Coming Events

Welcome, New Members!

Tonight, Aug. 17!

Please come to LWVGB's new member dinner, Tuesday, August 17, 2010, at Ruby Tuesday's on Highway 31 in Vestavia (across the street from the U-Haul...just down the street from the Vestavia Community Center) at 6:00 p.m.. Let's be there to greet and warmly welcome all new members to the League!

Are you considering joining the League? We hope you will join us at Ruby Tuesday's, also! Meet League members and learn a little bit about our nonprofit, nonpartisan organization. You can learn more about us here, or by reading our August, 2010 newsletter. We would love to meet you in person, though, so please feel free to drop by for dinner on the 17th! Membership in the League of Women Voters is open to all men and women age 18 or older.

It’s a Party!!

What: League of Women Voters of Greater Birmingham 10/10/10 Global Work Party!
When: Sunday afternoon, October 10, 2010 – Save the Date!

This is our opportunity to join other Leagues and groups all over the world to celebrate climate solutions at the local level—and to let our leaders know how important it is that they join the effort to shift our focus to cleaner energy.

There are many actions needed – cleaning up our roadways, waterways, and air, energy audits, planting trees, supporting local agriculture and greenspaces, working on cleaner fuels and more bike lanes and so many more!

Help us decide on our project by the end of August. If you are a member of a group which might want to partner with LWVGB as we plan our Work Party, or have some suggestions, please contact Joyce Lanning at 879-0808 or jalanning@bellsouth.net.

You can join the League's climate change email list by signing up at the For Members section of the LWVUS website. For more project ideas and resources, check out the League's new web-based Toolkit for Climate Action and 350.org's October 10 webpages.

Put these dates on your calendar now:
11:30 on September 30, 2010 in the Electra Room of Alabama Power. The room will be available starting at 11:00 for those who would like to get lunch at the cafeteria to bring to our meeting room to learn about our part of the Global Work Party.

And save the afternoon of Sunday, October 10, 2010, to join in our chosen project!

The League on WBHM 90.3

For public awareness and education regarding the upcoming election, the LWVGB Board decided to underwrite 5 All Things Considered programs on WBHM. We decided to focus on registering to vote and voting.

Be sure to listen for the League’s name on

• October 6
• October 18
• November 1
• November 2
• February 14, 2011 (our 91st Birthday)

Recent News

Learning and Networking at LWV National Convention

Several LWVGB members attended "Convention 2010: 90 Years of Making Democracy Work: A History of Change.  A Future of Hope." This biennial convention of the national League of Women Voters was held June 11-15 in Atlanta, GA. See daily action reports, plenary reports, guidance to the board, videos and podcasts, workshop materials and other convention materials here. More local news will soon be posted.

LWVGB 2010 Business Meeting

On Thursday, April 29, 2010, the LWVGB met for the Annual Business Meeting at Richard's BBQ & Grill in Hoover. The membership discussed and voted on the 2010-2011 budget and the 2010-2011 Program (issue positions, studies, and issues for emphasis). Officers, board directors, and nominating committee members were elected. Amanda McGriff returns as Treasurer; Joyce Lanning, Leonette Slay, and Ida Tyree-Hyche join the Board of Directors; Angelyn Simmons joins as Secretary; Connie Arnwine serves as Nominating Committee Chair with Yvonne Brakefield as a Nominating Committee Member. See "LWVGB Annual Business Meeting Reports" for more information about the business conducted. Photos soon!


LWVGB Hosts Screening & Discussion of "Open Secret"

On Wednesday, March 24, 2010, the LWVGB hosted a screening of the film "Open Secret" at Alabama Power Company in downtown Birmingham, AL.

Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform, with the support of the League of Women Voters of Alabama, Greater Birmingham Ministries and the American Association of University Women of Alabama, took the official transcript of the 1901 Alabama Constitutional Convention and created a re-enactment, using actors in period costume, speaking the words of the 1901 delegates. This half-hour re-enactment film was named "Open Secret" after some of the words used during that Convention. A woman, although not a delegate, and not allowed to vote in 1901, appealed to the men to allow women to vote. They turned her down. They also disenfranchised poor whites and Blacks in that memorable document.  Their words will surprise you. 

The screenings of this re-enactment were presented throughout Alabama beginning in February, 2010.  There was a discussion following each screening on whether or not the Constitution should be changed, and the best way to do it.  The audience was invited to participate in the discussion. All screenings were free and open to the public. NOTE: As March 31, 2010, this film continues to be presented at public meetings in Alabama. For more information about the film, future presentations, and obtaining a DVD, go to the ACCR website at www.constitutionalreform.org/


Lilly Ledbetter Addresses AAUW and LWVGB
in Observance of Women's History Month

On Saturday, March 6, 2010, the American Association of University Women and the League of Women Voters of Greater Birmingham co-sponsored a luncheon at The Club in observance of Women's History Month. The guest speaker was Lilly Ledbetter, plaintive in the Supreme Court Case Lilly M. Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. Ledbetter recounted the history of this case in her presentation "My Story: Breaking Barriers to Pay Equity for Women." After working for Goodyear for nineteen years, she discovered that she had been paid far less for the same work as her male co-workers. She filed a lawsuit against Goodyear. The United States Supreme Court ultimately decided her case which she lost. The Supreme Court ruled against Ledbetter by a vote of 5-4 stating that she had waited too long to file suit. However, Ledbetter's case led to the passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act passed by Congress and enacted into law by President Obama on January 29, 2009. She advocates for companion legislation, the Paycheck Fairness Act, which has stalled in the Senate. As stated by Ledbetter and Linda Hallman, Executive Director of the AAUW, in "The Huffington Post (www.huffingtonpost.com), January 29, 2010, this act would "close loopholes, strengthen incentives to prevent pay discrimination and bring the Equal Pay Act [signed by President John F. Kennedy in 1963] in line with other civil rights laws. And it would also prohibit retaliation against workers who inquire about employers' wage practices or disclose their own wages--something Lilly could have used in her case."


Biofuels from Waste: Good Economics, Good for our Environment

On Thursday, February 25, 2010, the LWVGB meeting occurred as climate and energy legislation was stalled in the Senate, and, internationally, there were no binding agreements on climate protection in Copenhagen in December. President Obama has stated that creating clean energy jobs remains a crucial part of the administration's strategy to combat devastating unemployment and to restore American leadership in clean energy technology. Although Alabama has room for improvement, we can be proud of action at the local level.

David Lindon, Fleet Manager for the City of Hoover, spoke to the League of Women Voters of Greater Birmingham and guests at the Homewood Library. He explained how sound economic decisions and some entrepreneurship continue to lead to savings for Hoover and to environmental improvements for the region. As one pollster has pointed out regarding the clean energy economy:

“If we do it right, we get cleaner air. We get less dependence on fossil fuels and enhanced national security. We get more innovation in our economy, more jobs and more sustainable jobs.

And that’s if the scientists are wrong.

If the scientists are right, we get all of those things, and begin to solve what could be the most catastrophic environmental problem that any of us have ever faced.

That’s a pretty good bet to make -- because it’s a ‘No Regrets’ strategy. It doesn’t mean it’s easy. But it means if we do it, and do it right, we get all of those benefits out of this policy approach. We think that’s why it’s the right thing to do.”

Given the strides made by the City of Hoover in the last fifteen years, the city’s fleet of over 400 vehicles might just be fuel-independent in the future. Lindon explained that the Energy Policy Act of 1992 promoted the use of alternative fuels and alternative fuel vehicles in order to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil. (Alternative fuels are designated E for Ethanol or B for Bio-Diesel, followed by a number which is the percent of the fuel from that source.)

Not knowing when the fleet might be penalized for violation of that law, under the leadership of Mayor Tony Petelos, Hoover began purchasing - for the same price – flex-fuel automobiles that could run on E-85 or regular gas. If the E-85 fuel wasn’t available, the fleet got credit for compliance anyway. But an economical entrepreneurial spirit evidently kicked in because now 85% of the fuel used by the City of Hoover is a qualified alternative fuel made in the United States, and the B-100 Bio-Diesel is made in Hoover from used cooking oil gathered from restaurants and homes.

Detailing the costs from unclogging sewers fouled by grease, Mr. Lindon showed how the G2O (Grease 2 Oil) program pays it’s own way, saving service calls and cutting fleet fuel costs at the same time. B100 costs Hoover only $.70 per gallon to make. The by-product of the conversion process produces water and glycerin, which is sold to a car wash to be used as soap. By his calculations, if each household in Hoover failed to wipe a frying pot free of cooking oil before washing, it could put about 1 tablespoon down the drain. If each home created only one tablespoon of oil a week this way, with 30,000 homes, there would be one hundred ten 55-gallon barrels of cooking oil per year clogging the sewers.

In April, 2009, the City of Hoover fueled the first police vehicles in the country with E-85 fuel - made from eight tons of Hoover municipal wood waste. The waste was taken to a demonstration plant in Livingston, Alabama where it was processed into ethanol. This cellulosic ethanol is preferable to corn ethanol, and David would like to see a commercial-scale production facility making it available in his own city.

David Lindon left us with a reminder: “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.” Leadership like this program in Hoover can help the greater Birmingham area be right – in the right way.

Even if you don’t live in Hoover, you can take your waste cooking oil to any Hoover Fire Station for recycling.

More LWVGB news...