Membership: We continued to welcome new members throughout the year.
Voter Service: The Westlake-North Olmsted Chapter hosted many candidate forums and events in the fall of 2021, including an in-person meet & greet for uncontested races in Westlake. Utilizing Zoom, we hosted five candidate forums for city council and mayoral races in Westlake and North Olmsted. In total, our candidate forums had 1,733 views on YouTube.
Our chapter also hosted a virtual information forum on the proposed North Olmsted School Bond and Levy in spring of 2022, providing North Olmsted voters with an opportunity to ask questions of the North Olmsted superintendent. The forum was co-sponsored by the North Olmsted PTA Council. Although not many attended the forum live, the recording had 162 views on YouTube.
Under the leadership of Voter Service Chair Bruce Robinson, our members again registered voters at naturalization ceremonies throughout the fall of 2021 and spring of 2022, registering hundreds of new citizens.
Advocacy: In November 2021, chapter members met in-person to engage in a Zoom presentation with a representative from Fair Districts Ohio on the status of redistricting. Following the presentation, members wrote postcards to members of the Ohio General Assembly and the Ohio Redistricting Commission, urging them to abide by the reforms overwhelmingly approved by voters. The event was well-attended and our members were excited to be involved in advocating for fair maps.
In May 2022, our chapter, along with the other westside chapters, hosted a postcard writing advocacy event on education issues, including school funding and pending legislation, featuring local education experts. Throughout the year, one of our members, Chris Glassburn, actively worked on the state level to draw fair maps for consideration by the Ohio Redistricting Commission.
Chapter Events and Outreach: In the fall of 2021 and spring 2022, our chapter’s outreach included published position statements regarding school district ballot issues. Also, a member submitted personal articles and letters to the editor in local newspapers with information about redistricting and about the May Primary Election. For Halloween 2021, members staffed a candy booth at North Olmsted’s Trek to the Rec, and, in addition to distributing candy, provided residents with information on VOTE411.
In February 2022, we had a book discussion of On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century. Members had lively discussion on the state of our democracy, especially with the changes being made to our voting laws in Ohio and throughout the country.
In March 2022, we had a chapter showing and discussion of the documentary My Name is Pauli Murray about the life and ideas of Pauli Murray, a non-binary Black lawyer, activist, and poet who influenced both Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Thurgood Marshall.
In April 2022, we promoted the Cleveland International Film Festival (CIFF) film sponsored by LWVGC, The Youth Governor. We also had members join the YWCA Stand Against Racism Challenge.
We closed the year with an in-person outdoor Annual Meeting on May 24, 2022.
Finally, we would like to thank our Leadership Team, particularly Bruce Robinson and Gale Husney (Voter Service), Janice Patterson and Dori Olivos (Outreach), Jean Seasholtz (Treasur- er), Tina Gangidine, Diane Ahlers, and Carole Koscielny (Membership), and Megan Murphy. Without their hard work and dedication, we would not have been able to do all of the great work we have done over the past year.
Kathy Woolner and Nadia Zaiem Chapter Co-Chairs
This report written for the 8th LWVGC Annual Meeting Booklet.