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October League Leader Update
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| LWVMA Calendar | |
October 29: Presidents' Breakfast, 8:45am to noon, Needham Historical Society Mills House, 1147 Central Aveue, Needham
November 21: LWVMA Board Meeting, Noon-2pm
133 Portland Street, Boston
December 12: LWVMA Board Meeting, Noon-2pm
133 Portland Street, Boston
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2011 Phonathon November 1-21
| | Local Leagues will be conducting the annual Phonathon during the first three weeks of November. During the Phonathon your fellow League members have volunteered their time to make phone calls to other members to raise funds for the LWVMA. The money raised will go mostly to the state League, but with 10% going to the local League making the call that leads to a donation. If you get called, please donate. If you have already donated, your name has been removed from the Phonathon call list.
Please contact Natalie if 1) your local League wants to take advantage of this fundraising opportunity and help LWVMA or 2) you are willing to make calls, but your local League has decided not to participate. We will either team you up with a local League (but your own League will get the 10%) or you can make the calls from your home. |
Sign Up For LWVMA Emails
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We are tailoring the way you get emails from us so you only receive notices and topics that interest you. Please click here to sign up for the types of League correspondence you would like to get and forward along the link to your League members.
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Calling Voter Service Chairs
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The state Voter Service Committee is holding monthly telephone conference calls for local League voter service chairs to discuss voter service issues, share ideas and concerns, and plan for statewide voter service efforts.
The first call was Monday, October 24, with a good turnout and many interesting ideas. If you are a voter service chair and did not receive a notice about that call, it means we do not have your email address. Please send your contact information to Nancy Brumback, nbrumback@lwvma.org, and we will put you on the email list for future calls and send you the summary of that first one.
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| Should the Open Meeting Law Apply to the Legislature? | | |
The recent spectacle of the state Senate hashing out the details of an amendment to the casino gambling bill behind the closed doors of the Democratic caucus reinforces the need to pass legislation making both the Senate and House subject to the open meeting law.
Every zoning board, school committee, state executive committee-every public bodies-is subject to the open meeting law that the legislature passed. Except the House and Senate. Legislation is introduced just about every year to change that, and every year it dies.
If your League would like to call voters' attention to this issue, click here for a sample letter to the editor that you can send to your community newspaper. Just fill in your town or city name and the names of your state legislators.
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| Advocacy Report with Updates on the Casino Bill | | |
SB 2015: An Act Establishing Expanded Gaming in the Commonwealth, following five formal sessions of the Senate and votes on over 184 amendments, passed in that chamber on October 13 by a vote of 24 to 14. The current versions of the bill (HB 3711 and SB 2035) are now in conference committee to iron out differences between House and Senate bills. Committee members are Rep. Paul Frost, R-Auburn; Rep. Joseph Wagner, D-Chicopee; Rep. Brian Dempsey, D-Haverhill; Sen. Stanley Rosenberg, D-Amherst; Sen. Jennifer Flanagan, D-Leominster; and Sen. Richard Ross, R.-Wrentham.
Few of the amendments passed in the Senate are considered difficult to resolve. However, one controversial amendment, which was sponsored by Sen. Robert Hedlund of Weymouth, would repeal the 1984 ban on "happy hour" in bars and restaurants and allow them to offer free or discounted drinks if they are allowed in casinos. Other amendments that may cause difficulty include a 1-year cooling off period before lawmakers can work for a casino, another that bars casino executives from giving campaign donations to officials with direct or indirect oversight of casino negotiations and a House-backed provision that would have casino revenues trigger a lowering of the state's income tax. House and Senate lawmakers anticipate having a bill in the hands of the Governor by the end of November.
SB 304: An Act relative to disclosure of political spending and SB305:An Act relative to disclosure of political spending - Carole Pelchat presented testimony in support of these bills at a hearing of the Joint Committee on Election Laws on October 19.
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