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| Friday, January 31 |
Deadline to update roster with LWVUS |
| Wednesday, February 12 |
Deadline to register to vote in March 3 Presidential primary election |
| Thursday, February 6 |
LWVMA Day of Action |
| Monday, February 24 |
First day of early voting for Presidential primary election |
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Come to LWVMA's Feb. 6 Day of Action
On February 14, 2020, the League of Women Voters will celebrate the actual 100th birthday of our founding with a Day of Action at the national, state and local League levels.
LWVMA is planning a State House Day of Action to celebrate the League Thursday, Feb. 6. We invite all members to join us in Room 428 at the State House at 10 a.m. We've invited Governor Baker, Speaker DeLeo and Senate President Spilka to speak, and will salute those legislators who are members of the League. We will also distribute a reminder to all legislators that passing Election Day voter registration is a perfect way to celebrate this anniversary. There will be birthday cake. February 14, 2020, will be declared League of Women Voters Day in Massachusetts. Please RSVP
here.
Many of our local Leagues have events scheduled to mark this important date. Check out the LWVUS
Day of Action Toolkit to help plan a local event.
Send photos to Taylor Grenga from your League's event for LWVMA to post!
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Student Video Contest Coming in February
This year's student video contest will ask high school students throughout the Commonwealth to make a 30-second video answering the question "Should 16-Year-Olds Have the Right to Vote?"
We will post information about the theme and the contest rules on our website by Feb. 1, and send out information to all League members and to high schools and community cable TV stations throughout Massachusetts. The contest will be open until March 31. Winners, who receive a cash prize, will be announced May 1, and there will be a ceremony for winners in June.
Watch for the details and help us spread the word!
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LWVMA asks our local Leagues to consider waiting until February to fill out the LWVUS program planning form, which is due March 10. The LWVMA board is considering recommending an addition to the proposed program that LWVUS has posted and will be making a decision at our board meeting in late January. We will send any additions we propose as a state League to our local Leagues in case you would like to endorse those additions in your own program planning response.
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Save the Date: New England Regional Conference
All League members from the six New England states (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut) are invited to the annual New England Regional League Conference, which will be held Saturday and Sunday, April 4-5, at York Community College in Wells, ME. The focus of the conference and its speakers will be understanding and overcoming barriers to voting among those who are disenfranchised and those who are disinterested. Look for more details and the announcement of registration around Feb. 1.
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Nominating Committee Seeks Candidates
The Nominating Committee is sending representatives to the 2020 field service meetings to talk with local League members and encourage them to suggest potential recruits for the 2020-2021 LWVMA Board.
At the end of this League year, the Board will be losing six seasoned members, with more than 50 years of Board experience among them, and will be going forward with a new board and a new Executive Director. This is an opportunity for League members, particularly those with long League experience, to step forward and help carry us into the new decade. Contact the Nominating Committee at
[email protected]
: Wendy Manz, Chair, Lee Bona, Sharon McCarthy, Jean Cherdack, and Kathy Leonardson.
Click here for a description of the board member position and here for a nomination form.
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Local League Anniversary Events Feature Performance Art, Authors
Check out upcoming 100th Anniversary events, including those below, on the LWVMA website
Anniversary Calendar, filling up with winter and spring events. Submit your events to
[email protected].
Several Leagues are featuring performance artists and playwrights to commemorate the anniversary:
Local playwrights who have spoken at local Leagues include:
Leagues may also sponsor a performance of We Did It For You!
Popular local authors as speakers, often co-sponsored by local libraries, include:
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2020 Census: Resources for Local Leagues
The 2020 Census starts in less than two months. Now is the time to educate your communities on the importance of the census, how to participate, and to answer questions. Local trusted organizations, such as the League, are critical for reaching out to hard-to-count populations, contributing to a successful census.
The following resources can help you to plan and execute programs to ensure a complete count in your community and in the Commonwealth.
Meet with your local officials to emphasize the importance of a complete count and discuss ways your local League can help. Consider joining or starting a Complete Count Committee in your community. You can learn more about Complete Count Committees at US Census Bureau
Complete Count Committee webpage.
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Ranked Choice Voting Information
The ranked choice voting ballot question is well on its way to a spot on the November ballot; supporters gathered 31,000 more certified signatures than necessary in the first stage of the process to make Massachusetts the second state with ranked choice voting, after Maine.
If your League would like to hold an information event on ranked choice voting, check the Voter Choice Massachusetts
website
. To schedule a speaker, click
here
. You'll also find information on how to volunteer or to hold a house party.
With ranked choice voting, voters still only cast one ballot, but when there are three or more candidates for an office, voters are given the option to rank candidates on their ballot in the order they prefer them: first, second, third, etc. If one candidate receives a majority of the first-choice votes, that candidate wins.
If no candidate receives a majority of the first-choice votes, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. Voters who ranked the eliminated candidate as their first choice will have their vote count instantly towards the next choice on their ballot. That process repeats until a candidate receives a majority of the vote and wins.
The ballot question would provide voters with the option to rank candidates in the order they prefer them. Voters can rank as many or as few candidates as they want, or could choose just one candidate, like they do now. Voters would be allowed to rank candidates in state and federal elections starting in 2022. The ballot question would not apply to presidential elections or local municipal elections.
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The member count deadline is fast approaching! Roster managers must update League rosters in the LWVUS membership database by Friday, Jan. 31, to ensure correct per-member-payment billing for FY2020-2021. To access the database,
click here. If you are a new roster manager or if you have any questions about how to use the database, please review Brynne Gorman's
user guide and
email her to schedule database training.
LWVUS Roster Support will be experimenting with "office hours" webinars at noon on Fridays in January. Join these webinars to ask questions of the roster support team. You can join from a computer, tablet or smartphone
here or dial in at 1 (786) 535-3211, access code: 612-955-693.
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The
League Leader Update
is
distributed to local
League
board members and LWVMA
leaders
. Anyone can request the
Update
by
clicking here
. Please review this
Update
for articles of interest to your
League
and include them in your local Bulletin.
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