A few weeks ago, it was brought to the AAUW NC leadership’s attention that this year the first seder of Passover is the evening of Saturday, April 19 — the day of our convention. Our convention should not have been scheduled to conflict with Passover, but by the time the conflict was noted there was no practical way to reschedule.
Our bylaws and policies (unlike those of some other AAUW entities) do not put specific restrictions on the choice of a date for convention, but do state that the date must be approved by the executive committee — your elected officers. As you can imagine, the checklist of items for scheduling and putting on a convention is quite long, and depends to some extent on the good faith and institutional knowledge of those who are taking responsibility. I encourage us all to be sensitive to all important holy days when scheduling our meetings — at both the branch and state level. It is only by putting such sensitivity in our “organizational DNA” that such oversights will be prevented in the future.
I have also asked that the Association put future dates for holy days on the master calendar two or three years in advance. Until that’s done, I find the New York City alternate side parking restriction dates a good “first cut” for important holy days, and the Interfaith Calendar a source for dates in future years.
We apologize to those who will not be able to attend on April 19, and we regret we will lose out on their input.