Calendar:
July 23, 2024- Monthly Meeting, Planning this coming year’s programs, Home of Amy Ipp, 101 Martin Road, Livingston, 7:30 PM
July 28, 2024, Voter registration at NCJW Back2School Fair, 100 Millburn Avenue, 9:30-4:30
PRESIDENTS’ MESSAGE
Happy Independence Day!
All who attended got recharged and reacquainted at this year’s annual meeting held at the Livingston Senior/Community Center. We adopted a new budget, reported on the prior year’s activities and approved an update of our League’s by-laws. We also elected a new slate of officers for the coming year (see above). We presented Nishna Makala with a gift and cake as after many years of service, she has graduated and will attend the University of Maryland. We will miss her tremendously, but she has left our high school chapter and social media platforms in the capable hands of Poorva Gopal and Raya Sapherstein. We also discussed committees that we are forming and thank those who signed up to work on them. We still need additional volunteers and you can let us know if you are able to help. The committees are as follows: Scholarship, Membership, Voter Service, Program Planning, Nominating, Media, Marketing and Publicity, Social Committee, and Fundraising. Please let us know if you need any more information on these committees or want to volunteer to serve on one or more of them.
Thanks to all who helped with this meeting and served this past year.
Membership
We are gearing up for the new membership year and will be sending membership letters by email soon. We welcome new member Sheila Lee who recently moved to Livingston.
Voter Service
We registered voters and provided information at the annual Summerfest. Thanks to members who helped. We will be registering voters at the National Council of Jewish Women Back2School Fair in Millburn.
We need additional volunteers for this event which runs between 9:30 and 4:30. At this event, needy children can “shop” for items for school including books, clothing and other essentials necessary for a successful school year. We will be available to register and educate their parents about voting. If you can come for an hour or more, please email us and we will provide more information.
Scholarship Committee
Our Scholarship Committee selected two recipients, Livingston High School students, Nishna Makala and Lexi Heifler, for the Grace Russo Memorial Scholarship. Amy Ipp and Robin Weiss presented the scholarships June 6, at the Livingston High School Scholarship Night.
LWVUS Convention
The Biennial convention of the League of Women Voters was held in Washington DC from June 27 through June 30. Robin Weiss and Amy Ipp attended as virtual delegates and voted on many important matters brought before the delegates for study and as official positions.
In addition, local leagues from around the country presented a variety of workshops to educate members and allow them to learn tools of advocacy for
change. The ”meat” of the convention were the Plenary Sessions where positions, programs and study items were debated and voted on through a parliamentary process. Votes were also held for By-laws, nominating committee members and the budget. Among the topics debated were reproductive rights, a study on the Federal Judiciary, concern about privatization of healthcare, a public health approach to gun safety, the environment and climate change, the decline of local news and a study of the money system. Some of the
motions to address these items failed. We will present more details after the LWVUS published a summary of the results of the discussions.
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Amy attended a workshop entitled Book Banning: How to Fight Against It presented by the League of Women Voters of Grosse Pointe Michigan. The League researched a position, it then circulated among all the Leagues in Michigan and was adopted statewide. This work will allow the League to advocate at the state level for the Freedom to Read Act introduced in the Michigan legislature. In addition, there is a Right to Read Act, HR 2889 introduced in our House of Representatives.
Amy attended a second workshop entitled Educate, Register, Participate-Engaging Young Voters. Unfortunately there were technical difficulties but Amy will follow up with the presenters to have access to the slide presentation.
It has been a longtime position of the League to abolish the Electoral College. The presentation was quite informative and you can access the PowerPoint at https://www.lwv.org/opov
The League announced that they have officially partnered with the Girl Scouts of America. Details to be announced. We are hoping we can partner here with some local troops as we have in the past.
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