Thank you, dear members, for giving me another opportunity to lead the best local League ever!

I am immensely proud of the work we accomplished over the past, difficult year. I recognize the constraints we all faced trying to confront the assault on our democracy, the civil unrest triggered by George Floyd’s murder, and the disruptions to daily living caused by the stay-at-home orders and social distancing. But we got through it—well, most of it.

The hangover persists. We are left with a tossed salad of missions we need to tackle, all urgent:

▪  engaging communities on redistricting,

▪  educating the public and getting out the vote for the recall election,

▪  fighting voter suppression in all its forms, and

▪  all the while continuing our work to address the healthcare and housing crises, immigration, police reform, and climate change.

It is a big list, but we can do it together.

To help members respond to the most pressing issues and make a real difference, we will launch a “Hot Topics” repository of quick links designed to help focus our collective attention. We know that you are bombarded with numerous email blasts requesting action or that you maintain a constant awareness of one issue or another—making it difficult to keep up. Please see the “Hot Topics” announcement in this issue of the Voter, which describes this new feature.

I want to thank the Events and Communications Committees for their successful orchestration of our Annual Meeting—an incredibly important annual event for LWV-PA that helps set the tone for the next program year. And a special thank-you to the LWV-PA’s delegates to the state convention: Pat Coulter, Dorothy Keane, Gayle Oswald, Anita Mackey, Kay Adams, and Cynthia Cannady. They helped shape the work of our state for the next two years! Please refer to the articles in this Voter to read synopses of both events.

I bid farewell to the 2020–21 Board and extend my deepest thanks for their service and dedication to the communities we serve. Collectively, they advanced many goals of our organization. You can see their contributions in the Handbook posted to our website. To our new Board: Thank you for stepping up to shoulder the leadership of the LWV-PA for Program Year 2021–22! I am honored to have the opportunity to work with you.

I wish I could say “See you in September,” but we have a plethora of issues to address over the summer. I hope you had the best Juneteenth ever, now that this day in history is finally recognized as a federal holiday! One more tiny step in the right direction. Let us celebrate progress even as we commit to carrying on the fight for social and political equity.

Enjoy your Fourth of July!

—Martha Y. Zavala