Presidents Message Spring 2025
Its Spring! LWVYC members,
There is so much to report this month in our LWVYC Presidents’ message! We begin with a flurry of activities for member engagement and offer updates and announcements to prepare you for what’s in store for this month, May, and our big Annual Member meeting in June.
First, let us welcome our twelve new members including:
Willa Pettygrove, Stuart Pettygrove, Matthew Schneider, Courtney Lyles, Nancy Kaufman, Christine Rogalski, Katherine Trask, Janet Mayeux, Heather Hough, Autumn Labbe-Renault, Kelley Falk and Melynda Moseley.
Welcome to the League!
Last month our Membership Committee held its first New Member Welcome Tea, an event the committee will continue to offer quarterly. New members can share their interests and ask questions of board members while learning more about our League’s history.
Advocacy News
April began with a call to action by our national and state Leagues to support the HANDS-OFF day of national and local advocacy. LWVC support for statewide events came in a message to local chapter presidents in follow up to several LWVUS advocacy actions https://www.lwv.org/take-action. These actions included challenging the constitutionality of executive orders discharging employees without cause and blocking federal spending authorized by Congress.
Other LWVUS advocacy included a letter submitted to the Election Assistance Commission in partnership with four national civil rights groups challenging the legality of the Executive Order on Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections LINK.
As National and State Leagues update their advocacy and oppose unconstitutional restrictions of voting and civil rights, we will continue to advise our members and take appropriate action. In a recent LWVC example, our League learned of a California bill, AB 25, which was being proposed in the State assembly whose sole purpose, according to the State League, is to restrict voting access in California. We sent a letter to Assembly Member Cecilia Aguiar-Curry noting our opposition should this bill advance and enclosed the multi-page letter from the LWVC detailing why the proposed bill was inappropriate and would negatively impact voting without solving any actual problems.
