President's Notes

December is here, there is a little snow on the ground, and we are bundling up once again. I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends. LWVBCC remains very thankful for your support and participation in our work. I

know December is a very busy month and want to thank you for reading this note.

The November Town Hall with Art Havlicek on population decline in Michigan was very informative. The audience had a lot of questions and Art gave us a lot to think about both for local policies and national policies as they relate to business structure and social issues.

There are a few things from the LWVMI League links that I would like to highlight:

1) The Voter Services Committee reports:

Early Voting a Success in Michigan! For the first time in Michigan’s history, voters went to an early voting site, requested and completed a ballot and fed it into a tabulator before Election Day! Clerks and election workers oversaw a smooth early voting period that began in some communities on Saturday, October 28.

A total of 4,627 voters cast ballots during the early voting period. While allowing voters to cast ballots that will be counted just like absentee and Election Day in-person ballots, clerks also identified important processes to be improved and perfected before early voting opens statewide, a critical goal of the pilot.

We are grateful to those jurisdictions who opted to offer early voting pilot sites ahead of the 2024 election! Election Day itself went relatively smoothly. While there were some reports of issues in several communities, Promote the Vote (PTV) worked with coalition partner organizations, local election officials, and the Bureau of Elections to address them. PTV will continue to work with these parties and other stakeholders to ensure that the same issues don’t arise again in 2024. This is terrific news for our state as we prepare for 2024.

2) Now is the time to celebrate and look forward to these new laws going into effect and making a difference for Michigan citizens. Congratulations!

Judy Karandjeff LWVMI Vice President for Advocacy

Go to the League Links to read all the legislation that Judy has been keeping track of, and you will be impressed.

3) LWVUS is introducing a new structure for dues payments in 2024. Your dues will stay the same but the process for distributing funds to state and local

leagues changes. The one thing we need to remember is that if you want to make a donation to LWVBCC you need to do that separately from your dues.

Speaking of dues: We will be asking you to pay your annual dues by the end of January. Early payment is always appreciated. There will be a special dues announcement in a few weeks.

The annual Holiday Party is coming soon – December 13. I am so pleased that so many of you will be there! Please check your inboxes or the website for more information but hurry if you still want to join us. Dr. Tiffany Bohm is our speaker and

Fernwood Gardens is a wonderful setting. I am hoping for just enough snow to make it pretty.

I hope you saw the Book Club announcement postponing our next meeting until January. We will not have any Town Halls in January. The board is planning meetings starting in February including a presentation on the Neighbor by Neighbor

organization, one on misinformation and one on the county parks. Watch your inboxes for details.

Happy Holidays from the Board of the League of Women Voters of Berrien & Cass Counties.

In League, Faith Schoon

In Sympathy

A few days ago, the husband of our board member Amy Scrima passed away. Brian Bailey was well known in the community as the director of the Berrien County Parks from 2011-2020. He directed the development of the counties' two newest parks – the Galien River County Park and the Paw Paw River County Park. Brian shared his love of nature and being outside with our community and helped to make it possible for all of us to enjoy and benefit from the many beautiful parks in Berrien County. The

LWVBCC Board will make a donation to the Berrien County Parks in his memory.



Please keep Amy and her family in your prayers and thoughts.

Book Club Postponed

The Book Club meeting scheduled for Monday, December 11, has been postponed to Monday, January 15, 2024. The meeting will be held at the home of Gloria Weberg in St. Joseph. Please plan to let her know if you can come the first week in January.

We are reading Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. If you have suggestions for 2024 book selections, please send them to Judy Scully – jscully@luc.edu.

Environment Reports

Some recent facts concerning the Environment

I seem to keep harping on plastic. Single-use plastic is THE most prevalent plastic in our creeks, streams, rivers, lakes, estuaries, even small ponds, bogs and swamps - to say nothing of the ocean where it threatens virtually every fish, animal, coral, etc. Did you know there are bogs in Berrien County?

If you haven’t looked recently at photos of these water bodies, please do so today. Whether you actually see anything but beautiful looking water, below the surface there are microplastics, sunken tires, bottles, etc. It’s important we each do our part to eliminate as much plastic of every sort every day.  

On a happier note, our Governor has just this week signed several energy bills that are designed to lead to cleaner energy, more jobs, lower energy costs. More about this at mi.gov. --- Chris Z.

Tips for Plastic-Free Holidays

The tips I have for the Holiday Season might be late for this year but keep these in mind for the future.

When wrapping gifts, look for Kraft wrapping paper (found online at Current) or use cotton fabric or

colored paper gift bags (found at Current or JoAnn’s or Michaels). Colorful string or cotton yarn can take the place of ribbon. Also use natural items to decorate gift boxes such as fresh greens, pine cones, small non-plastic ornaments or sticks of cinnamon. (Stay away from glitter which is made from plastic.)

Check the internet for ecofriendly cards, sugges-tions from this list, or for other ideas. Etsy is a good resource and so is Gwen Frostic, www.gwenfrostic.com. Gwen was a local artist who used linoleum blocks with designs from nature to print stationery and cards. Her shop is located in Benzonia, MI, where items can be purchased, and people can view the printing process.

--- Carla Ripley