Eight members of Palm Beach Section just returned from Washington Institute in Washington D.C. for a three-day conference. I am both exhausted and exhilarated. As president, I had an extra day of meetings and seminars including being on a panel answering questions as to how we grew our membership by about 100 members in one short year.
Washington Institute occurs every third year. The alternate years are for our Leadership Training and National Convention. Washington Institute (WI) is an advocacy conference culminating at The Hill to visit our two state Senators and Congressmen (and one woman). Sunday and Monday of the conference were devoted to training on our NCJW issues- Judicial Nominations, Gun Background Check Expansion Act, Voting Rights Advancement Act and EACH Woman Act (Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance). In addition to workshops, we were treated to phenomenal speakers- Activist Heather Booth, Former North Dakota Senator Heidi Heitkamp, former US Attorney General Sally Yates and former President of Planned Parenthood Cecile Richards.
Palm Beach Section representatives with House Rep. Lois Frankel
There was also a panel discussing gun background checks that included two current Margery Stoneman Douglas students. The amount of information and finesse from these 16 and 18-year-old “children forced to become adults” was staggering.
Seventeen women from Israel were at WI and several were on a panel discussing women’s rights in Israel. There was also a contingent of four Australian women who are members of NCJW.
Tuesday morning, we took to The Hill and managed to divide and conquer, visiting both Senators Rubio and Scott, Congresswoman Frankel, Congressmen Deutch, Hastings and Mast. They didn’t all agree with all of our initiatives, but they listened and accepted our packet with our information.
The closing ceremony featured several speakers (we missed the beginning because we were still visiting our representatives) including Miami’s Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.
Our representatives with Debbie Wasserman Schultz
I think you can see how one can be both exhausted and exhilarated simultaneously. I hope you all have an opportunity to experience advocating in Washington one day. It is something you can never forget.
-Rona Sterling
Eight members of Palm Beach Section just returned from Washington Institute in Washington D.C. for a three-day conference. I am both exhausted and exhilarated. As president, I had an extra day of meetings and seminars including being on a panel answering questions as to how we grew our membership by about 100 members in one short year.
Washington Institute occurs every third year. The alternate years are for our Leadership Training and National Convention. Washington Institute (WI) is an advocacy conference culminating at The Hill to visit our two state Senators and Congressmen (and one woman). Sunday and Monday of the conference were devoted to training on our NCJW issues- Judicial Nominations, Gun Background Check Expansion Act, Voting Rights Advancement Act and EACH Woman Act (Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance). In addition to workshops, we were treated to phenomenal speakers- Activist Heather Booth, Former North Dakota Senator Heidi Heitkamp, former US Attorney General Sally Yates and former President of Planned Parenthood Cecile Richards.
