| October 2023
Editor Jennifer Bales
communications@lwvbc.org
| | | Come on Board the LWVBC Voter Service Train!!! | |
Hello Fellow Boulder County Leaguers!
I’m Stacie Johnson, the new voter service director, who is attempting to follow the great leadership of my predecessor Emma Pillar and many others. The election season is upon us and as such there are many League volunteers and leaders working hard behind the scenes to inform and educate voters.
Their work includes preparing and presenting information on ballot issues, making several candidate forums happen, and orchestrating candidate responses and ballot issue information for the online voters’ guide, VOTE411.org. The LWVBC extraordinaires leading those efforts are, left to right: Cindy Lindsay, VOTE411 Coordinator; Judy Dixon, Ballot Issues Coordinator; Josephine Porter and Martine Elianor, our Candidate Forum Coordinators. | | |  | Although the bulk of the work has passed for ballot issues and VOTE411, please reach out to me for any remaining help that is needed or how you can assist during the upcoming election cycles that are just around the corner in 2024. All in all, if you feel ready to sign up, help out, or want to hop on the fast moving voter service train, please email me at voterservice@lwvbc.org or take a look at the volunteer and event pages of the LWVBC website for more info and details.
Yours,
Stacie J, Train Engineer to #1 LWVBC
| Energizing Young Voters Initiative | The Energizing Young Voters Initiative has put together a 30 minute presentation to motivate the largest block of nonvoters - 19-23 year old Americans - to VOTE! It is led by Pirie Jensen and includes Jenny Bisha, PhD and Claudia Imhoff, PhD.
Picture below:
Left Jenny Bisha, middle Pirie Jensen, Right Claudia Imhoff
At the YWCA event, Better Because of Her, August 24, 2023
|  | Presentations have been made to …
CU Leeds School of Business Women's Empowerment Administrator, August 16
YWCA to the Women's Collaborative board members, September 20th
Front Range College Feminist Club, September 20th
Peak to Peak Charter School, September 20th
As a result, a FRCC student joined LWC Larimer county to volunteer for voter outreach, and two Peak to Peak students have volunteered to assist me with social media.
We are seeking opportunities to present to groups of young adults ages 19-29. Contact eyv@lwvbc.org if you have relationships with leaders, organizers, teachers of such groups, or have experience in social media initiatives and Google docs.
| VOTE411 Yard Signs Now Available - Help Spread the Word
| An important component in performing the League’s mission of informing and empowering voters is VOTE411.org. The website platform has many functions and services, with the primary focus being the League’s non-partisan voters’ guide. At the local level, the League of Women Voters of Boulder County takes part in providing resource information to VOTE411 applicable to Boulder County voters.
The LWVBC Voter Service team urges the LWVBC membership to commit to the following actions summarized below. The rest of the Vote411 article is here. |
- Use VOTE411;
- Share details about the VOTE411.org resource with at least five people;
- Inform them that much of the Vote411 information has been translated into Spanish;
- Let people know that recorded candidate and ballot issue presentations will be on VOTE411;
- Encourage candidate participation;
- Inform people that VOTE411 responses come directly from the candidates and are unedited;
- Please extend a thank-you to all the candidates who responded to VOTE411; and lastly,
- A SPECIAL REQUEST - Please place a LWVBC VOTE411 sign in your yard or window, as featured in the photo at left with our renowned LWVBC Treasurer and very valued volunteer, Pat Long. We request a $25 donation for a sign.
| | | Action: Minimum Wage Effort in Boulder County
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The Boulder County Commissioners have released a survey for workers and employers. They need as much community engagement as possible, by the October 16 deadline. Please complete the survey and share widely. The survey is available here in (English & Spanish).
More community engagement opportunities are available at these upcoming events:
October 12—County Commissioners Town Hall in Niwot about minimum wage.
November 2—County Commissioners Public Hearing before enacting the official minimum wage law for the county.
The County Commissioners are planning to increase the minimum wage, effective January 1, 2024, from $13.65/hour to $15.69/hour. The various municipalities within Boulder County will wait until at least January 1, 2025, to address the minimum wage within their communities. Meanwhile, the current self-sufficiency wage for an average Boulder County household is over $21/hour.
Please contact Peggy Leech (pegleech@aol.com) if you would like more information or would like to become involved. LWVBC is supporting the effort.
| What is Happening With PFAS and PFOs?
| What is happening with PFAs and PFOs, “the forever chemicals”? These are the per – and polyfluoroalkyl substances used in just about everything we use. These chemicals are in 12,000 plus compounds and have been around for decades. More awareness on how to handle these compounds and potentially restrict or ban them from products is emerging.
Colorado is now a leader in passing legislation, HB 22-1345 that restricts use of PFAs in household products such as carpets, draperies, juvenile clothing and labeling on cookware to name a few. It is a gradual roll out but more products will be included in 2025 with textiles and upholstery. But vigilance is required. Microplastics in the environment have PFAs as part of the make up and that can create a risk. The consumer may want to ask: do I need this product? Is it worth it? And are there other options? There is also a website to see what the latest information is. That is PFAsCentral.org.
| Voter Outreach Seeks Your Día De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) Homage & Reflection
| The City of Longmont will be having the community’s annual Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) festival on Saturday, October 14th, from 11 am to 3pm, in the Downtown area of 4th Avenue and Main Street. For a complete lineup of the community’s exhibitions, celebrations, and information on regional traditions Longmont's page here.
As in recent years, the League of Women Voters of Boulder County will be joining the festivities by having a voter outreach booth during the October 14th celebration. Along with educating voters during the event, the LWVBC Voter Service team will be introducing a new spin for this year’s booth by asking members and anyone who stops by to post a handwritten tribute to a deceased loved one who is an inspiration to their civic and voting life.
To inspire you, in the full article I am going to share my reflection of a deceased loved one who inspired my voting and civic life and although I can share reflections of so many people, my top pick is of course my mom, Mary "Mia" Johnson, right.
|  | | | I, Stacie Johnson, the LWVBC Voter Service Director, am asking all members who read this article, to email me (at voterservice@lwvbc.org) a digital photo of a deceased loved one, and include a note how that person inspired or mentored you towards an active voting and civic engagement life.
| International Visitors Learning Project
| | By Holly Monkman, Co-Director of Advocacy | On Wednesday, September 6th I represented LWVBC at an information sharing event hosted by the YWCA. The event was one stop on a 3-week U.S. tour for the International Visitors Learning Project, a local programming agency for the U.S State Department. Leaders of the Women's Collaborative of Boulder County (WocoBoco) were invited to meet with high-ranking visitors from Vietnam who wanted to learn more about organizations that advocate for women and to share the work of WocoBoco to create policy change at the local and state level.
In addition to LWVBC, members of the American Association of University Women (AAUW), Zonta, YWCA and the BVSD Title IX Advisory Council attended the event. | LWVBC Hosts City of Boulder’s 2023 Election Changes Event | | By Holly Monkman, Co-Director of Advocacy | | On September 19th LWVBC was pleased to host the City of Boulder’s 2023 Election Changes event with City Clerk Elesha Johnson and County Clerk Molly Fitzpatrick at the Boulder JCC. Topics covered included term changes for council members and mayor as the city transitions to even-year elections, the first ever direct election of the mayor, use of ranked choice voting (instant runoff) for the mayoral contest and a practice RCV(IRV) election complete with volunteer election workers from the audience.
Mark Parsons, left, moderated.
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Here are 3 key takeaways if you find yourself filling out a Ranked Choice (Instant Runoff) ballot:
- Your #1 ranking is the only ranking that is guaranteed to be counted. Ranking ≠ Voting
- If there are 4 candidates and 4 possible rankings, your 4th ranking will never be counted.
- Rank as many candidates as you feel comfortable ranking to give you a chance to have more say in the outcome!
Read the rest of the article on Boulder election changes. | Welcome to these new members who joined in August: Susan Franta and Marilyn Moses.
New Member Resource Page
For new (or newish) members: We’ve put together a list of resources in one easy-to-access place. The page features a welcome video from Susan Curtis, our Director of Member Service, as well as links to more in-depth information about how the League functions and how to get involved. Because the website is a main source of information for members, we want to make sure you feel comfortable using it, for example, consulting the Member Directory to find members who live near you, adding your photo to your profile, signing up to volunteer for an event or Issue Team, or making a donation.
To reach it, click on the blue New Members button on the top right-hand side of the home page.
Upcoming Activities:
Celeste Landry of the Voting Methods team will be on KGNU tomorrow morning to discuss the home rule process in Superior, Erie, and Broomfield. And tomorrow evening, there is an Erie ballot issue forum. Please check our calendar for more information and many more upcoming issue and ballot forums. | Website Tip of the Month: Update Your LWVBC Profile | Website Tip of the Month:
Your profile on the LWVBC website is the source of lots of activity, history and administrative information about you. Many of us fill out the profile when we join and then never touch it again. We know things change for all of us—dropped land lines, added cell phones, new email addresses, change of residence address, interests and much, much more. Please follow these instructions to update your profile and make sure you are receiving the information you want in the way you want to receive it.
As a LWVBC member, log into www.lwvbc.org. In the top right hand corner, you will see your name. Move the curser over your name and you will see “PROFILE.” Select “PROFILE.” Is there a picture of you? If not, we can take a picture or you can add one. Make sure the email address and phone number are correct for you.
Within “PROFILE” there are two rows of boxes, each with a specific purpose in providing information about you.
Choose the box, “BASIC MEMBER INFORMATION.” Check to see that your general information, address, telephone and work address are all correct. You can update and edit the information here.
At the bottom of each page, be sure to use the “SAVE “button to save any changes you’ve made. “CANCEL" returns you to the main page of your profile with all the boxes.
“ADDITIONAL MEMBER DATA” stores experience, career and interests. At the bottom of this web page, you may choose to not show address, telephone and/or email in the member directory.
“STANDARD MEMBER DIRECTORY” stores a biography about you that you create. There’s also a place to add your specific social media addresses.
“USER NAME/PASSWORD” is where you can change your user name and password for logging into the LWVBC website.
“MORE MEMBER OPTIONS” holds credit card information. In this same box, you can choose whether to receive emails from LWVBC, LWVCO and LWVUS by clicking on “Privacy/Cancel/Remove.” Opting out or saying “no” means you won’t receive any emails from the League. It’s an all or none choice so choose carefully!
“HISTORIES” is your LWVBC history of payments, events, donations and volunteering. Every time you register for a LWVBC event or volunteer though the website, it’s recorded here. If you’re curious, take a look.
“FORUMS” is where your customization of discussion threads is recorded. You may also choose to join other LWV interest forums.
“YOUR WEBSITE FUNCTIONS” is the last box. It’s very important to check your interests so interest and issues group leaders know to reach out to you to get you involved.
It likely took you longer to read through this article in the Voter than it will take to check your profile and make sure it’s up-to-date. Your profile is the key to accurate information about you and allows us to reach you in the way you choose.
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