ACTIVISM

Coup ousts Berry-Huffman from Maine NOW position

By Noah Bruce

Renee Berry-Huffman, state coordinator for the Maine chapter of the National Organization of Women (NOW) has stepped down from her position. Or as she puts it, she has “been ousted before her time was up.”

Huffman says she was planning on stepping down on November 3, due to an increasingly difficult struggle with multiple sclerosis and her frustration with a board of “eight middle-class white women who don’t want to do anything.” Then she announced that she wanted to reconsider her decision. That is when the board stepped in.

In a delectably barbed October 19 email addressed to various members of Maine NOW, assistant state coordinator, JoAnne Dauphinee writes “ . . . It is quite clear that Renee has stepped down from her position as Maine NOW Coordinator. For those who don’t know, she did change her mind about stepping down and announced she would serve until Fall 2002 . . . but (with little support from the Board to stay on) has since re-reconsidered. But, no one was sure how it might play out. Would she really just step down? Would we have to vote her out? Would we be the “10 (?) white racist women of the Maine NOW Board” in a headline somewhere? . . . Barbara Hays, National NOW State and Chapter Development, and I urge us to accept Renee’s resignation effective immediately. National is under the impression she has resigned.”

Berry-Huffman characterizes this minor coup d’état as not only “very ugly” but “racist” as Huffman and her mother Van Berry — who was also excluded by Dauphinee in the email addressed to the “Maine NOW Board (except Renee and Van)” — were the only African-Americans on the board.

In her email, Dauphinee says she will not be seeking the state coordinator position but urges board member Cindy McGinn to take the post. In an email dated October 10, McGinn announces that she “would be more than willing to be placed in nomination at our meeting in November.”

Dauphinee, McGinn, and Hays did not return phone calls, so it is difficult to piece together exactly what happened between Huffman and the board. In any event, Huffman will still be involved with Portland NOW and will continue as NOW’s Northeast regional director. That means she will oversee decisions made by McGinn and the Maine NOW board, which all but guarantees a quarrelsome relationship in the future.

Whatever the reason for Huffman’s ousting, she defends her record as state coordinator, and has been recognized by the Maine Women’s Fund for her work on behalf of women and girls. Her biggest accomplishment, she says, was bringing NOW National president Patricia Ireland to Portland to work on the successful No on 1 campaign, which defeated a push to ban partial birth abortions in Maine, in 1999.