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NOW is the largest, most comprehensive feminist advocacy group in the United States. Our purpose is to take action to bring women into full participation in society — sharing equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities with men, while living free from discrimination.
FEBRUARY 17, 2015 West Pinellas NOW Chapter Meeting
Our February meeting will be held on Tuesday, February 17th, from 6:30 – 8pm at
Jason’s Deli. This moderately-priced specialty sandwich shop is just south
of Westfield-Countryside Mall on the East side of 19, at 25801 US Hwy 19, in
Clearwater in the Cypress Pointe Shopping Plaza, right off Enterprise.
We have a very special speaker planned for our
meeting and we hope that many of you will join us for her presentation. SHELBA
W. is a chapter member with a very interesting background and a distinctive
skill set. She is an expert in how women are portrayed and exploited in our the media and how this false depiction of young women affects us all.
We are looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible our very special speaker. She will have information to share that is vital for our growth. We were very active last year, and we want to have an even better 2015. Please bring a friend or two who you would like to introduce to NOW. See you then.
If you would like to receive our monthly newsletter which contains our newest information and a calendar of progressive events around the Bay Area, please write and give us your e mail address. Hope to see you at Jason's on the 17th.
RALLY FOR A BETTER
TOMORROW
Our chapter participated in the RALLY FOR A BETTER TOMORROW which was held on
Saturday, September 27th in the Walton Center Gymnasium in Tarpon Springs. We've posted some photos on our Facebook page at West Pinellas National Organization for Women. We had atleast 15 members from our own chapter, one from Tampa NOW, half a dozen from Pasco NOW and a several members of Pinellas NOW. All in all it was a great and fun day and gave us an opportunity to visit with one another in a wonderful setting filled with activists from all over the County. The purpose of the event was to gather community activists representing the entire spectrum of the Progressive Community to give their vision of the future, to inspire action and to remind everyone present of the importance of Getting Out The Vote to elect progressives who support liberal causes, including women’s rights and
equality. The RALLY featured speakers and organizations representing education, the environment, ethnic
minorities, faith, health, LGBT, seniors, women, youth, elected officials and
candidates. Media celebrities, Rob Lorei of WMNF Radio and the PBS television program Florida This Week (which can be seen at 8:30pm every Friday evening) and Patrick Mantegia, the editor of the tri-lingual newspaper La Gaceta, attended and gave very informative and inspiring presentations.
Each speaker was tasked to give a 5-10 minute speech to present three specific actions to be taken by individuals, businesses,
organizations and/or local, state or federal government that would result in a
better tomorrow for their particular
issue/cause/organization. Everyone was so well prepared and we learned so much from every speaker. It was a really inspiring day and if you missed it, we are sorry because it was a very energizing and motivating day. There's always next year.
PLEASE GET INVOLVED IN THE CAMPAIGN OF YOUR CHOICE Our great candidates need your support at this crucial time. The General Election Vote by Mail ballots will be mailed in just a few weeks. It's time to step up if you haven't done so already. We have 2 members of West Pinellas NOW running in November and we ask that you join them in making the Pinellas County Legislative Delegation one of the best in the State. Please give of your time and energy. And please donate whatever you can. No amount is too small. JULIE BUJALSKI is running for Mayor of Dunedin juliewardbujalski.com JUDITHANNE MCLAUCHLAN is running for Florida Senate D. 22 votejudithanne.com
****************************************** LOCAL CANDIDATES ENDORSED BY THE FLORIDA STATE NOW PAC PLEASE NOTE THAT AS A CHAPTER WE CANNOT
ENDORSE CANDIDATES. WHAT THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE REPRESENTS IS EDUCATIONAL
MATERIAL FROM OUR STATE PAC CONCERNING SOME LOCAL CANDIDATES. The two Pinellas County NOW
Chapters have been working in concert for months now, organizing the sending of
questionnaires to every candidate in our area and reviewing those
questionnaires for submission of their names for endorsement to the Florida
State NOW PAC. The following candidates,
in alphabetical order, have been endorsed: JULIE BUJALSKI running for
Mayor of Dunedin (CHAPTER MEMBER) RENE FLOWERS running for
School Board, District 7 PAT GERARD running for County
Commission, District 2 (NOW MEMBER) GEORGE SHELDON running for
Florida Attorney General MARK WEINKRANTZ running for
County Commission, District 4 *******************************************************
RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP Many of the members of our two merged chapters have allowed their memberships to lapse. We hope you will take the time to go online to either the Florida State NOW website or the National NOW website and renew your memberships. http://www.NOW.org and http://www.FLNOW.org .... This is especially critical this year as we gear up for many important elections in November. Be the most informed person in your circle of friends by joining or renewing your NOW memberships. Be part of the solution and join the largest feminist organization in the world. We need you to be one of our activists - to get involved in local issues, to volunteer for candidates and to be a vocal proponent of women's issues in our community. The Florida Legislature continues to attack our right to full health care and only a concerted effort of all the women in the state of Florida can change that. We need to help elect women-friendly legislators and to raise the community's consciousness when legislators waste their precious 60 days in session with more gun bills, raising speed limits and giving corporations more and more tax breaks. We need the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment in Florida and and then on to the U.S. Constitution. Women will never be equal citizens of this nation until we are inside that document. We need to teach our neighbors and legislators that even in the 21st Century, women do not have Constitutional equity in this country. We also need to convince our Senators to support CEDAW, a United Nations Treaty that the USA has never ratified. It is a crime that America is one of only 7 nations who have not signed on to the "Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women" along with such nations as Somalia and Iran. PLEASE JOIN US NOW !
UPDATES Our Chapter is also very involved in a new statewide campaign being led by the Tampa Bay Area Caucus of which our chapter is a member. We intend to write our own reproductive justice legislation modeled after New York State's Gov. Andrew Cuomo who has also submitted to his Legislature a bill containing a 10 Point Women's Equality Program. We hope to make our chapter a vital part of this statewide movement. Please don't miss our next meeting. And please consider bringing a friend or two with you. We need to increase our membership numbers if we are going to continue to engage our Florida House and Senate in our fight toward equality. Please call if there are any other issues that you would like to discuss or materials we can gather for you to bring to the meeting. WE HOPE TO SEE YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS ON OCTOBER 21st !
If you did not receive our latest newsletter which outlined a number of upcoming activities of interest to our community, please send an e-mail to bjstar@att.net so we can forward one on to you. We try to make our newsletters as helpful as possible and to include as much local information that we know about. Please call or write to get on our e mail or mailing list NOW. | 
Educating the public and media about the status of and threats to women's rights
Women win the right to vote in 1920.
Women are paid only three-quarters of men's pay, while women of color make even less.