LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS
OF GREELEY/WELD COUNTY
343 50th AVENUE
GREELEY, CO 80634
http://www.lwvgreeleyweldcounty.org
The LWV, a nonpartisan political organization,
encourages the informed and active participation
in government and influences public policy
through education and advocacy.March 2010
P.O. Box 336634, Greeley, CO 80633
http://www.lwvgreeleyweldcounty.org
43 members
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April 24: Greeley/Weld Annual Meeting, Applebee's Breakfast/Fund Raiser,
8-10 a.m. Celebrate the Anniversary of League with guest speaker Mayor Tom Norton and well-known suffragette. Purchase your $5 sausage and pancake breakfast ticket from any League Board Member or call Hazel Gibson, 352-4903 to reserve a ticket. Reservations need to be made by April 17.
May 21-22: 1 pm + Noon on Sat. LWVCO Council, Lake Shore Lodge, Estes Park
June 11-15: Annual Meeting in Atlanta, GA -LWVUS 49TH National Convention
MAKING DEMOCRACY WORK: A HISTORY OF CHANGE. A FUTURE OF HOPE.
June 25-25: Leadership Retreat, Frisco, Colorado, Learn proven tactics to ask people to join the League and to help us gain more visibility. Also how to do voter service activities. $40 for first member, $75 for additional. (Three meals, shared room, all materials, and expert advice!)
What's inside this issue of the Voter:
Calendar of Activities
President's Letter
Colorado Suffragette Sees Birth of League
Membership Provides Thoughtful Discussion and Analysis
Health Care Reform Updates
A History of Change, A Future of Hope
Council at Estes Park
Greeley/Weld County League of Women Voters-March 2010
Letter from the President, March 2010
We've almost completed another busy and productive year! Uranium Mining, March 25th: Our informational meeting on uranium mining in Weld County is coming up on March 25th. Rescheduled from February, this meeting will focus on an issue that impacts our health, agriculture, and water. This is a very good way to become informed about a very complex and important issue in a short period of time. We invited PowerTech, the company that is proposing the mining, but they declined to come to the meeting. Our League has taken a position against this proposed mining. Members of C.A.R.D. (Coloradans Against Resource Destruction) will speak. The information sheet provided in February's Voter will give you an overview of the issue. I'll resend it to all members in case you missed it. At that meeting we will also decide on our stance regarding the League's Sustainability statement, which reads:
Sustainability is a way of life which seeks a balance in meeting current environment, economic and human needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet the same goal.
The concept of Sustainability is implicit in the Principles of the League of Women Voters. League positions are in compliance with fundamental principle of sustainability, recognizing the interdependency among issues of public policy, and the impact of current decisions on the global welfare of future generations.
We need to decide whether or not we agree with this statement and if it should become part of the League's positions. We'll also have sustainability Packets available at the March meeting if you did not get one.
Our Annual Meeting is April 24th at Applebee's Restaurant. It will be a fundraiser as well as a celebration of the League's 90th birthday. We'll also have a special visit from Carrie Chapman Catt, founder of the League. Mayor Tom Norton will speak about Greeley's vision and goals for the future. The Annual Meeting materials are included in this Voter. Please look them over and come with ideas and thanks to the many people who have helped our League impact our community in so many positive ways.
Just an example of League members to thank:
LaVerne Corlis for the Observer Corps
Jean Hoffman for her interest and knowledge about uranium mining
Julie Haworth for her work on the Finance Drive
Hazel Gibson for her dependable Voter output
Barb Whinery for her Voter Service
Verdie Peddycord for her thank you letters to contributors
Joan Harrison for her public relations work
Shirley Wheeler for her work on health care reform
Janine Reid for keeping us all in the black
Greeley/Weld County League of Women Voters-March 2010
Jessie Hover Butler: A Pueblo, Colorado Suffragette
Jessie Butler was born on October 27, 1886, in Pueblo, Colorado. After attending public school in Pueblo, Jessie went to Smith College and became a Statistician and Investigator with the Massachusetts Minimum Wage Commission, working to bring about a minimum wage for women, and then, during World War I, was an Investigator for the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington. There, she became acquainted with the suffragist movement and spent many hours at Alice Paul's home a prominent suffragist. She became head of the Consumer's League as a direct result of those contacts, and spearheaded the drive to get a minimum wage established for women in Washington, DC. Jessie said of the experience, "Being of pioneer stock from Colorado, I was a pioneer up there, as well. It was great. I never had so much fun."
Jessie soon became the best-connected woman in Washington, D.C., and helped to pass a consumer bill concerning the meatpacking industry. Jessie did not know Carrie Chapman Catt until she barged into Catt's office, saying she heard she was going to tour the west and asking to come along to talk about the meatpacking bill. Catt was not convinced, but said she could go if she could raise $500 which she did.
Catt and Butler went to six states in 1919. "Very soon after we returned (and I can't remember whether it was six months or how long it was after Tennessee had ratified the woman's suffrage amendment), Mrs. Catt had a meeting of all her following and all her officers to wind up the work of the National Woman's Suffrage Association. She invited me to go with her to St. Louis and sit on the platform. In the process they wound up their organization and put it to bed financially, and then they created the national League of Women Voters." Jessie said, "I sat on the platform when the League of Women Voters was born. It was not a controversial issue; it had all been thought out, as Mrs. Catt always did. Mrs. Catt was a stateswoman; I knew many statesmen in Washington, D.C., so I saw she had what it takes to be a great stateswoman. "
Continued Jessie, "Mrs. Catt had that gift of dramatizing things in a human way that was beautiful, and noble; there was a nobility about her and a high spiritual thinking that she put back of what she did. That was the feeling of that meeting; it was uplifting. The big battle they'd fought for so many years was over. Now a new world was coming and they were going to help create that new world. She put a beautiful spirit of imagery, and spirituality, and idealism into the meeting." Immediately after that speech, Jessie Butler was appointed the League's first legislative advocate, at the highest salary of any woman in Washington DC at that time--$3,500 a year. Compiled by Ruth Nerenberg from a 1974 Feminist History Research Project oral history interview radio conducted by Sharon Gluck
League Membership Provides Thoughtful Discussion and Analysis
One of my bridge playing friends asked me if I would like to attend a meeting of the League of Women Voters. I hemmed and hawed, thinking of all the times I had inwardly admired the League and all they do. At that time I said to myself, "I can never do that, I just don't have what it takes; the focus, the analytical mind." Even so, I decided to give it a try. It took a year of attending meetings before I decided to pay dues and be a real member. The League provides a lot of materials; the members provide thoughtful discussion and analysis. I am proud to be a member, contributing in my own small way to the League of Women Voters. Shirley Wheeler
Greeley/Weld County League of Women Voters March 2010
Health Care Reform Updates
The LWVUS Health Care Task Force has concluded its work. A final background article on the Veteran's Administration system will be posted shortly on the website. If you have not recently viewed the 4 Voter ready articles or 6 background articles prepared by the Task Force take a look: http://www.lwv.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Health_Care1
While we continue to lobby for reform at the national level, attention can be focused also on our Colorado Legislature. There are several bills that would contribute to improving access and affordability and controlling costs here in Colorado. Keep checking the Legislative Letter for summaries and updates on the bills. Legislative Letters are archived on the LWVCO website http://www.lwvcolorado.org/leaguepositions.html.
We have a wealth of informed and helpful colleagues across our state and the flow of information via the Internet enables us to share resources easily. So don't hesitate to get in touch if you would like help with a program OR can share a successful tip! Thank you for all you are doing to help achieve quality, affordable health care for all.
As we enter into a new year, we know that the League will continue to do what it has been trusted to do for more than 90 years:
Discuss the important issues;
Ask the difficult questions;
Demand accountability from our government.
MAKING DEMOCRACY WORK: A HISTORY OF CHANGE. A FUTURE OF HOPE.
League of Women Voters of The United States
49th National Convention, June 11-15, 2010
The LWVUS invites all members to join fellow Leaguers from 50 states, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and Hong Kong to celebrate 90 remarkable years of League achievements and chart the course for the next biennium of League programs.
All League members are invited to attend Convention, but Presidents of local, state and ILO Leagues appoint their allotted delegates. Non-voting members can be part of the excitement as the Convention delegate body debates and adopts the 2010-2012 National Program, the LWVUS Budget for the next fiscal year, and amendments to the LWVUS Bylaws. Delegates will also be choosing the LWVUS Board officers, directors and nominating committee for the next biennium. Convention 2010 site, the Marriott Atlanta Marquis, is located in the downtown area known as Atlanta's heartbeat. For detailed information on this fabulous metropolis, visit the website http://www.Atlanta.net and click on 50 Things to do in Atlanta. Do plan to arrive early or stay a few extra days to explore the many attractions the Atlanta area has to offer.
Greeley/Weld County League of Women Voters-March 2010
First Call to Council 2010
The LWVCO holds a "Council" meeting every two years featuring the election of LWVCO officers, adoption of the next year's budget, the Legislative Wrap-up and workshops for attendees. Although individual League chapters have just two official delegates to the council, other members can attend as observers, and since this year's Council will be meeting in Estes Park, we hope a number of our members will want to take part. It is a good opportunity to learn more about the League at the state level and to meet League members from throughout Colorado. The event is scheduled for May 21 and 22, 2010, at the Lake Shore Lodge, beginning at 12:15 p.m. on Friday and running through 12:00 noon on Saturday.
Depending on how many from LWVLC would like to attend, our budget can cover some of the costs. A $30 registration fee is due by April 15. Attendees usually pay for their own meals, but we don't have the information about those yet. If you are interested, please contact Carol Rush at crush@frii.com or 667-5077 for more information.
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Annual Dues: $50 for an individual or $75 for family membership (two people who receive mail at the same address) Name of second household member_________________________. Student Membership: $20. You can contribute to the Greeley/Weld League of Women Voters. If you want to make your contribution tax deductible, let the treasurer know and she will put the contribution into the LWV Education Fund.
$____ Annual Dues $ Donation for LWV Greeley/Weld County
Current Agenda 2009-2010 Greeley/Weld County LWV
Local Government: Continuing study and support of local government that is accountable, transparent, and representative of Greeley and Weld County, responsive, flexible, efficient, effective, and able to raise sufficient revenues to perform the duties necessary to maintain a health, safe and prosperous community for all citizens.
Transportation: A study of transportation in northern Colorado to update the previous study.
Oil and Gas Drilling (to include uranium mining) Update the previous study and expand to include uranium mining.
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League of Women Voters of Greeley-Weld County, Inc., Colorado. All rights reserved.
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