| February 2022
Editor Jennifer Bales
communications@lwvbc.org | | | |
President's Letter for
February, 2022
By Elizabeth Crowe | | | |
Changes and Opportunities | The only constant is change. That’s true for LWVBC as it is in our personal lives. This month, we have change in store as our beloved Operations Director, Mandy Nuku is leaving her position with LWVBC on February 10th, for an amazing full-time job. While I’m thrilled for Mandy and the work she will be able to accomplish in this new role, we’ll miss her terribly. (Click here to register for an online Appreciation Party for Mandy this Sunday, February 6 at 4PM!)
| As LWVBC’s first-ever staff member, Mandy set the bar high for how our organization can and should meet community needs with quality services, given changes in many of our lives: greater demands on our time from family and work; stressful economic, health and social challenges resulting from the pandemic; ongoing traumatic disasters like wildfires that require urgent, large-scale response.
I know that some LWVBC members wonder why we have a part-time staff position. It is precisely for those changes noted above – not the least of which is the competing demands on League members – why I believe we must sustain a staff role in order to continue essential voter and advocacy services, in a manner that meaningfully engages our own members and community partners and have the community impact we want. | | | League will always need a strong volunteer base in order to function well. It’s just that the staff position provides a consistent administrative backbone that few volunteers could fulfill.
The Board approved formation of an Operations Director transition team (Ruth Stemler, Rionda Osman-Jouchoux and Caroline Himes) to review the staff job description and carry out a recruitment and selection process. Our Fund Development and Finance teams believe we can continue to raise the funds necessary to maintain this position.
With change comes opportunity. While there’s no one else like Mandy, I am hopeful that we will find a new staff member who is passionate about voting rights, civic engagement, equity and inclusion. Maybe one of you reading this article, is that person! If you are interested in this opportunity, or know someone who might be, feel free to reach out or watch for the job posting in the next couple of weeks.
Till then, see you at the Appreciation Party for Mandy on Sunday! | Fund Development Update As of 12.31.2021
byRuth Stemler | |
The LWVBC Fund Development Team would like to give you a mid-year status report. We are 50% through our fiscal year and have raised 41% of our Team goal. Below we have described some highlights: | | | The LWVBC Fund Development Team would like to give you a mid-year status report. We are 50% through our fiscal year and have raised 41% of our Team goal. Below we have described some highlights:
Major/Legacy Donors (>$250.} have been generous to us again this year. We have been notified that the Walton family has bequested a $5,000. Legacy gift to LWVBC. This check is to arrive in late January or early February. Our major donor goal was $10,000; we have received $7,560. (This does not include the Legacy gift.) We plan to continue Major Donor visits. Our members and our community have also donated smaller gifts, reimbursed credit card fees, etc. totaling $3,703.
Monthly recurring donors varied between 14– 22 participants per month. Our goal was $12,000; we have received $2,135. to date. Our website software has added a new feature that reminds members when their recurring donation has expired. We hope this helps.
The grant goal was $15,000; we have received $4,600. We hope to obtain additional grant funds this Spring. If you have grant writing experience and are willing to assist, please let us know.
A new strategy that was successful last Fall was Election Season Sponsorship. We raised $1,000. This was the first time we had reached out to local businesses to support our important election efforts. Mandy plans to open this up on our website for Fall 2022 soon. Please contact us if you know of a business opportunity.
Events have brought in only $605. Our goal was $5,500. We are considering fund raising events, House parties, and community conversations for the Spring. Please let us know if you would like to discuss hosting a House Party. Guidelines and assistance are available.
Our Team still hopes to reach our goals this year. But with the upsurge in COVID, the Marshall Fire and other tragedies in our county, donor fatigue may have set in. The Fund Development Team will be working with our board to take a close look at our budget and to determine how we move forward as we transition to a new Operations Director. As always, we sincerely thank everyone for their generous contributions to fulfill the mission of LWVBC.
Ruth, Anne, Peggy, Judy, Elizabeth, Mandy, Pat and Dave
The Fund Development Team
| Positions for Action Review League-wide Zoom Meeting | |
Please join us for this year’s Positions for Actions Review Meeting on Saturday, February 19 at 10:00 a.m.
This is the only full membership meeting where members can:
~ Identify Issues for Action to pursue on the local level and
~ Recommend additions to, revisions to, or deletions of existing league positions on the local, state and national levels. | | This is a grassroots effort—we want to hear from all of you about what we should be working on, and what YOU are willing to help with. This is where it all starts: with you, the members, providing direction for the League’s agenda.
Members should prepare for participation in Positions for Action Review by looking at our the LWVBC Program Positions 2021/22, LWVCO’s Positions for Action 2022 and LWVUS’s Impact on Issues 2020-2022.
Please register here for this important local and state-wide planning activity. Zoom link will be sent in confirmation email. | | | Legislative Action Committee Kickoff
by Sylvia Bernstein | The 2022 Colorado State Legislative session officially kicked off on January 12, and with it the start of the LWVCO Legislative Action Committee (LAC). For those of you who are new to the League, the LAC is a group of League members from all over the state who meet virtually on Friday mornings from 9 - 11 to discuss how the LWVCO should respond to upcoming bills. Members of the LAC adopt a topic area that they feel particularly passionate about, and follow the bills that correspond to that topic area. Often there are multiple LAC members for a topic. The LAC is run by Andrea Wilkins, the LWVCO Lobbyist, and Toni Larson, the Action and Advocacy Chair for the LWVCO, and any local League member can join. | |
Currently Rionda Osman, Celeste Landry, Holly Monkman, Peggy Leech, Jeannette Hillary, Gaythia Weis, Debby Vink and Kay Palmer Marsh represent our Boulder County League.
Please click the link below for some highlights from the the first LAC meeting on February 21:
| | | Allowing Again Almost-18-Year-Olds to Vote in Primary Elections | By Celeste Landry and Peggy Leech
A third of the states allow citizens who are 17 but will be 18 by the general election to vote in the primary election. Colorado joined this group in 2019 with the passage of House Bill 19-1278 Modifications to Uniform Election Code. For one year, 17-year-olds were able to take advantage of this opportunity in Colorado. Over 10,000 voted in the March 2020 presidential primaries and over 4,000 voted in the June 2020 primary elections. However, this right to vote was revoked – inadvertently, LWVCO thinks – by the Colorado electorate in 2020 with the passage of Amendment 76 (A76).
LWVCO would like to restore voting rights to almost-18-year-olds in primary elections and has proposed language to do so, but changing the constitution requires another vote of the Colorado electorate in an even-year general election. (State ballot measures in odd years are reserved for fiscal measures.) Ballot measures can get on the ballot by collecting the required 6-digit number of signatures or by being referred by the legislature. LWVCO prefers the latter method.
|  | The Voting Methods Team Revamps Its Web Presence | After years of talking about revamping the Voting Methods Team’s webpage, we finally did it! Under the leadership of Mary Anne Davitt and with the web creation skills of Shelby Bates, we now have two webpages: the main introductory page and, for those who wish to delve deeper, a Library of Resources page.
As always, you can visit our main webpage by going to lwvbc.org > Teams at Work > Voting Methods or by clicking VM webpage here. The Library page is easily accessible from the main page.
Both pages are headed by a “What You Will Find on This Webpage” section to aid in navigation. The main page contains examples of ballots for different voting methods, and we plan to regularly update the page’s Recent News, Upcoming Events and Featured Articles sections.
The new pages better align with LWVBC standards of accessibility (for small-screen smartphones and for screen readers used by people with a visual disability) as well as working within the constraints of our ClubExpress website management tool.
Thanks also to the other members of the Webpage Committee: Pat and Frank Venturo, Marcus Ogren and Celeste Landry. And much thanks to various beta testers – Leaguers and non-Leaguers, Coloradans and non-Coloradans – who provided feedback on the webpages in December and January.
| Sponsorship Opportunities to Support Our Future Leaders | LWVBC Student Scholarship
Every year the Boulder County League offers a $500 scholarship to a student member to help them further their education in a degree or certificate program of an accredited Colorado institution of post-secondary learning. We have nine student members who are eligible for this opportunity this year. The application process will start in February and the winner will be announced at our Annual Meeting in May.
If you are interested in sponsoring part or all of the $500 scholarship, there is a scholarship sponsorship link on our website or contact Ruth Stemler, Fund Development Director at funddevelopment@lwvbc.org
Doing Democracy Day at the Longmont Museum on April 7
Doing Democracy Day is a multi-community, multi-school event For the Saint Vrain Valley School District devoted to students wrestling with local issues, using local leaders like the League as resources. Every year, the LWVBC sponsors one of the Issue topics for $250 and this year we would like to sponsor Partisan v Nonpartisan Elections. Other topics they will be tackling are Homelessness, Screen Addiction, Climate Change Preparation/Prevention, Social Emotional Learning, and School Resource Officers.
If you are interested in sponsoring part or all of the League’s commitment to this event, there is a Doing Democracy Day sponsorship link on our website, or contact Ruth Stemler, Fund Development Director at funddevelopment@lwvbc.org
| |
Welcome to our New Members:
Since our last newsletter in December, we have had six members join the League. A warm League welcome to Alice Penton from Superior, Janna Butler from Nederland, Judy Dixon from Boulder, Wendy Epperson from Longmont, Linda Garcia from Niwot and Thalia Foster from Boulder.
Member Coffee
Join us for the next virtual Member Coffee on Saturday, February 12, 10-11:30. Our featured presentation for this month will be given by both the leaders of the LWVCO Climate Emergency Taskforce and the LWVBC Climate Action Team. The LWVCO Climate Emergency Taskforce will be presenting an overview of the task force, its founding, mission, organization, current issues and actions and how to become involved. Our local LWVBC Climate Action Team will also be providing an update on their work and how you can get involved in Boulder County. We hope you can join us. Invite a friend! Please register for the coffee here.
Send in Your Nominations for LWVBC Merit Awards
It's time to send in your nominations for LWVBC Merit Awards to be announced at the Annual Meeting. We want to honor those members and community partners who have made a difference in our work since July 1, 2021. Think of actions and events that were important and who made them happen. We want to hear from you! Send your nominations by email to Jean McGuire at membership@lwvbc.org with the subject line LWVBC Award Nominations. The deadline for nominations is March 21, 2022. When you submit names, please include a few sentences describing why the nominees should receive the award. Please note that we usually do not give a member the same award two years in a row. An Awards Committee will be reviewing the 2021 nominations in April so let Jean know if you would like to serve on the committee.
Awards given at the 2021 Annual Meeting
Elected Official Awards: Rep. Chris Kennedy, representing Jefferson County’s House District 23 and Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis, representing Boulder County’s Senate District 17.
Community Partner Award: Sergio Angeles of Longmont Public Media
Operations Team Member Awards: Pat Long and Dave Stemler as Treasurer and Asst. Treasurer and Shelby Bates as Webmaster
Issue Team member Award: Deborah Hayes of the Ballot Initiative Team
Issue Team Leader Award: Marcus Ogren of the Voting Methods Team
Board member of the Year Award: Anne Bryan, Vice President and Fund Development Leader
Emerging Youth Leader Award: Jackson Moody
Emerging Leader Awards: Lydia Linke and Hannah Rain Crowe
Member of the Year Award: Sylvia Bernstein
LWVBC Student Member Scholarship
The deadline to apply for the 2021-22 LWVBC Student Member $500 Tuition Scholarship is April 1, 2022. Please contact Jean McGuire at Membership@lwvbc.org to receive an application form and description. Qualifications for the Scholarships:
1. The student member will have been a member of the League of Women Voters of Boulder County for one year as of May 1, 2022 and fulfilled the 20 volunteer hours requested of student members in exchange for free membership.
2. The student member demonstrates an understanding of the mission and function of the League of Women Voters.
3. The student member has made a demonstrable contribution to the mission and activities of the League.
4. The student member will be recommended by three members of LWVBC, one of whom is a member of the LWVBC Board.
5. The student can provide evidence of enrollment in a degree or certificate program of an accredited Colorado institution of post-secondary learning.
The scholarship winner will be announced at the Annual Meeting. Jackie Alderete Urena received last year’s scholarship award.
| |