly voted on bylaw edits before introducing the new board elections by reading their bios and voting them into office. The meeting closed with a speech from Vicki Weiner from WEALF, the Women’s Enterprise Action Leadership Fund. WEALF is a nonprofit organization that seeks to help women who do not qualify for traditional financing to lend them money and provide them with a one-on-one mentor so they can grow a business and become financially self-sufficient to determine their own future. Her mission, to make the world equitable for all women, is inspiring and remarkably similar to AAUW’s mission to provide education to help women get ahead. Vicki’s story is the perfect demonstration of how we can keep working towards a future that guarantees women’s success.