President's message
 MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION, PLEASE?
By Cindy Parks
“Attention has always been currency, but as we’ve begun to live our lives increasingly online, it’s now the currency. Any discussion of power is now, ultimately, a conversation about attention and how we extract it, wield it, waste it, abuse it, sell it, lose it and profit from it.” (NY Times, Feb. 4, 2021)
The question now is whether an attention economy and a healthy democracy can coexist.
The attention economy may lead to a deepening inequality. I believe this makes participation in AAUW more important than ever. I have more to say about why HERE.
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The AAUW book group selection for September is Killers of the Flower Moon. This book has personal ties to one of our members, Susan Williams, whose ancestor was an Osage Indian. I am sure she will bring a unique perspective to our discussion, which we expect to be scheduled for late September. The date and time will be announced in late August once fall schedules are firmed up. I anticipate we will still be zoom based, so, if you are away or have a friend you would like to join us, we will be easily accessible. If you are new to our book group, please email me, 
We’d like to collect members’ birth months so we can celebrate more. If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that we need to lift up the special people and important causes in our lives. 
AAUW-ODC currently provides financial aid scholarship money to UNC, NCCU, and Durham Technical Community College--serving women who are studying in Orange and Durham counties. The Board will begin exploration this fall of adding a fourth scholarship at Central Carolina Community College in Chatham County. Dr. Donna Wilson, College & University Partnerships Director, will spearhead this initiative. More planning, logistics, and implementation details to follow. 
Congratulations to Gloria Thomas, Ph.D., who has served as Director of the Carolina Women’s Center for the past five years. Gloria will serve as President of HERS Institute, a leadership development program for women located at the University of Denver, beginning in August. This is a job that will allow Gloria to fully pursue her passion for fostering leadership development among women in higher education. Gloria will remain in the area at least temporarily and make trips monthly while taking time to make the move to Denver. 
Be sure to check out the recent honor bestowed upon Michele Hoyman. Thank you, Michele, for your dedicated service to our branch and to AAUW in North Carolina. Michele passes the President’s gavel but will continue as chair of our program committee this fiscal year 2021-2022. 
To many of us, AAUW-ODC is the house that Bea built. She has served us in our branch’s hour of need when we had no President and no Program Chair, taking on both jobs after having served as President for several years. In all, Bea has been President for two and a half terms. She has been membership vice-president and program chair. She has assisted me and other officers by patiently mentoring us in the standard procedures of the branch. She is a listener and an empathizer. She has built bridges to the League of Women Voters and Chapel Hill Historical Society through her welcoming presence as well as to Central University. She instituted the substantive gravitas quality in the President’s message which kept us thinking about serious policy issues about women and inequality. She wrote several grants to NC AAUW to help the Women’s Center‘s program in 2017 for women of color entitled “Sharing our Stories” and for two workshops at NCCU to encourage collegiate women to run for student government. She has a deep commitment to AAUW’s mission and is a generous donor.