Diversity and the League of Women Voters
Each year our LWVRC Board makes a commitment to a Diversity Policy:
The League of Women Voters of Rensselaer County, in both its values and practices, is committed to inclusion and diversity. This means that there shall be no barriers to participation in any activity of the League on the basis of economic position, gender, race, creed, age, sexual orientation, national origin,
citizenship status
or disability.
We recognize that diverse perspectives are important and necessary for responsible and representative decision-making. We believe inclusiveness enhances the organization's ability to respond more effectively to changing conditions and needs.
While it is relatively easy to state the value, it has not been easy to implement an active practice. At the National League Convention two years ago, one speaker stated that the first step was simply "to show up." Several of our League members did show up for the recent Black Lives Matter rally in Troy. See below.
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Black Lives Rally in Troy; Sunday June 7, 2020
A Black Lives Matter rally that began in Riverfront Park in Troy NY and became a march around downtown Troy was held on June 7, 2020. This peaceful rally was well organized, led by Justice4Dahmeek and a diverse group of people publicly declaring their support for Black Lives Matter, for the need to end unfair police actions against citizens and for transparency and accountability of the actions of police departments and their officers. The participants included people from the greater capital district, people of all ages, different income status, ethnic backgrounds, those new to rallying for needed change and those who had marched for civil rights in the 1960s. Care was given to make everyone feel safe and included. Children had a designated area to play and/or do crafts. There were two first aid tents set up and staffed with volunteers. Rally participants brought bottles of water and snacks to offer to everyone. Crowd behavior was considerate, respectful and serious about making their demands known. The League of Women Voters of Rensselaer County was honored to be invited to assist local groups - Team Hero, Justice4Dahmeek, TRIP and TAP - in voter registration. Thanks go to Luz Ocasio, Beth Steckley, Christine Nealon,Jerry Ford, and Steve Figuereo for their participation. Noreen McKee offered registration forms and information in Riverfront Park. Emily Menn - our League suffragist - had set up a table on site offering voter registration forms and information so the two League members teamed up to share the effort. Sixty-six registration forms were completed and several forms were handed out to be completed later. The Voter Service Committee will continue to work with community partners like these in the future.
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Voter Services In a Virtual World
The last person-to-person voter registration drive before the Covid-19 lockdown was at Schodack Central School on March 11,2020. We had been able to connect with several schools new to our student voter education and registration program but these were cancelled due to school closures.
Discussions about switching to other ways to spread the word within our Rensselaer League and between the Albany, Schenectady and Saratoga Leagues led to these groups together writing a LWVNY grant proposal to pay for CDTA exterior bus ads. This proposal was approved and will be used in a late summer/fall 2020 campaign to register and get out the vote. The bus ads will be on fifteen busses and will run for two months. This is similar to an ad campaign done in 2014.
The Rensselaer League has partnered with the Troy Housing Authority to provide enough First Vote pamphlets, voter registration forms, posters and stickers to set up registration sites at each of their ten locations. Thanks to Susan Steele and Tom Hulihan for their help with this.
Bernice White of Monument Square Apartments was also able to accept a supply of voter registration materials for the residents of this apartment complex. As conditions change, she wants to schedule time where tenants who have questions can meet with League representatives.
During the Black Lives Matters Rally the League was asked to provide voter materials for TAP, TRIP and Justice for Dahmeek to share with people attending the rally.
We will have to continue to be creative in our efforts to reach out to people who have not yet registered to vote and in our efforts to get people to vote. Please share any ideas you have for these efforts; we welcome members offering ideas and/or being part of the voter services
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League Outreach to Rural areas of NYS
A statewide Rural Outreach Caucus is forming organized by the St. Lawrence County League. An initial ZOOM meeting was held 6/8/20 and attended by our LWVRC member Caroline Leising. She reported that a very lively and worthwhile discussion ensued with much sharing of ideas and materials. The focus was on encouraging Census participation. In Rensselaer County we are fortunate to have an active Census Partnership of which our League is a member. This gives us access to Partnership materials and "swag" that was mentioned. Going forward we would love to have "ambassadors" from our League to the more rural parts of Rensselaer County. Last year we began outreach to all County libraries around Voter Registration Day and would like to expand that in September and include Census materials as well. If you would like to try your hand at being our League ambassador in your town or area, please let me know and I will forward the meeting notes and notices of future meetings. The next meeting of the State Rural Caucus is projected for late July or early August.
Judy Meyer, jdymyr@yahoo.com
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Census 2020 Update
Despite all the work of the 40+ members of the Rensselaer County Partnership the public response to the census so far is below expectations. 58.7% of County households have responded so far. That is still ahead of NYS (56.8%) but trailing the Nation (61.5%). Every household has received either an email or paper invitation to respond - in many cases more than one. The self response rate in 2010 was 65.8%. The Partnership would like to achieve a self response rate of 75.8% by 8/11/2020 when the Census enumerators will start knocking on doors. Our primary tool while continuing Covid 19 restrictions remain is social media. Please use the materials on the Partnership website, www.youcountrensselaer.org. Post to your own and your neighborhood networks. The Partnership is asking all to make a commitment to post at least once each week through August. And did you know that people can also respond by phone at 844-330-2020. There are also numbers to call in multiple languages. For details see
https://2020census.gov/en/ways-to-respond/responding-by-phone.html
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If you have questions, or suggestions about getting out the Census count in Rensselear County please contact Judy Meyer, jdymyr@yahoo.com, 518-821-7284.
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2020 LWVRC Annual Meeting by Email
In view of the postponement of our Annual Gathering due to Covid 19, we conducted the essential annual voting by email. 31 members returned positive votes for our Budget, Board candidates, and Program. This satisfies the requirement for 15% membership voting of our current 99 members. While our ByLaws prohibit absentee or proxy voting, the Board accepted this vote under the emergency conditions. We will be reviewing our ByLaws in the coming year with the view that more and more of our business may be conducted online going forward.
We are pleased to welcome a new member to our Board. Fiona Kelly was born and raised in Rensselaer County, and currently lives in Downtown Troy. She has a BS in Economics and an MBA and a broad work experience including Customer Service and Finance. While she works full time, she nevertheless may be found doing a variety of community activities such as managing the camera for the Truly Rhe online fashion show.
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LWVNY Council 2020
Shirley Buel, Kate Jankowski and Judy Meyer recently attended the LWVNY Council 2020 via Zoom as the 3 allowed LWVRC voting delegates. This is the annual meeting of the LWVNY as held in National Convention years. The main agenda was to approve the LWVNY Annual Budget which was approved unanimously. The attached Kit includes the Budget and various reports that summarize the work of the State League in the past year. At the end of the meeting there is an opportunity to submit "Directions to the Board" and LWVRC submitted the attached statement of our concerns re the long term financial sustainability of the State League and our wish for more technological assistance. We were promised a response later in September after the Board has had a chance to meet.
As a note of interest this is a meeting in which in the past most local Leagues would vote by proxy and a few Capital District members might attend. With the aid of ZOOM 100 members were able to attend from all over the State.
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Our Annual Summer picnic will be cancelled this year due to Covid-19.
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Follow LWVRC on Social Media
Check out our new handle on
Twitter @lwvrc!
We’ve used this platform to remind our followers (currently a small group) about candidate forums and other informational opportunities. We also retweet State League tweets.
Let us know how we’re doing!
Would you like to see more or less of certain kinds of information?
Do tell! Contact Ona Papageorgion at pagonapenelope@yahoo.com
Please share pictures that tell a story relevant to our League or the world of civic engagement!
Send pics to Carol Bell at cbell7153@hotmail.com
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Past Issues of The Voter are now available on our website
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