2005 National NOW Elections - Candidate Information
The Riveters
Rosemary Dempsey for President
Vanessa Salinas for Executive Vice President
Elizabeth Volz for Action Vice President
Kathy Lazear for Membership Vice President
The Riveters web site
Platform
Rosemary Dempsey
Candidate for: President
NOW Chapter Affiliation: Southeastern Connecticut
Member Since: 1970
NOW Offices Held
Montgomery County, Md. Co-President (2004); National Action VP (1990-1997); Chair Lesbian Rights CIC (1986-1988); National Board, Mid-Atlantic (1984-1988); Eastern Regional Director (1974-1978); NJ President (1972-1974); Trenton, NJ President (1970-1972)
Personal Statement:
THIS MESSAGE IS TO AND FOR all local activists who work so hard, and have done so much with so little support from your national leaders. With YOUR support, change is on the way!
Our accomplishments are under attack. The cultural war waged by an empowered religious right is dirty, dangerous, and demanding.
The Riveters are experienced leaders who will engage creative, aggressive strategies to strengthen NOW to meet this challenge. We didn’t start this war, but it’s critical we win it!
Increasing NOW’s visibility will increase NOW’s influence and resources. People will join an organization making a difference -- be part of a movement addressing their issues! We will get YOU the resources you need to wage and win battles in our towns, cites, rural counties and states.
I joined NOW in 1970, the “second wave” of feminism was cresting. As NJ State President I organized more than 40 chapters. Our regional conference brought 5,000 people to Atlantic City. My law practice won significant legal battles for LGBT families, women in sports, workplace equity and immigrant women.
As national VP Action I organized the largest march for reproductive rights called by NOW, bringing 750,000 to DC. My vision to address ending violence brought 300,000 to Washington, with live TV coverage on CNN, C-SPAN, and featured on MTV and in major newspapers nationwide. I initiated the international Mitsubishi action that drew international press coverage to stop sexual harassment in the workplace in the US and Japan. My work focused on campuses, local chapters organizing for feminist candidates and against anti-women/LGBT ballot initiatives. With your vote, “We Can Do It… Together!”
Vanessa Salinas
Candidate for: Executive VP
NOW Chapter Affiliation: Mat-Su, Wasilla, AK.
Member Since: 1993
NOW Offices Held
Northwest Regional Director (2004-2006); National Board, Mid-Atlantic (2000-2002);
CO President (1994-1997); Vienna, VA President (2001-2002); Ending Racism
CIC (1998-2000)
Personal Statement:
When I talk about NOW, I begin with our priority issues, ending racism, homophobia, violence against women, etc. I have never questioned the connection of these issues, and how our oppressors use personal passion for individual rights to divide us. I joined NOW when sexual harassment was the outrage during Anita Hill’s testimony before Congress. In 1994, I took leave from work to do clinic defense against anti-choice terrorist threats and help National NOW organize a protest rally against the pope’s visit to Denver. In 1997, I joined the national NOW Action Center staff, confident my customer service skills would be useful, and they were. I organized several successful and well-attended national NOW conferences and summits. I will bring customer service back to NOW. Our members are our customers and greatest asset; you deserve to be a priority. I will work to create an infrastructure that truly serves chapter activists and strengthens our base.
We must be relevant to fight Bush and his oppressive policies. To advance a feminist agenda we must adapt and explore new and innovative methods in grassroots organizing. 21st Century women have benefited from what NOW fought for in the 20th century. For NOW’s future, we must develop new strategies to support chapters and states in attracting younger ‘third wave’ members. I will work hard to make NOW
relevant in your community, your backyard and beyond the beltway – for the next wave of feminists.
Elizabeth Volz
Candidate for: Action VP
NOW Chapter Affiliation: Rachel DuBois
Member Since: 1985
NOW Offices Held
Elected: National Board, Mid-Atlantic (2004-present); NJ President (1998-2004),
Action VP (1995-1998), Co-President (1994-1996)
Personal Statement:
As President of NOW-NJ, I organized countless rallies and marches on Washington, DC and in Trenton, lobbied for reproductive rights in
the State House, filed an amicus brief in New Jersey’s efforts to obtain marriage equality for lesbians and gays, and organized 12 new chapters. As Chair of the NJ Choice Coalition, I spearheaded the efforts that STOPPED Parental Notification in New Jersey. For the April 2004 March for Women’s Lives I chaired a statewide coalition, sending 100 buses to DC, funneling over $15,000 of funds raised to
Rutgers University to subsidize bus costs – resulting in Rutgers, who contributed the largest campus delegation, rising to #5 in “Mother Jones’” list of activist schools.
I’m Director of the Goodwill Center for People in Transition, providing computer training, counseling, support groups, workshops, and individual job development sessions to displaced homemakers. Prior to serving as NOW-NJ President, I was an instructor for Glassboro’s People in Transition. I coordinated services for the Residents of Ellis Manor, a low-income housing development.
I currently serve on the NJ Advisory Commission on the Status of Women and the Glassboro School Board. I’m a 20 year NOW member and a feminist for as long as I can remember, arguing for the Equal Rights Amendment at my fifth grade slumber party. I was a founder of the Rachel DuBois NOW Chapter, served three years as New Jersey NOW Action VP, organizing demonstrations, letter-writing campaigns and other actions.
Kathy Lazear
Candidate for: Membership VP
NOW Chapter Affiliation: Pinellas, FL
Member Since: 1991
NOW Offices Held
St. Petersburg Beaches Secretary (1994-1995), President
(1993-1994)
Personal Statement:
I’m a committed feminist and NOW member for nearly
twenty years. A current member of the Pinellas (FL) NOW, the first President of
St. Petersburg Beaches NOW (now West Pinellas). During my tenure, Beaches
NOW took the lead on issues of sexual harassment and a woman’s right to
choose and organized a large contingent for the 1992 March for Women’s Lives.
I’m currently at the University of South Florida and the Human Service Collaborative,
working nationally on child and family service reform, including evaluation, strategic
planning and organizational development for nonprofits, cultural disparities, and management of national grant-funded studies.
In my work around the country in communities of color and with recent immigrants, I have seen not only individuals, but entire communities disenfranchised – women and children homeless, unemployed,
undereducated, discriminated against because of their skin color, their accent,
and the classist, sexist, racist and homophobic world they must navigate. This
must change. I bring 25 years of experience working in communities around the
country to help transform a broken system.
My work includes: coordinator of the Florida
Mental Health Institute’s Diversity 2000 Plan; Diversity Advisory Committee for
USF-St. Petersburg College of Business; statewide technical assistance coordinator
for one of Florida’s multiagency networks for children; development of a grassroots
leadership model; a youth suicide prevention resource guide including impact on LGBT and culturally diverse youth; a Fulbright instructor, presenting to international
communities on culturally competence.
I am a woman of color, a daughter whose
mother was recently widowed and now utilizing a broken healthcare system, I
am a partner in a loving lesbian relationship, everyday trying to create a safe and
accepting environment for my stepdaughter, whose reach should be limitless,
yet living in a world filled with prejudice.
With your support The Riveter’s will return NOW to the cutting-edge, progressive and inclusive organization it was meant to be.
Platform
Rosie’s Riveters are committed to achieving the vision of a fair and just America
for all women. This requires new ideas and a renewed, relevant and reenergized NOW.
The Riveters bring decades of national, state and local leadership experience in NOW, and
new ideas to work with activists and local chapters across the country. Together we can
restore NOW’s relevancy and reclaim our position as the cutting edge women’s rights organization
through transforming our organizational processes and structures. The strength
of NOW lies in its foundation - solid grassroots activism through strong state and local
chapters. NOW must be a values-based organization - walking the talk of inclusion and
creating mechanisms so that all NOW members have a voice and a choice in setting
agendas and determining leadership.
We can create a culture in NOW that includes activists from every background and life
experience and engages in respectful dialogue. Together, we can reach across all boundaries
to all women that are struggling to end the culture of violence in our homes, our
communities and around the world to build a culture of peace that is committed to
ending racial and cultural oppression in all its forms.
Together, we can make NOW center stage in the media, broadcasting our messages
and strengthening our position in the fight for women’s constitutional equality, mother’s
economic rights, family court justice, economic equity, equality in marriage equality, safe,
affordable child and elder care; Affirmative Action, stopping the Senate from consenting to
White House court nominees who will destroy reproductive rights and the federal civil/economic
rights laws so many have fought and died for; combating the dangerous pressure on
women for “Hollywood perfection”; and actively working to understand how white privilege
plays out in our daily lives.
How do we do this? With specific, concrete and achievable strategies. It is a
proactive, inclusive plan that generates new memberships and builds and strengthens
chapters. It is a plan that includes a comprehensive assessment of NOW, taking a long,
hard, and honest look at where we’ve been, where we are, and where we want to go in
order to revitalize and strategically move forward.
The political fight for women’s equality is moving to the state level as Congress, the
Courts and the Bush administration hand decisions about justice and equality to the states.
We will lead the charge with absolute commitment to service and support to state
and local chapters. The Riveters believe in an organization by activists for activists and
have recruited the help of veteran and third wave NOW activists from around the country to
outline a four-year plan of strengthening NOW chapters focused on three goals:
1) Cultivating a culture of best practices by showcasing and distributing the most
effective and productive practices of successful chapters to struggling and new chapters
on a monthly basis and creating an information and resource network by and for activists
and making NOW.org a Clearing House of our Best Practices;
2) Creating a streamlined, instantaneous, two-way communication system, where
activists have instant access to other activists, their board members, and the resources of
the National Office, including direct access to National officers and staff; and,
3) Implementing an efficient product distribution system that streamlines the product
distribution of brochures, rounds, stickers and event materials, as well as the distribution
of crucial leadership information such as digital membership lists, detailed information
about using them, local actions and successful programs, initiatives and membership
maintenance techniques implemented by other chapters.
How did California NOW create such a successful Young Feminist Program? What
goes into Missouri NOW’s Youth Empowerment Conference? How did NOW-New Jersey
set up a state c(3) Foundation? How has Alice Paul NOW kept its membership constant
and strong for 30 years straight? How did Connecticut NOW create such a fiscally
successful, politically poignant honoring event? The answers benefit countless chapters
across the country.
Chapters must have the tools to be able to respond to the intensity of a 24-hour news
cycle and the never ending attack on women’s rights from all sides. Through mailings and
on-line interactive training the National Office will be the vehicle to share successful strategies
by activists nationwide. Issue kits and chapter vitality programs will be compiled into
a NOW’s Greatest Hits publication, a living, breathing index of successful NOW practices
distributed to every NOW leader providing much needed institutional history for states and
chapters. An organizing strategy message board for chapter leaders will be created in the
chapters-only site, as well as position-specific listservs including ones for treasurers and
finance officers, state and chapter lobbyists, and state and chapter Membership officers.
We recognize the strengths and necessity of intergenerational dialogue and are
committed to connecting our wise elders and third wave feminists. NOW can push the
envelope of feminism through productive partnerships with other organizations, bringing
feminist thinkers together in a NOW ‘think tank’ and a ‘Feminist Policy Institute’ to identify
emerging issues, develop new strategies and re-frame our issues and messages for
tomorrow’s feminists.
The Riveters are excited about these new initiatives and encourage you to share
YOUR ideas about what you would like to see implemented in a reenergized and retooled
NOW. Visit us at our website www.TheRiveters.org and read about our proposed strategies.
Join us in our work to bring NOW into the 21st Century. We can do this . . . together!
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