President's Message

League of Women Voters^®
of San Jose/Santa Clara

Hear the latest updates on League activities from Martha Beattie.

Life Without the League. Message Spring 2010. Message Winter 2009. Message Fall 2009. Message Spring 2009.

Life Without the League of Women Voters

President's Message Spring 2010

Our LWVC President, Janis Hirohama, reminded us this month that Eleanor Roosevelt was a League member. In 1921 she was a local League delegate to the national convention in Cleveland. "Twenty years later, as First Lady, she addressed the 1940 LWVUS convention and recalled the speech of Minnie Fisher Cunningham of Texas, which made her feel "that you had no right to be a slacker as a citizen, you had no right not to take an active part in what was happening to your country as a whole." Some 90 years later, the League of Women Voters still lives those ideals.
We are certainly entering into a no-slacker time of the year! In addition to our program planning, study committees, observing the Water Board redistricting process, and Lunch with League we will soon be starting full-tilt into preparing people to be informed voters in the upcoming June election.

LWVC is one of the co-chairs of the campaign to pass the California Fair Elections Act (Proposition 15). Locally, the kickoff event will be in the morning on Saturday, March 27th - details to be available soon. League member John Fioretta is the local chairperson. Watch this site for more information.

We are joining with other Leagues in the county to present three Candidate's Forums for the races for District Attorney, Sheriff, and Assessor. Our capable Voters Service Director, Carol Lathrop, will be in charge of this and other possible forums for candidates for Mayor and City Council seats.

There are five propositions on the California ballot in June. We will be giving Pros and Cons talks to groups at public venues to discuss these measures in full. To find out more about these informative events contact us at VoterService@lwvsjsc.org.

Santa Clara has just qualified an initiative for the June ballot regarding the 49ers stadium. More information regarding upcoming Pros and Cons on this initiative will be available on this site soon.

As always, we will be helping at the registrar of voters.

As Eleanor Roosevelt says, you have no right not to take an active part in what is happening, and I look forward to working with you! For more information on joining the League of Women Voters contact us at Membership@lwvsjsc.org

President's Message Winter 2009

How empty it felt not to vote this November!
In October I urged everyone to take action on health care reform. That continues, of course, but there are other issues! The League of Women Voters United States urges us to also take action on issues related to global climate change.
On the state level, government reform is an important area of emphasis. Should there be a constitutional convention, or are there too many pitfalls? What should be the relationship between state and local governments? What can we do about the blossoming number of initiatives? We will also be playing a role in implementing Proposition 11, the Redistricting reform; you'll be hearing more from us about that!
On the local level, we've had "good news/bad news" on Sunshine Reform. The good news is that several of the sunshine reforms recommended by San Jose's task force have in fact been implemented. The bad news is that City Council is not only delaying implementation of further recommended reforms, but in some cases is not complying with the intent of the reforms they have implemented. Brenda McHenry is drafting a letter to the Council stressing that the intent is to allow opportunity for the public to participate at every level of debate. You will be able to view this letter here on our website after it has been sent. Another sunshine reform has been supported by our County Leagues: AB 466, which has now been signed into law, implements several much-needed sunshine reforms for the Santa Clara Valley Water District Board, in addition to making all seven Board seats elected by district, rather than the current five districts and two at-large seats.
Join us to participate in all of these critical changes.
Martha Beattie President League of Women Voters San Jose/Santa Clara

President's Message Fall 2009

President's Message from Martha Beattie
Welcome to the League of San Jose/Santa Clara web site. I want to tell you about our activities over the next year. They cover all of the building blocks of League activity, and it will be an exciting and interesting time.
There are the pillars of League - Voters Service, Program, and Action.
This will start out to be a quiet year for Carol Lathrop, Voters Service, as an off election year, but that should give us a chance to deal with updates in the Smart Voter organization, and with enhancing our capabilities to give Pros and Cons presentations "streamed" from our web site by next spring when the pace picks up. Then, we will be doing Candidate's Forums, presentations of the Pros and Cons of state and local propositions and referenda, and as always Voter Registration and helping out at the Registrar of Voters.
Program will be active with our re-studies of Education and Energy under Trixie Johnson, Vice President for Program.
We need to update the original study of Racial Balance in the schools, originally studied in 1969 and updated a decade later. The lawsuits that San Jose Unified faced then have long gone, and a lot has changed in education, and our culture, since then.
Our Energy position was adopted in 1979, and is largely about conservation, barely mentioning alternative energy, climate change, or sustainability. The challenge will be to define a reasonable scope for the study.
Action, with Brenda McHenry as local Action Director, is active throughout the year. So far, we know about three areas: the ongoing monitoring of General Plan committees in San Jose and Santa Clara, and two County Council-level action items regarding instant runoff voting for county elections, and support for AB-466 which reorganizes the Santa Clara Valley Water District Board, adding several good government requirements.
Other activities will continue: Lunch with League continues on third Thursdays, 11:30 to 1:00 WITH ONE EXCEPTION (October it will be the fourth Thursday). See elsewhere on this website for our exciting September speaker, but I also attended a great meeting planning for speakers through January (you'll be excited to hear them!). These are held at Bella Mia and are still $15! Thanks to Marie Arnold and committee! Our Spring Luncheon will continue, and you'll be hearing more about this. Next February is LWV's 90th anniversary; we just might have a theme for this luncheon!
We've made some new choices as well: Think Tank committee chaired by Marie Arnold. Dreamed up at the Annual Meeting, they are thinking about how to bring new members into League, how to have activities appealing to young members, how to attract students and interns and find work for them, etc. Our first activity will be a pizza party for SJSU students, introducing them to League and inviting them to join.
Brown bag lunches (suppers?) discussing our positions. First up will be discussions of those positions up for review this year (education and energy). Voter going digital. Well, this is finally going to be done! You will be receiving your Voter via e-mail, saving us a lot and allowing us to print color pictures!
Sharon Sweeney is doing another major outreach to school teachers this year. She worked with Caroline Cooper in 2000 to bring information to the schools about voting, registration, and how to inform themselves about propositions despite the misleading marketing done by many proponents or opponents.
As always, other activities will come up + for example we are more and more called upon to help with homeowners and club elections, and of course stay busy with County, Bay Area, State, and National League activities.
Soon you will be able to sign up right here on our web site to receive our monthly Voter, so that you can remain abreast of our activities on a regular basis. Of course, we encourage you to become a member. We are a nonpartisan political organization for women and men that encourages informed and active participation in government and influences public policy through education and advocacy. Come join us in our work!

President's Message Spring 2009

A conversation with our co-Presidents, Sandy Mory and Sally Pyle.
Sandy : Hi, Sally! Time to reflect on this past year and to get ready to move on to other things in League.
Sally: You are right. Our term as Co-Presidents is just about up. However, we do have a couple of irons in the fire for the upcoming year. We will still be around!
Sandy : Lots to do between now and the Annual Meeting on May 30. Our Speaker for that day is the County Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Charles Weis.
Sally: What great timing! He will be able to give us some insights into the whole budget issue in Education.
Sandy: We get ahead of ourselves....must be the caffeine in my lattee. We have lots happening in the next few weeks.
Sally: The consensus meetings for the National Popular Vote Compact will be held on April 8, both in the morning and in the evening. See Page 3 for times and places.
Sandy : A reminder about the Spring Luncheon is in order! Save the date for April 18th. Trudell Een will be honored at the luncheon for her work in Smart Voter as well as the League.
Sally: That will be a busy week with Lunch with League on the 16th. The speaker there will be Elisa Echeverria from the Mexican Heritage Plaza.
Sandy : While we are doing all this eating, our Voter Service and Speaker's Bureau will be putting together presentations on the upcoming May 19th election. The LWVC has announced opposition to some of the ballot measures. Check the web site for more information. lwvc.org.
Sally: This is a good time to remind people that the League has two roles: Advocacy and Education. Voter Service wants to make sure that the public knows the facts and makes an informed decision.
Sandy : The advocacy arm wants to let the public know, after research of League positions, support or opposition to ballot measures may take place.
Sally: Our positions on the Local, County, Bay Area, State and National levels are all critical to decisions made at all the levels. Glad we are looking at some of our local positions in the next month.
Sandy : With all that is going on, the State Convention in Long Beach should really be an experience. We encourage all members to check it out and think about going: lwvc.org - May 15-May 17, Long Beach Marriott.
Sally: One last item before we head out. The New Member Tea welcomed four of our new League Members and many of the board members. The League will continue to grow and thrive with all the new people who have joined this past year!
Sandy : As Marie puts it so well, "We are all the Membership Committee." Kudos to her for all her hard work and for her follow up on people who express an interest!
Sally: We will meet one more time! Same place!

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