State Convention Updates
This state League equivalent of our Annual Meeting is held every two years, and was held in Dallas in April. Eight delegates from LWV Collin attended, including Janice Schieffer, Ruth McGuffey, Anne Womack, Liz Holland, Ian Seamans, Jocelyn Tiner, Janet Imhoff, and Connie Murray. Also Elisabeth MacNamara and Charlotte McKenzie attended as state board members. This month we'll publish a few of our members' experience at the conference and its workshops. Three members contributed information about their experience at the convention below:
Janet Imhoff:
131 delegates from 24 Leagues across the state attended the Convention this year. We adopted a budget of $867,200 for the biennium and elected state board members, including three from LWV Collin: Elisabeth MacNamara, Charlotte McKenzie, and Ian Seamans!
We also adopted the Campaign for Making Democracy Work as our program. This program includes:
- Informing and protecting voters
- Increasing Get-out-the-vote efforts
- Improving election administration and access to voting
- Advancing the LWVUS goals of eliminating the Electoral College and adding the ERA to the U.S. constitution
- Advocating for fair redistricting across the state
The Making Democracy Work benefit dinner featured Molly Duane as the keynote speaker. She is the Senior Staff Attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights, and she gave an inspiring talk about the right to abortion.
Our delegates attended many of the 25 Workshops that were offered and we watched an original reader’s theater production called, “Press On My Sisters: The ERA Then and Now.” This play was written and produced by the LWV of South Central Texas, and it was excellent!
Ian Seamans:
I attended several workshops, but my favorite was called, "GOTV, Building Community Involvement in Voting and Elections" by Denita Jones of Dallas, Irene Nunez of Houston, and Anita Woolley of Cy-Fair. The presentation was split into the three presenters' case studies of projects in their own community and additional information about how to best connect with communities around voting. Denita contributed a comprehensive presentation that laid out the basics of attending other communities' events, asking what is needed, and helping fill that need, without being alienating. Irene presented the outreach tools that Houston is using to deliver its voter guides, election reminders and other voting information digitally. This includes a customized voters guide website, an audio voters guide, and texting buddies for new voters. Anita described Cy-Fair very effective GOTV strategy of targetting apartment complexes with voter registration materials, voter guides, and signs around elections.
We were so inspired by this talk that the LWVCC board created a new Community Engagement Committee to begin implementing the ideas from Denita's presentation. We hope that this new initiative will generate new partnerships with other community organizations across Collin County.
Connie Murray:
I attended the “Let’s Talk Membership: Attracting and Retaining League Membership” presentation facilitated by Joyce Jackson (Austin) and Leah Stephanow (Cy-Fair). It was an informative exchange of ideas to recruit, engage and retain members. While I took lots of notes to share, three suggestions stood out.
First, the need to be engaged in our community by partnering with other nonpartisan organizations and participating in their events. The need for community engagement is essential to broadening our membership base and to growing its diversity.
Second, through our voter services we should consider working with high schools to train student VDR’s to register fellow students and to work with us at Rock the Vote events.
Third, understanding and respecting the reasons members join the League. We need to ensure that new members who want to volunteer are connected to opportunities that fit them. We also need to be as grateful to those who join just to donate their dues, as we are to those who donate their time.
So much good information was exchanged amongst all of us. It was an excellent workshop.
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