The primary election is behind us and the party nominees have their work cut out for them, but what is our work now?  There are a few new possibilities for getting involved:

  - Attend the LWVGC Annual Meeting.  We do need a quorum of about 70 members from across Greater Cleveland and we don't have it yet.  Yes, it's a Saturday morning, and yes, it's downtown. (We do encompass all of Cuyahoga County after all.)  The annual meeting is interesting, is a good way to meet some people from our chapter and leadership, and the food has been tasty.    Saturday, May 16th - 9-1:00 if you stay for Mayor Bibb's address.  And an interesting chance to be in the new City Club space next to Ideastream on Euclid at 14th.  We can carpool, or take the rapid and walk out to 14th, or take a bus.  SO many options! EVEN IF YOU ATTEND BY LIVESTREAM, please register to attend so the organizers will know if they have reached quorum.

TO REGISTER: go to www.lwvgreatercleveland.org, sign in on the upper right corner, and then click on the Annual Meeting in the calendar scroll on the left side of the screen.  (Really - this does get easier the more times you do it.)  If you want to purchase lunch for $17, that comes at the end of the registration process. 

  - March in the UH Memorial Day Parade!  It's a surprising amount of fun,  and burns some calories.  Just for added excitement, they haven't announced the route yet due to construction along Silsby. (I just drove along it today and I really doubt it will be done by the 25th so stay tuned for breaking news.)  We usually step off at 11:00 or thereabouts.  There is also a bit of a festival at the end of the parade which we've had a table at, but the vast majority of people just go home after the parade ends so we might not do that.  Let me know if you would love to staff a table but, more importantly, let me know if you're up for the parade!  I think we can continue our protest attitude about the attacks on voting rights and the rule of law. 

  - Be our Speaker at CH Democracy Day - I've done this a couple times but I have another engagement this year.  Democracy Day was started by citizen ballot to protest the passage of Citizens United. They allow people to speak for up to 5 minutes about the threats to democracy, primarily by corporations or money, but it's open to messages of all threats to democracy.  It's a very uplifting day which I dearly wish more people would attend. IF YOU ARE WILLING TO SPEAK, let me know.  I can help you write a speech if you need it.  You would be speaking on behalf of League.   Don't want to speak?  Please consider attending.  I don't think you'll be disappointed.  Democracy Day this year is on Thursday, June 4th at 6 pm (held in Council Chambers at CH City Hall.) 

  - Offer to chair the Nominating Committee for next year.  This is primarily an organizational role, going over the list of members, dividing the calls among the members of the team, and helping provide some clarity and inspiration.  We have the team - we just need a leader! and the work doesn't start until mid-January or February so surely you will have lots of time available by then.  ;-)

 

To sign up for the parade, or democracy day, or the nominating committee, just email me (Wendy) at Heights@lwvgreatercleveland.org.

- A general thank you to everyone who has stepped up to uphold our democracy - to those who worked at the polls, or helped get people to the polls, or served as poll watchers, or provided information to their fellow citizens about the election and the value of voting in a primary election and shared information about Vote411 and the recorded candidate forums!  One of the principle reasons we belong to League is for the information it gives us access to, and one of the principle benefits of our membership is being able to share that information with others.  We are greatly valued in the community for our knowledge and our engagement.

 

And a special thanks to our School Board Observers - Paula Goodwin and Eefje Kolkman, and our Library Board Observers - Judith Beeler and Betsy Tracy, who helped us to understand what is  happening in both entities.  The primary message is that they are facing funding cuts that are severe to draconian, and yet are doing wonderful work.  Judith highlighted the technology programs that are available in the building across the street from the main library, including digitizing photos and videos, and doing graphic designs. (They also taught Judith how to work in Excel, which enabled her then to oversee our member directory!)  Betsy and Judith also noted that the schools offer after-school programs for students, at no cost, and they welcome the students and provide programs and learning opportunities. 

 

The school system is under dire threat thanks to funding cuts from the State and the growing use of vouchers to pay students to attend private schools instead of the public school.  Interesting notes - 90% of state voucher money is going to religious schools - Heights has lost $26 million to vouchers over the past 3 years. 75% of school funding comes from property taxes, but Ohio has now begun reducing their state payment to offset the increases in property taxes.  On the positive side, Superintendent Kirby remains, Angele Latham is valued as the new head of finance, they are placing MetroHealth clinics in the schools to provide direct health care, there are now gifted programs in every school, and the number of career prep and college prep programs are increasing.

 

NOTE: Paula is looking at making another large poster (like we did for constitutional violations) of the ways in which the state legislature is impacting public schools  If this sounds like an interesting project to help with, send an email to Heights@lwvgreatercleveland.org.

 

Some of you are aware of the "Card Campaign" which was started last year to provide informational handouts to voters. They have just issued two new cards - on our Constitutional Amendment Rights and our Voting Rights.  These cards are designed to be printed out or shared in social media.

 

 

WE HAVE A NEW DIRECTORY!!! With thanks to Judith Beeler who offered to learn how to use Excel and take over this project, and with gratitude to Janice who just couldn't believe we didn't have a directory in the first place and figured out how to do the first one.

 

Going forward the directory will be updated quarterly and posted to our chapter's website at www.lwvgreatercleveland.org (and emailed to new members.)  The link will be included in the email and can be downloaded by members (which means you need to log in to the website.)

 

This remains a somewhat manual process since the switch to paying memberships through LWVUS, so please make sure you are included in this roster if you are a Heights member (the newsletter does go out to a few people who are not in our chapter), and please make sure the details are correct.  At this point we only have cellphone numbers so if you entered your phone number in the home phone box we can't see it currently.  If your phone number is not listed, and you would like it to be, please, click HERE and let me know what needs to be updated/added/deleted.

 

CHUH Chapter Leadership