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February 25, 2017
In This Issue:
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March 1, 7 p.m., Panel, "Health Care & Coverage in MA: What's Next?" Northampton Friends Meetinghouse, 43 Center St.
March 8, International Women's Day.
March 8, 7-8:30 p.m., "Women's Health in 2017," Amherst Survival Center.
March 16, 7-9 p.m. (Doors open at 6:40, starts promptly at 7 p.m.) Candidates Night, Auditorium, Amherst Regional Middle School. Candidates for Town-wide office will speak.
March 18, 10 a.m.-1:30 p.m., Town Meeting Candidate Meetings. Precincts 1-5 at 10-11:30 a.m.; 6-10 at 12-1:30 p.m, Amherst Regional Middle School.
March 20, 3 p.m., Book Discussion of The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden by Jonas Jonasson, Applewood.
March 24, 7-8:30 p.m., Civics Fest, Amherst Regional Middle School Auditorium.
March 28. Amherst Municipal Election.
March 28, Commonwealth Conversations in western MA. Place and time TBD.
April 28 & 29, begins Friday at 11:00 a.m., LWVMA Convention, "The Future of Democracy: Facing the Challenges." Sheraton Framingham Hotel & Conference Center.
April 30, 2-4 p.m., "Sing Into Spring," a Family Concert for Single Payer Health Care. Immanuel Lutheran Church, Amherst.
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Health Care in Massachusetts. Jackie Wolf of the Health Care Committee and co-chair of Mass-Care will be one of the panelists, together with Gerald Friedman, UMass economics professor and Cheryl Zoll, Executive Director of Tapestry Health at "
Health Care & Coverage in MA: What's Next?" Wednesday, March 1, starting at 7:00 p.m. at the Northampton Friends Meetinghouse, 43 Center Street. The event is hosted by Hampshire Health Action.
"
Women's Health in 2017" is the topic of the meeting Wednesday, March 8th, from 7-8:30 p.m. at the Amherst Survival Center. Speakers will be Jackie Wolf of the LWVA Health Care Committee, Lucy Hartry from Tapestry Health, and Mindy Domb of the Amherst Survival Center. The event is co-sponsored by the LWVA, Amherst Survival Center and Tapestry Health.
March 8th is International Women's Day, a good time to come learn, take action, and meet others who care about women's health.
Please bring feminine hygiene products to donate to the Survival Center.
Candidates Night, Thursday, March 16, from 7-9 p.m. The candidates for town-wide office will speak during
Candidates' Night at the Amherst Regional Middle School Auditorium. In addition to the four town-wide positions which are uncontested, a total of 13 people are vying for contested seats on three Boards. These thirteen are candidates for two seats on the Select Board, two seats on the School Committee, and three seats on the Library Board of Trustees.
Because of the number of candidates, the time for questions will be limited. For the same reason, the program will start promptly at 7 p.m., with doors open from 6:40. League member Susan Patnaude will moderate.
Meet Precinct Candidates for Town Meeting. Come meet the candidates for your precinct on
Saturday, March 18 at the Amherst Regional Middle School. Precincts 1-5 meet individually from 10 a.m. until 11:30 a.m.; precincts 6-10 meet individually from 12 noon until 1:30 p.m. Sponsored by the Town Meeting Coordinating Committee; moderated by members of the League of Women Voters of Amherst.
CivicsFest is drawing closer! The first annual Amherst League of Women Voters CivicsFest will be held on Friday, March 24, 7-8:30 p.m. in the ARMS auditorium. A celebration and competition centered around government and politics, this year's theme is American Institutions. High Schoolers are invited to form teams of 3-4 for a debate portion of the evening, and adults are invited to form teams of four for trivia. The evening, hosted by new State Rep. Solomon Goldstein-Rose, will also include theater performances, music and food. Free to participate in and to watch. For more info, click
here.
The
Commonwealth Conversations Tour, cosponsored by Senate President Stan Rosenberg (D-Amherst), Senator Michael Rodrigues (D-Westport), and Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr (D-Gloucester), has begun its second year. The stops in western Massachusetts are scheduled for March 28. For more information as it becomes available, consult
the website.
Spring Concert. Save the date: Sunday, April 30, 2-4 p.m. for "Sing Into Spring," a family concert in support of Single Payer health care for Massachusetts. The concert, sponsored by the Amherst LWV's Health Care Committee, features singer Jay Mankita and Henry the Juggler. Immanuel Lutheran Church at 867 North Pleasant St. Amherst provides the space. Drinks and light refreshments will be provided. Suggested ticket price is $20 per family but a donation of any amount would be welcomed. No one will be turned away from celebrating Spring.
Program Planning Meeting Recommendations for Local Action:
The January e-bulletin contained a report on the recommendations to LWVMA from the Program Planning meeting of January 24th. As promised, here are the recommendations for local action.
In response to the perceived need of many members to take action locally in response to national policies and programs which are contrary to League positions, it was proposed (and approved) that the Amherst LWV have programming which will enable members to work with local community service groups towards such ends. The League will sponsor speakers, bring LWV materials, register voters, and work with the services on direct actions. Suggestions for programming include the Center for New Americans, Tapestry, the Survival Center, Craig's Doors, 0 Waste Amherst, the Hitchcock Center, and American Promise. Such meetings will build coalitions and encourage connections.
LWVA member Sudha Setty's January talk, "Freedom and Justice for All? Civil Rights in the Age of Trump,"(see the January e-bulletin), co-sponsored by the LWVA, Critical Connections and the Karuna Center for Peacebuilding, was an example of such programming. The next in this series is the March 8th "
Women's Health in 2017" at the Amherst Survival Center.
Additionally, the Program Planning Meeting approved a Housing Study and the continuing work of the Energy and the Health Care Committees. Rebecca Fricke has planned a Self-Defense program for young women, a confidence-building event, and is also planning a Leadership Workshop for High Schoolers. The meeting discussed the LWVA's response to the activity of the Charter Commission, and came to no consensus except that a forum to present the proposals will be held in the fall.
It was recommended that the LWVA publish a new program book which will bring our positions up to date, including our position on Aging in Amherst and any other positions new since the last program book.
At the 78th Birthday of the Amherst League of Women Voters on February 11,
Linda Matys O'Connell, a member of the LWV of Massachusetts Board of Directors, delivered a powerful message: "This is the League's moment!" She explained that due to recent political events the LWV is needed now more than ever. Our message concerning voting rights, voter participation and helping voters make informed decisions is crucial right now. Linda is from Springfield and the League there has been rejuvenated and is growing at a fast pace. There was a meeting recently in Greenfield to see if there was interest in forming a LWV there and over 100 people showed up!
Pictures from the Birthday Lunch, thanks to Marcie Sclove
Linda Matys O' Connell speaks to LWV of Amherst members at our February luncheon. Below: View of the LWVA members listening...
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GET INVOLVED! HELP WANTED!
Book Sale We are beginning to gear up for our 2017 Book Sale. Now is the time to get in on the ground floor! Join the organizing committee, which will entail 10-14 hours of meetings and work between the end of February and the end of June. Pricing and sorting will be the first three weeks of July, and the sale itself will be the last weekend of July and the first weekend of August. No one needs to be here the whole summer; we know everyone has vacation plans.
We especially need volunteers to oversee and coordinate arrangements for
* Children's Day * publicity * rare/collectible books
and someone who to assist with general logistics (on-the-job training provided!) But even if you are not ready to sign up for one of these coordinating positions, we would love to have you on board.If the link I am about to give you does not work, try emailing ksmithcampbell@post.harvard.edu. Contact
Kathy Campbell.
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The League's Growth in the News. A recent League Leader letter contained links to three recent newspaper pieces on the growth of the League in response to recent political developments. An op ed in the Greenfield Recorder on February 7th focuses on the new Franklin County League, based in Greenfield; a post in the Washington Post's blog The Inspired Life on February 9 adds an example from Savannah Georgia to the Franklin County events; on February 22, the Boston Globe Facebook page carried a piece referring to activities in several towns in eastern Massachusetts.
Here's a link to the
State Convention, April 28 & 29 in Framingham. The theme is "The Future of Democracy: Facing the Challenges;" featured speakers include Wylecia Wiggs Harris, Executive Director of LWVUS and Brian McGrory, editor of the Boston Globe.
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National has an article on forum.lwv.org on the new positions taken in 2016:
Read it here. The new positions are also available in 2016-2018 Impact on Issues, the League's guide to public policy positions which is now available to download
here
Leagues which wish to receive a printed copy of Impact on Issues 2016-2018
may make a purchase on Amazon or download for Kindle. LWVUS thanks Joyce Carrington, president of the LWV of Louisiana, for driving this partnership with Amazon to make print copies available to those Leagues which desire them without large printing, shipping and storage costs to the LWV.
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