New Directors Begin Quadrennium with New Initiatives

The Women’s Division of the General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church represents United Methodist Women, a one-million member organization. The organization’s purpose is to foster spiritual growth, develop leaders and advocate for justice. Members raise more than $20 million a year for programs and projects related to women, children and youth in the United States and in more than 100 countries around the world.

New directors voted on initiatives that fulfill the purpose of the organization. Initiatives include:

• A $25,000 grant for the first two years of a new Foreign Policy Institute to be created by the Center for Women’s Policy Studies. This institute will bring together 20-30 state legislators and educate them on foreign policy that affect women. It will serve as a key arena for United Methodist Women to communicate their positions and concerns about women’s and children’s issues, and to influence policy-makers on these issues.
  
• A $25,000 grant to the Center for Constitutional Rights in its efforts to support African American workers in the Ingall’s Shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi. The center is preparing to file a class action civil rights suit against the company, alleging a long-standing pattern of discrimination at the plant and the creation of a hostile work environment. Black workers complain of racist messages scrawled on the wall, like "KKK-The Original Boys in the Hood" and continual threats of lynching.
  
• An $8000 grant to produce public service announcements, purchase commercial spots and work with public radio to address issues related to the traditional American values of pluralism, freedom of religion, and separation of church and state. The advertisements encourage communities to move beyond ignorance, prejudice and fear, and to work together to create places where differences are respected, individual rights are protected and diversity is celebrated.
  
• Funding for property improvements of national mission institutions; grants based on "A Call to Prayer and Self-Denial," which will be used for alleviating the trauma of violence and women re-creating communities; funding for national and international projects based on "A Brighter Future for Children and Youth" grants.
  
• Marsha R. Base was elected assistant general secretary in administration of the Women’s Division, beginning January 2001.

Other items of interest include:

• The first Russian-American unit of United Methodist Women organized in the Baltimore-Washington conference.
  
• The mission study themes for 2003-2004 will be Mexico, Public Education and Exodus. The mission study themes for 2004-2005 will be Cuba, Public Education and Prayer.
  
• In April 1999, the Women’s Division approved a grant of $11,000 to "Free School Clubs," a regional meeting of diverse students (race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, etc.) to enable them to network and become educated on issues of hate crimes, bigotry, diversity, identity, peer harassment, legal strategies, civil rights, and other issues. The free school club is a community-oriented group that was established for the purposes of bringing back banned, non-curricular school clubs and expanding opportunities for students. A Salt Lake City school district prompted the need for the organization when it banned 46 non-curricular school clubs because it opposed the formation of one club, a dialogue group for students and parents, the Gay/Straight Alliance. The grant will be returned to the Women’s Division, because the Salt Lake City Utah School Board agreed to re-instate all school clubs to the extracurricular program.