 |
Friday, July 22
| LWVMA Board Meeting, Acton Memorial Library, 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
| | Monday, August 1 | Responses to local League survey due | Thursday, Sept. 8
| Massachusetts State Primary
| Tuesday, Sept. 27
| National Voter Registration Day
|
|
|
Plan to attend League Leader Event
We are planning a fall kickoff event for League leaders that will include timely workshops and time to mix and mingle. The event will be held either Sept. 17 or 24 (depending on venue availability) from 10 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. We will send out details shortly.
|
National Voter Registration Day
Is your League planning to participate in National Voter Registration Day Tuesday, Sept. 27?
LWVUS encourages Leagues to sign on as a participant in this national event. You can sign up here. All you need to do is agree to host a registration event in your community on Sept. 27 or otherwise publicize the importance of voter registration. It's a particularly good time of year to do voter registration on college and community college campuses.
Join thousands of organizations, elected officials, celebrities, and other partners-including hundreds of participating state and local Leagues-by signing up today! The League has been the single largest on-the-ground partner for NVRD since 2012.
And please be sure to send information (date, time location) about your NVRD activities to Brynne at LWVMA in advance so that the state League can help publicize your events!
|
|
Forums and Voter Registration
We had a question from a local League which was cooperating with several organizations on a public forum, in this case gun safety, where many of the speakers would be advocating for specific legislation. The question was whether the League could have a voter registration table at such an event. We checked with LWVUS, which said it is fine for the League to have a voter registration table at such events, but it would be better not to have any specific lobbying or issue material on the registration table itself. So if your League is sponsoring or participating in public issue forums or candidate forums, you can do voter registration at the same time.
|
Don't Forget to Fill Out the Local League Survey!
We need your response to the local League survey emailed July 7 by August 1.
Please designate one person in your League to fill out both parts of this survey: the names and contact information for your 2016-2017 board or steering committee, and information about your League's activities in the past fiscal year (July 2015 to June 2016) for inclusion in our annual report.
|
LWVUS 52nd Convention: Change and Action
LWVMA sent 32 delegates to Washington, DC, last month for the 52nd LWVUS national convention. Our delegates joined over 700 other League members for workshops and caucuses, riveting speakers and panelists, and a hands-on election 2016 training, plus a banquet featuring author and journalist Ari Berman, who spoke about his book on the Voting Rights Act. We also elected new national leadership, adopted a budget (no US per-member-payment increases this year or next), and committed to strategically align around our national program - the campaign for Making Democracy Work®.
Key themes of convention were change, focus, engagement, and urgency. In her speech, LWVUS CEO Dr. Wylecia Wiggs Harris emphasized the need to embark on an organizational change journey that focuses on accelerating the pace of change within the League and adopting a bias toward action, taking advantage of alternative engagement opportunities, focusing our agenda, and wrestling with the tough questions of whether our current structure and approaches reflect a 21st century organization. Over the next few weeks, LWVUS will be posting materials, handouts, transcripts and videos in the Convention 2016 section of the LWV.org website. You can view LWVMA's submission to Roll Call of the States here.
Seven LWVMA members participated in the national Lobby Day, speaking with Senators Warren's and Markey's staffs, as well as with Congressmen on the need to restore the Voting Rights Act.
See photos of Massachusetts delegates to the convention on our website.
|
Please note that video reources are available on the LWVMA website. A video of the panel discussion from Council on mobilizing the Massachusetts electorate is available here. PSAs from our video contest to mobilize the youth vote are available here.
|
The League Leader Update is distributed to local League board members and LWVMA leaders. Anyone can request the Update by clicking here. Please review this Update for articles of interest to your League and include them in your local Bulletin.
|
|
|
|
|
|
