Program planning is fundamental to the League as a grassroots organization. In League lingo, Program is a sweeping term that refers to everything from the positions we’ve adopted, to the studies we undertake, to the activities we choose to pursue. The Program Planning process is how we choose those issues and our method of deciding which public policy issues we should focus on for community education and advocacy. Program planning affords League members the opportunity to determine our League’s direction and priorities in the coming year and to influence our state League as well. The program planning process is the voice of our members.
On Saturday, January 28, 2023, LWVBC held an informational meeting explaining the Program Planning process. League policy and positions at the national, state, and local level were reviewed and six current issues were presented for consideration for our education and advocacy focus for 2023-24. The slide presentation and Zoom recording of the meeting and additional related materials are available for your review below.
YOU SPOKE UP! HERE IS WHAT YOU THINK.
Following the January 28th program planning meeting, a poll was distributed to all members requesting that they select their first, second and third choices among the six topics. An amazing sixty-nine members responded, and of those, forty-nine said they would help with the effort – many signing up for several different topics, so that each issue had from 11 to 18 volunteers. What an amazing response! Thank you all.
The goal of this program and poll was to find the top three issues for our League to focus our advocacy and education work in the 2023-24 League year. The scores for each issue were weighted so that each first choice got 3 points, second choice got 2 points and third choice got 1 point. The overall results were ambiguous. Mis- and Disinformation was the outlier; but of the other five issues, those with the lowest number of votes had the highest number of volunteers, and vice-versa.
POLL RESULTS
| Issue | Score | Number of Volunteers |
| Electoral College Reform |
76 | 13 |
| Rules Reform | 68 | 18 |
| Education Equity | 68 | 18 |
| Open Primaries | 79 | 16 |
| Voter Access | 71 | 16 |
| Mis/Disinformation | 42 | 11 |
The Board concluded that we would form 5 committees each with a team leader who would gather the group of interested Leaguers to determine how to advocate and educate around their chosen issue. These committees will be gearing up after the May Annual Meeting – or in some cases before that. Please watch for more information. For those who may still wish to sign up to help with one of these groups, please contact us at (215) 230-9986 or LWVBucksPA [at] gmail.com .
January 28th Meeting Materials
Slide Presentation
Zoom Recording
