President's Message, summer 2019 - review of activities for the July 2018 to July 2019 fiscal year

President's Message, summer 2019 - review of activities for the July 2018 to July 2019 fiscal year

President's Message.... by Marj Johnson (with headshot & swirl)
Type: 
Blog Post

The League of Women Voters of New Castle County (LWVNCC) President Marjorie Johnson's message for summer 2019 is included below...

First of all, let me say what a steep learning curve I have been on these last two years, and I want to thank the extremely active, engaged, and informed board I have had the pleasure to work with. They are creative, motivated, and dedicated to the League and whenever there was a project, they took the initiative and ran with it. And, as always, many thanks to Letty Diswood, without whom none of us could operate, and without whom I would have been adrift! Let’s give Letty and our
Board a round of applause!

The Board set voting services, including registration, education, and access as our main emphasis when participating in events. At the state level, the 2019 priorities have been Clean Water, Election Reform, Renewable Portfolio Standards and the National Popular Vote.  

We have continued with our monthly Hot Topics on a variety of issues, the Great Decisions group and TED talks.

We held about 50 Voter Registration Events, including all the high schools, with our
Indivisible Partners, and held candidate forums in Newark and in Hockessin. Thanks so much to Patti Christopher, Carole Walsh, Judy Taggart and Barbara Shope.
We had a three year audit review, which concurred that we were following standard
procedures but provided some recommendations for transparency and accuracy, and
our treasurer is putting those into practice.

We voted for concurrence with the Utah League on End of Life Options, enabling the
state to take a position.

We canvassed with Smart Justice regarding criminal justice reform.

LWV provided information to a total of 349 new citizens who represented over 137
countries. The activities were held at the US District Court in Wilmington and Clayton Hall, University of Delaware, Newark. Thanks to all the volunteers who assisted: Lorraine Boticelli, Connie Georgov, Patty Jones-Huang, Vicky Kleinman, Susan Mitchell, Eugenia Nichols, Patti Christopher, and Carole Walsh.

Peggy Schultz and Jane Dilley were busy on land use issues, particularly in New Castle County, collaborating with state agencies and with Bike Delaware. We had have a hot topic on one of these contentious issues in July 2019.

Most importantly, we gained about 40 members and we continue to meet up with people who are interested in the League and its mission.

Following last year’s annual meeting with the suggestions given to the Board, we held a strategic planning session to develop new short and long term goals. The following are things we determined were needed and were also able to complete: <<truncated for brevity; download the summer 2019 newsletter for the full list>>

Going forward, we are hoping to do some evening meetings in a variety of places to attract those who can’t get to Hot Topics or Great Decisions, which are held during the day. And at League Day, Rep Longhurst recommended that each league do a forum on water—cleanliness, sustainability, and how to fund infrastructure related to the distribution of clean water. Many thanks to Coralie Pryde and her environmental committee, who have been busy mostly on the state level with a variety of environmental issues, will be helping us with these forums. I understand there is a new bill being introduced which addresses the funding for the infrastructure, so I’m sure we will be following that.

I encourage all of you to go to the LWVUS website and sign up for any of the webinars that would be pertinent to you. If you are unavailable at the particular time of a webinar, you can watch them at any time as long as you have registered
for them. Also on the LWVUS website, you can sign up for the biweekly update from national. There is a lot of good information in these to keep you informed.

I want to extend a deep note of gratitude to Joann Hasse, who is currently leaving our board as an elected director. She has such a wealth of knowledge, history, and procedure, and she has been a huge help to me these past two years. And
while she deserves some well-earned rest, having also just finished as State Board President, (again!), I am trying to enlist her to serve on our board in an unelected position, to continue to keep us all on track! Join me in thanking Joann!

On a personal note, I would just like to thank you for supporting me as your president. At times it is an overwhelming task, but I have to say that there is never a meeting or an event that the League is involved in at which I don’t learn
something about so many different things and meet so many interesting people. You are all an amazing group of people, and our county, our state, and our country is better for all of you! Thank you.

-- Marj Johnson

League to which this content belongs: 
New Castle County