help_outline Skip to main content
Password Assistance
League of Women Voters of Boulder County
Empowering Voters. Defending Democracy
Serving the People of Boulder County, Colorado
HomeEmailing
Date: 9/2/2021
Subject: LWVBC Voter September 2021
From: Jennifer L Bales




Voter Header
September 2021
Editor Jennifer Bales
communications@lwvbc.org
A PDF Version of this newsletter is available here.  Please allow a day or two from this mailing for the PDF to be uploaded.

Elizabeth Crowe headshot for Voter
 
 
President's Letter
 for September, 2021
 
By Elizabeth Crowe

Equality and Equity

August 26 was Women’s Equality Day, a day when people all over the U.S. celebrate certification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. I encourage everyone to read LWV President Dr. Deborah Turner’s Women’s Equality Day Message! “Women’s Equality Day” itself has reached its 50-year milestone, having first been celebrated in 1971 when Representative Bella Abzug introduced legislation to mark the event.

One of the ways in which LWVBC can continue to promote equality is by fostering equity in our organization and in democratic processes. This requires us to understand the ways in which people in our community are still experiencing disenfranchisement because of their race or ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation, income, disability, age or other identity; and work to change systems where necessary to make sure everyone has what they need to meaningfully engage. 

This election season, LWVBC again is incorporating equity into our Voter Service activities by focusing voter registration efforts in parts of our county with lower turnout; where community members may have been historically excluded from the voting process. For candidate forums, we’re partnering with organizations representing people whose voices are not as often heard by elected officials. We have a tremendous opportunity in the Colorado redistricting process, to make sure that populations historically disenfranchised by gerrymandering will experience fairness in legislative district mapping. Our Voting Methods Team is researching ways in which alternative voting methods could increase equitable representation in election processes. But this is only a start! 

This election season, let’s re-commit to organizational practices, voter services and policy advocacy activities that prioritize equity. Every step we make toward equity in democracy, can help us advance toward and achieve the vision of equality we celebrate each year. 


Time to Get Ready for 2021 Elections
 
 
 
 
Ballot Issue Volunteers Needed--Signup ASAP!
 
Contact mandynuku@lwvbc.org to help research or present an issue. Volunteers have begun their work and we could use a few more people to help gather research, edit, and present at one of our virtual ballot issue presentations. The work will take place now through early October. 
 
 
 
Moderators Needed! Join us for training on September 9th at 6:30pm
 
Would you like to help moderate a virtual candidate forum this year? We will have four opportunities for volunteers for this year's Boulder County election. Join us for a virtual moderator training.  Register to receive the meeting link.

Financial Facts

Did You Know?........................

To continue our League of Women Voters of Boulder County (LWVBC) important mission to Make Democracy Work for All we must raise funds, just like all non-profit organizations. Our part-time staff member is essential to accomplishing our goals of education, action and advocacy! 

Our 2021 – 22 budget for LWVBC is approximately $73,000.  Your dues contribute $7,000. to our budget this year. 

In this article in the Voter each month we will be discussing how you can help us raise additional funds. Can you choose and implement at least one idea from below? These strategies cost you nothing. 

Here are shopping ideas: 

  1. King Soopers/Kroger Community Rewards Program - go to the King Soopers website and register to make LWVBC your charity of choice, www.kingsoopers.com.  Be sure to link your shoppers card. You will know you’ve been successful when LWVBC is at the bottom of your printed receipt. LWVBC gets a check every quarter. We currently earn about $1,300/year.
  2. Safeway also has a Community Rewards Program; this program is a little different. You get a special card which you can reload from your credit card at checkout or customer service. When you shop with the special card LWVBC gets a percentage monthly. Contact Ruth Stemler, rjstemler@gmail.com, 303.916.1519, and I will mail you a card. We earn about $500./year. 
  3. Amazon Smile. Are you an Amazon shopper? If you go on Amazon Smile and link your shopping to LWVBC we benefit from your purchases. We are earning about $100/year at this time. 

We’d like to at least double these three programs this fiscal year so please consider participating.

Thank you for your past generosity to LWVBC!! As always contact Ruth, rjstemler@gmail.com, if you need assistance with the Shopping Programs. 

The Fund Development Team, 

Ruth, Anne, Peggy, Judy, Elizabeth, Mandy, Pat and Dave


Redistricting in Colorado: Mapping our Future
 
Are you a LWVBC member interested in digging into the details of draft Congressional and State legislative maps as part of Colorado's redistricting effort? With a couple of volunteers, LWVBC can help keep our members and our community up to speed on the redistricting process, and work with other community members and partner organizations to review and make recommendations for fair district maps. Contact Elizabeth at elizabethcrowe@lwvbc.org to volunteer and share your ideas. 


League Members to Work on Colorado Redistricting

The Colorado Independent Legislative Redistricting Commission has voted to hire LWVBC member Jeanne Clelland and LWVCO Redistricting Director Beth Malmskog, together with their collaborators Daryl DeFord and Flavia Sancier-Barbosa, to provide ensemble analysis for the proposed redistricting plans.  For this analysis, proposed maps will be compared to a randomly generated collection of many thousands - or even millions! - of possible maps, in order to understand what might reasonably be expected for maps drawn without partisan bias and satisfying all legal constraints.  This can also help the Commission to set reasonable targets (e.g., how many competitive districts can a map realistically include?) and better understand how different priorities interact (e.g., does preserving communities of interest make it harder to draw competitive districts?).


From Membership

 
By Jean McGuire, membership director

membership@lwvbc.org

Membership count: 271

Welcome to our New Members:

Four new members joined our League in August; Audrey M. Hickey, Jr, Sherri Price, Ray Bambha and Hope Michelsen, who are all from Boulder. Judy Beerbaum transferred from Pikes Peak to our League in August.  Judy rejoined the League in 2013 and has been actively involved at the local and state level.  Welcome to Audrey, Sherri, Ray, Hope and Judy!

 

Member Coffee

The Fall Kick-Off Meeting will replace the Virtual Member Coffee for September. We look forward to seeing you all there. The October Virtual Member Coffee will take place on October 16 at 10:00 AM.  Watch for an email with the details. 

 

If you have feedback on the Virtual Member Coffees or have an idea on what we should cover, please reach out to me at jean.mcguire7777@gmail.com.

 

September Renewal

For many of us, September is when we need to renew our membership with the League. Please renew your membership as soon as you receive an email notice that it is due! Since the majority of us renew on September 30, most of you will have already received one notice the first of September to remind you to renew. If you delay renewing, you’ll receive two more notices, but please do not delay.

 

For those on other renewal dates other than September 30, you’ll receive your first notice to renew one month before your due date. FYI: In 2017 the renewal dates changed from being September 30 for all members to a date one year from the date of joining, a rolling renewal process.

 

You may pay your annual dues of $80 either on the website by credit card, an easy way for you to renew, or by mailing a check payable to LWVBC to P.O. Box 21274, Boulder, CO 80308. Your dues of $80 include $20 for dues to the LWV of Colorado, $32 to the LWVUS, and $28 to LWVBC (Boulder County).




Making Democracy Work 2021

 
 
In Memoriam Betty Bramhall
 
byDebby Vink and Catherine Felknor
 
Elizabeth (Betty) Bramhall, LWV member for 71 years, passed away on August 9th.
Betty Bramhall 1
The League of Women Voters of Boulder County is saddened to announce that Elizabeth (Betty) Bramhall died on August 9th. Betty was a member of the League of Women Voters for 71 of her almost 99 years, our longest serving member in Boulder County. She transferred to what was to become the Boulder County League in 1968 when her family moved to Boulder. Betty grew up in Schenectady, NY and graduated with a degree in mathematics from Wellesley College in 1944. She married George Bramhall in Schenectady in 1945. They were devoted to each other the rest of their lives.

Joan McConkey shared this remembrance: “Betty was an exceptionally well-prepared board member when I was LWVB president in the early 1970s. We all appreciated her math skills. She had a life time interest in improving public education, and when our LWV terms ended, I chaired her campaign for the Boulder Valley School Board. She became an excellent member of the School Board [from 1975-1987].” 

Betty Bramhall 2
Catherine Felknor recalls “first meeting Betty in the 1970s at the Northern Colorado Educational Board of Cooperative Services, an agency formed by seven school districts; Betty served as the Boulder Valley School Board representative. She always asked good questions and was interested in details. For decades, Betty carried petitions to collect signatures for potential ballot issues supported by LWVCO. For a petition she brought to a Schools Committee meeting in the mid-1990s, I said that my husband and son would like to sign. She promptly invited the three of us for lunch on the next Saturday. The relationship of our son, Dave (age 30), with Betty and George clicked immediately. When we left three hours later, they had given him a stack of print materials and scheduled his introduction to Orienteering.
Dave loved it and went with them frequently; Betty loved it because he kept up with her running on the most difficult routes. She taught Dave to cross country ski and, a few times, they did Orienteering meets on skis. Betty was not only an accomplished athlete, she was also a good teacher.”
 
Linda Hultman, Anne Hooker and Catherine Felknor remember Betty’s participation with them on the LWVBC Schools Committee (from the 1980s through the mid-2000s). She provided inside insight into school district issues and showed herself a very level- headed, articulate person who could always make sense of thorny problems.

Louisa Young adds this anecdote: “At one time we shared the neighborhood of Pinebrook Hills, which has a Water Board. There were controversies, and at one point, probably in the late 80’s, there were multiple candidates. Liz Black was Voter Service Chair, as I recall, and Betty helped us organize a LWV candidates meeting which was well-attended and very helpful to the residents of Pinebrook Hills.”

Celeste Landry got to know Betty and George “when they were part of a group that met monthly to play bridge and share a meal — sometimes Betty’s excellent moussaka. Betty’s stories of how she handled the early days of being the only woman in a male-dominated field were always inspiring. Betty enjoyed attending her Wellesley class reunions, also attended by Hillary Clinton and Madeleine Albright who were on the same 5-year reunion cycle. Betty also told Celeste about her Wellesley classmate, Kathleen Barber, who wrote well-regarded books on voting methods and proportional representation. Celeste’s daughter once interviewed Betty for a middle school project. Betty told the story, as a BVSD school board member, of being spit upon when she made the tough decision to vote to close Lincoln Elementary School, now Naropa University.”
Betty Bramhall 3
Liz Black recalls joining Betty and George to go orienteering after the couple had moved to Frasier. Betty set out vigorously leaving Liz and George behind. Betty’s website obituary highlights her love of sports and the outdoors, which, in addition to orienteering, included hiking, bicycling and cross-country skiing, all of which she pursued with distinction well into older age, collecting multiple medals along the way.

After Betty and George moved to Frasier in 2005, she became very involved with activities there, working on a variety of tasks (e.g., budget committee, Floor Leader for her floor, etc.). Betty participated in several social and intellectual activities. Her favorite was the Saturday morning Women’s Breakfast Group where people discussed current events, research articles, and other interesting topics. She played bridge with multiple groups and frequently worked on the community jigsaw puzzle. Betty continued her involvement with LWVBC (Schools Committee, Unit Meetings at Frasier, and large group presentations). Following her stroke in April, 2019, her participation in LWVBC, as well as Frasier activities, was severely limited. However, she continued to follow LWVBC through the printed version of the Voter — it was always located on her table along with the Daily Camera.

Deborah Hayes, in referring to Betty’s school board service, recalled that “back then LWV was the main organization that gave women the skills and courage to run for public office. We published, in the Voter, lists of members who were elected officials, as well as those who were appointed to citizen boards. It’s wonderful that now having a public presence is not so unusual for women.”

Today we stand on the shoulders of strong, committed women like Betty who paved the way for women to fully engage in civic affairs. Her presence will be sorely missed.

Betty’s obituary is available at 
https://greenwoodmyersfuneral.com/book-of-memories/4688348/Bramhall-Elizabeth/index.php