Heights Chapter E-News -
Me*** | | Events
- May 16-18 - Ohio LWV Biennial Convention, this year held at Aurora's Bertram Inn
- Monday, May 26th - Walk in the Memorial Day Parade in University Hts!
- NEW: Wednesday, May 28th - 6:30 pm Watch The Dark Money Game: Ohio Confidential at CLEUrban Winery
- Saturday May 31st - LWVGC Annual Meeting at the SEIU Headquarters 9:00-2:00
- Wednesday, June 11th - 6:00 pm LWV Heights Chapter Annual Meeting at Amy Vegh's 3133 Fairfax Road
- Changed: Saturday, June 7th - Heights Eco-Fest 12-4 pm, Coventry Peace Park
- Sunday, August 10th - Cedar Fairmount District Summer Festival 12-4:00
| | I have enjoyed a jazz brunch, and planted flowers out in the lovely sunshine to restore my soul and rest a bit, and now I am returning to League responsibilities. I hope that each of you are finding things which restore you and nourish you, even as we work to uphold our democracy in the country, and in our state, and in our local community. What is in your plan today? | Public School Funding Crisis Community Meeting
| | Thanks Abound!
- Our meeting with the observers Saturday was most interesting, as it seemingly always is. Sending out thanks to Judy Beeler and Betsy Tracy who reported their observations regarding the Heights Library Board, and to Paula Goodwin and Eefje Kolkman who reported on the Heights School Board. If you weren't able to be there, you can still read the summaries they submitted prior to the meeting by going to the Greater Cleveland LWV website, go to the calendar, and click on the Observers Meeting on May 10th. Thanks also to Maryann Barnes who has been coordinating the observers and writing up their summaries with help from Cassie Talerico.
- Thanks to Robin Lieberman who has revised our banner just in time for the next Memorial Day parade. It's a beauty! And while I'm mentioning the parade, thanks to those who have agreed thus far to join in the parade - Eefje, Amy V, Leah, and Kathy F. , and Blanche at the voter registration and information table. Reply to the email if you are up to walking 1.8 miles with us or want to join Blanche at the voter table for no walking!
- Thanks to Judy Beeler and Jill Tatum for coming up with the fabulous idea of making a quilted something for the auction table at the LWVO Convention this Saturday. We started with the idea of a quilt until we realized the short time remaining, and moved instead to a bag. I'm told that the auction items will be viewable/biddable online on Saturday. If you really need to bid on the bag, I will try to find out how that online bidding will become available and let you know. |  | | | LWVGC Annual Meeting Details and Registration!
Saturday, May 31st
SEIU Headquarters, 13000 Shaker Boulevard
LWVGC members, please mark your calendar and plan to attend our Annual Meeting, Saturday, May 31. We need a quorum, so please do your best to be there, in person or virtually (either one counts!). Doors open at 9:00 a.m., the meeting starts at 9:30. A free breakfast will be provided, and you can pay for lunch when you register. Our speaker, Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne, will begin speaking at noon.
To register, please go to our website, lwvgreatercleveland.org/ and log in. On the Events Calendar, scroll down to the entry for Annual Meeting. This will link you to the events page for the meeting. There you will also find links to the documents which we will be voting on. The annual meeting is an excellent opportunity to meet members from other chapters and find out who's doing what. You will definitely be sitting with kindred spirits.
| And then we have our own Chapter's Annual Meeting
We will be meeting at Amy Vegh's home - 3133 Fairfax Road - at 6:00 pm on WEDNESDAY, June 11th for a potluck dinner, some business, and a guest speaker. Details are still being worked out, but since the meeting is in one month I need to send out the proposed budget and the proposed nominating slate today.
Please note that we still must find someone to chair the nominating committee. We have two very capable people serving on the committee, including Eef who has now chaired it twice and will be there to help explain the process, but we need someone to step up to lead the process. The Nominating Committee doesn't start until next February and is generally done by the end of April so it is a limited time obligation. If this seems like a way for you to help the League, please either reply to this email or be prepared at our Annual Meeting on June 10th to volunteer.
| COME JOIN THE PARADE!
We will be participating in the University Heights Memorial Day Parade (Monday, May 26th) once again! And this year, since the League has actually declared our country to be in a constitutional crisis, we are proposing that we carry protest signs. We will also have the banner, which has been updated, but we should get a bigger group this year carrying signs - Constitutional Crisis; Due Process; 3 Co-Equal Branches of Government; Voter Suppression; and so forth.
The parade is 1.8 miles at a mostly slow walk (except when we fall behind talking to people). The parade steps off at 11:00 and we are usually done by 12:30 or so.
We also want to have a table at the fair afterward - not necessarily to register voters but to answer people's questions about what is happening in Ohio and in the country. Reply to this email or contact me (Wendy) directly if you are interested. It's honestly one of my favorite events each year. | Ways to Get Involved in League
Maintaining our local community structures and guard rails is an important aspect of upholding our country. Do any of the following activities interest you?
- NEW: An easy on your own time project - compile the data we have on our observer process re time spent on the various steps for the various boards.
- Talk to Maryann about joining the observer corp to help observe meetings, either in our communities or beyond, or help edit the observer reports for publication
- Talk to Maryann about helping to maintain the LWVGC website (she is the webmaster now)
- Talk to Betsy about helping with the Voter’s Guides this fall
- Ask Betsy about helping with Vote 411 – the online county-wide Voter’s Guide
- Talk to Wendy or Betsy about helping form an event planning committee – helping with locations and refreshments and developing new ideas
- Talk to Wendy about taking over posting items of interest to our Facebook page
- Write occasional articles for the newsletter
- Talk to Wendy about finding paths to Youth Engagement - a new possibility
- Print off some palm cards about the 10 Habits of Good Citizens and share them with others as you help people to stay informed about democracy.
| Have you thought about contacting the US Supreme Court?
I recently wrote postcards to the Supreme Court justices regarding their ruling on immunity, and shortly afterward saw that The Card Campaign group has put together a template to print out postcards to the Supreme Court. If you can print two-sided onto card stock then you can use this template to create postcards. Otherwise, you can use it as suggested text to write your own postcards to members of the Supreme Court. I also see that the template is simply addressed to "The Nine Honorable Justices" whereas I directed mine to each of the justices and varied my text based on their vote.
| MEMBERSHIP ROSTER IS HERE!
Going forward the directory will be updated quarterly and posted to our chapter's website at www.lwvgreatercleveland.org (and emailed to new members.) But here is your first (in a very VERY long time) member directory. With major credit to Janice Foster who just couldn't believe we didn't have such a thing. Thank you Janice! | Links to things you might have missed:
New and not-so-new member orientation program:
The program was recorded and has now been posted on our chapter home page. If you're interested in watching the presentations you can go to www.lwvgreatercleveland.org. You'll need to log in as a member so click in the upper right corner where it says Member Login. (If you haven't set up your login yet, you'll get a chance to do it now.) Then, in the top menu bar click on "Chapters" (just to the left of "About Us") and scroll down to "Cleve Hts/Univ Hts. . Then scroll down on our page past the calendar and the Observer Corp.
The LWVUS "Impact on Issues" book, summarizing our national positions and priorities from the 2024 National Convention is available from Amazon for the low low price of $6.99! (It is also available online at LWV.org which is searchable but extremely long.) LWVUS Impact on Issues
| No one can terrorize a whole nation unless we are all their accomplices. Edward R Murrow, Journalist
The best portion of a good man's life is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love. -William Wordsworth, poet (7 Apr 1770-1850)
All the goodness and the heroisms will rise up again, then be cut down again, and rise up.
It isn't that the evil thing wins - it never will - but that it doesn't die. John Steinbeck
An inspiration from Martin Luther King (per Maya Wiley):
A man cannot be ridden if his back is not bent.
In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.
Thomas Jefferson
| CHUH Chapter Leadership
We are delighted to report the following list of officers for the 2024/2025 year::
Chapter Chair: Wendy Deuring (2024-2026)
Voter Service Co-Chairs: Betsy Tracy (2023-2025) and Janice Foster (2024-2025)
Membership Development Co-Chairs: Joan Spoerl (2024-2026)
Treasurer: Brenda Bagby (2024-2026)
Recording Co-Secretaries: Kathy Petrey (2023-2025) and Robin Koslen (2024-2026)
2025 Nominating Committee: Eefje Kolkman, Chair; Ellen Eoff and Kathryn Ellis
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For the Cleveland Heights City Council, the University Heights City Council, the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Board of Education and the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Library Board of Trustees. Watching government promotes good government: | |