INDEX

President's Message


It's summertime and the pace is supposed to be a little slower, but it seems that the League of Women Voters never slows down! LWVAL Council was held in Auburn this spring. It was a very informative day starting with the business meeting in the morning and two workshops in the afternoon - "Countdown to Hurricane Season" (coastal environment) and "Election Administration". At lunch, Mary Lynn Bates spoke on "Merit Selection of Judges and the "Challenges to Change". Ruth Wright and her committee did a wonderful job producing the LWVAL Ed Fund Facts and Issues. I would like to thank the LWV of Auburn for hosting Council this year. The local Leagues expressed the need for more board training for their members. The LWVAL Board is exploring the possibility of meeting with the board members of the local leagues when we have state board meetings. We will rotate our meeting locations to accomplish this. Please let me know what LWVAL can do to help your local League.

Thanks to all of the League members who contacted their U. S. Representatives and Senators when LWVUS sent out the Call to Action. Both the House and the Senate have passed the Voting Rights Act. The Library of Congress has a very informative website called Thomas (http://thomas.loc.gov/). You can monitor the progress of any bill on the floor in either house. The site is updated regularly. When the Alabama Legislature is in session you can monitor the progress of state bills through Alabama Legislative Information System Online (ALISON). Read about this in the new LWVAL Ed Fund publication The Alabama Legislature: Facts and Issues.

Members at Large (MALs) are state League members who do not belong to a local league, usually because there is not one close by. LWVAL has a number of MALs, especially in north Alabama. Nancy Ekberg (LWVAL Membership Chair) and I met with some of these members in Huntsville recently. It was a chance for the MALs to meet other League members in their area and find out more about LWVAL. We hope to schedule more MAL meetings throughout the state in the future.

I would like to thank Becky Sylvester for her LWVAL leadership the past year and a half. Becky has stepped down as president and I will finish out her term. She is still available to advise and help, and I will be calling on her experience as I go through this next year. Thank you for all that you have done!!

-- Sandy Robinson,
LWVAL President

LOCAL LEAGUE NEWS

BIRMINGHAM

The League of Women Voters of Greater Birmingham (LWVGB) is actively planning an Alabama gubernatorial candidates forum in October.  We have made contact with both the Democratic and Republican campaigns, and are waiting for a response from the candidates on their availability. We are negotiating the use of facilities at Samford University, and have also had conversations with WBHM about broadcasting the event.

Co-sponsors include the American Association of University Women, and Samford University's Cumberland Law School and Christian Women's Leadership Center.
The LWVGB Board of Directors will meet in early August to set priorities and plan activities for the 2006-07 league year.

BALDWIN COUNTY

To get the Baldwin County League off to a great start, the President called a special meeting of the Board on June 14, 2006 to have "Lunch with Libby".  Libby Byars, our  Treasurer, hosted the Board, President Lacey brought chicken salad sandwiches and cookies from Westminster Village.  The full Board worked on program planning for the year, started a yearbook for the membership, and warned hurricanes to beware. 

Our goals are to double our membership, provide an open meeting in each program area, chaired by a member of the Board, and to train members to assume leadership roles next year.
 
Margaret Solberger, Director, is chairing the committee enabling and developing an "Environmental Symposium," September 14, 2006.  We are providing a workshop for all county leadership, officials, and anyone responsible for providing environmentally related services.  Three experts with exceptional credentials will present the facts and explain research in their areas of expertise covering the prime concerns for developing a comprehensive environmental foundation for our county's future. 

The Baldwin County Commission, Mayors and their councils, planners and specialists will be at worktables; seating will be provided for concerned citizens to observe and take notes. Specialists in environmental entities and professionals in the county will assist at the worktables as the criteria and needs are rated and sorted by the groups into agreed-upon standards to be included in the plan.  Who better to assess the practicality and accountability for each standard than those who are responsible in each case? 

The public will be informed through press coverage explaining the rationale for the choices made.  Follow-up has been promised for specific items not fully covered at this afternoon meeting.  The interviews with mayors indicate strong endorsement of this effort, and they applaud the unity of purpose and the setting of overall standards to preserve the beauty and integrity of our varied habitats as we prepare a model plan for the protection of human health and safety regardless of rapid growth or perilous hurricanes.  May we grow in grace.

The research and background materials from this effort will be passed on to assist in reassessing our Natural Resources and Coastal Zone Management positions for Mobile/Baldwin.  We then hope to extend the update to LWVAL Natural Resources position.


AUBURN

President Marilyn Garrett attended the national LWV Convention in Minneapolis in June.  Four others from Alabama attended.  Her sister from Wisconsin. was also a delegate and they roomed together.  Marilyn reported that the convention really gave one a sense of what other leagues are doing throughout the country and the support we can get from our national office.

The Auburn League is planning a candidate's forum for City Council elections in August.  A candidate's forum will be held later in the fall for local candidates running in the November election.  We likely will have co-sponsors of the Chambers of Commerce from Auburn and Opelika.

We have continued our brown bag lunches (except July) where we talk about local issues. Our kick-off meeting for fall will be a discussion of the death penalty- pros and cons.

Report on LWVUS 2006 Convention

Actions taken by the Convention

• Amended the Bylaws to remove "of citizens" from the statement of the purposes of the League regarding "active participation in government" and to eliminate references to "life membership" which is no longer available.
• Approved continuation of all previous program positions.
• Voted to concur with Illinois League position advocating abolishing the death penalty.
• Voted to increase per member payment in national dues by $2.50 for 2006-2007 and by an additional $.50 in 2007-2008 in order to balance the budget.
• Approved the LWVUS and the LWVEF budgets, including additional budgeted amounts to be used for membership recruitment and improving technology and the website.
• Elected the slate of officers and directors proposed by the nominating committee.
• Approved a three year study of immigration.
• Passed resolutions (paraphrased) in the following areas that were not recommended by the Board:
  • Paper Ballots:  that the Citizens' Right to Vote position be interpreted to affirm support only for voting systems that employ a voter-verifiable paper ballot or other paper record, including a list of specific requirements related to the use of such paper ballot / record;
  • Separation of Powers:  adding restoration of the Separation of Powers and our System of Checks and Balances to the Democracy Agenda, thereby making it a top priority, including denouncing their erosion and calling on Congress to assume its oversight role;
  • Internet neutrality:  ask Congress to protect equal access to the internet.

Other Convention Highlights

Alabama's Liaison, Carolie Mullan, met with Alabama and Florida delegates at lunch one day and encouraged the State and Local Leagues to contact her if we had questions about the national program or projects or if she could help us access staff or other resources at the national level.

Keynote speaker at the Opening Plenary Session, Dr. Thomas Mann, spoke on "American Democracy in a Partisan Era" and stressed that the League was in a unique position to combat the extreme partisanship and lack of communication between factions in government and in society in general that threatens our democracy.

The distinguished panel, moderated by Bert Brandenberg (Executive Director of the Justice at Stake Campaign), that discussed "Understanding the System to Defend the Courts" in a subsequent Plenary Session deplored the growing trend of intensely partisan, expensive judicial campaigns and the recent attacks on the independence of the Courts.  The panel encouraged Leagues to be active in educating the public about the purpose and function of the Judiciary, as distinguished from the other branches, and about the critical importance of an independent judiciary to protect the Constitution and civil liberties for all citizens.

LWVUS announced a pilot membership recruitment project based on recommendations from a consulting firm that recommended that the League target its membership drive to older women.

LWVEF announced a new "easy-to-use" web site that will provide general and state specific information to the public.  The project is called VOTE411 and should become operational in September 2006.  It takes the place of D-Net but will not have the same capabilities.

Pass-through grant opportunities were announced in the areas of support for the U.N.'s Millennium Campaign and programs aimed at educating the public about the Judiciary.

Support for LWVUS' grassroots lobbying team was requested and the need to pass reauthorization of portions of the Voting Rights Act was stressed.

A Pre-Convention Diversity Training offered suggestions and tools for Leagues to help their communities learn to value and deal with diversity and for Leagues to increase diversity in their membership and cope with issues that could arise from increased diversity.

-- Mary Lynn Bates,
    LWVAL Delegate to the 
    2006 Convention

National PMP Increase

Attention local League presidents and treasurers: You will notice when your PMP bill comes from LWVUS that the increase adopted at the June convention is already in effect. Please notify your members who get their Voter by mail that the information on PMP in it is incorrect.

Council Jottings

The people (about forty, including several guests and presenters) attending the 2006 State Council in Auburn were generally enthusiastic about the meeting. As always, it was a good time to visit, renew old acquaintances and make new ones. We even enlisted some new members.

In the business meeting, Nancy Ekberg and Sue Flood reported on their experiences with the 2006 legislature. While Constitutional Reform did not quite make it, some steps toward the kind of tax reform the League is working for were taken. The Facts and Issues on the Legislature, prepared by Ruth Wright and her committee, was presented. It has been sent to legislators, and local leagues are making plans to get it to the voting public. Becky Sylvester, who had agreed to stay on as state president for a year, passed the gavel to Sandy Robinson, who will finish the second year of the term. 
                 
Our own Mary Lynn Bates spoke at lunch about merit selection of judges, drawing on her recent experience as the LWVAL representative to the American Judicature Society's mid-year meeting. The League has a long-standing position on merit selection. It was the one feature the late Judge Howell Heflin left out of the Judicial Article of the Constitution because he knew it would not be approved at that time.

The workshops were planned so that everybody could attend both of them. The first, chaired by Barbara Caddell (see below) and presented by Casi Calloway of Mobile Baykeepers and Tami Wells, who is with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, looked at the coastal devastation resulting from Hurricane Katrina and considered some courses of action for the future.

The second workshop, chaired by Sue Flood, was a panel presentation on Election Administration and how it can be made to work for the voter. Panel members were Dr. Christa Slaton, AU political scientist, Adam Bourne, an attorney with the Secretary of State's office, and Judge Bill English, who, as probate judge, administers elections in Lee County.

Council attendees left better informed on several league concerns and more aware of what we might do toward finding solutions. Thanks to all, program planners and our Auburn hosts, who made it happen.

-- Charlotte Ward,
    Voter Editor