Dear LWVOR Members and friends,
Welcome to November, in the election home stretch for one more week! Please spread the word to help to GOTV! Get Out The VOTE!
After the election, please thank all of our election workers, volunteers, and candidates who ran for office! Kudos to our Voter Service!
We all care about the election outcome. Our Action Committee is getting ready for 2023, aware that legislative committees will look different with many incumbents choosing not to return.
Let’s share Thanksgiving gratitude and pace ourselves, balancing virtual and in-person outreach. My best to all of you, with gratitude for your efforts!
Yours In League!
Becky Gladstone
LWVOR President
ONE WEEK BEFORE ELECTION DAY...
THIS MONTH…
VOTER SERVICE
For this final election 2022 week, share League Election Resources, for comprehensive online voting information, events and videos! Remember, Vote411.org, represents candidate and measures in all Oregon counties, about 10 times more information than in our print guides.
We appreciate all members’ work, especially Spectacular Elections’ efforts!
Local Leagues! I see google alerts *every day* for League work around Oregon!
Voter Service Chair Peggy Bengry and her Team, the Local League Reps
The Voters’ Guide production team: Vote411 data collectors, ballot measure researchers, editors, and Speakers’ Bureau!
LWVOR Staff for candidate Vote411 support and fielding public questions
Our long-time friends at the Oregon State Library, Talking Book and Braille Library, for sharing with their registered clients
LWVOR ON OUR ELECTIONS
The Secretary of State Press Office has called on the League, as a “Trusted Voice," to add our strength for this election:
Voter Registration (Deadline Oct 18th)
GOTV (Get Out The VOTE!) Ask your local League how you can help!
Election Integrity (Boost understanding, share our Oregon VBM Best Practices page!)
INFORM VOTERS!
We have the most secure elections in history. Oregon has a solid track record of verified voting with high voter turnout using our secure and popular Vote-by-Mail ballots. Find voting info you need at Vote411.org, on our Elections Resources page, and use the SoS Dropbox Locator to deliver your ballot!
See Oregon Vote-by-Mail Best Practices, explaining VBM in Oregon, with County Elections offices video guided tours, and links to procedures’ manuals and FAQs.
$300 PR GRANTS!
Have you heard or seen League election PR locally? LWVOR has continued the $300 PR local League press visibility grants, began when COVID lockdowns cut our in-person outreach. Now with virtual hybrid events saving commuting time and cost, and workplace culture changing, we want to hear how these are working around Oregon. Please let us know!
ELECTION ADVOCACY
LWVOR Action is anticipating 2023 legislation, to improve statute in ways we didn’t foresee last spring, to protect voters, drop boxes, and elections offices from deluges of public records requests. Share your experiences? How are events going? Etc.?
YOUTH OUTREACH
LWV Convention 2022 delegates Diana DeMaria, Mimi Alkire, Chris Cobey and Becky Gladstone have revitalized the OSME as a vigorous youth outreach first step. This year’s focus is on future improvements and expansion toward developing year-round relationships with our local schools.
This from Diana to the board:
Thank you for the honor of serving as Off-Board Youth Outreach Chair for LWVOR and all Oregon Leagues and Units. If you would like to be on the LWVOR Youth Outreach committee, you are very welcome! Email dianademaria4@outlook.com, more after the election.
Youth Outreach is not likely to be a traditional committee, in terms of scheduled meetings. Committee members will need a cell phone and a Google account. Conversations will proceed via a cell phone and WhatsApp group, collaboration via Google Docs. Email will only be used for long or text substance and photos. Although we welcome skillsets, there is no workload expectation. Joining this committee for information only is completely acceptable. I learn something every single day, and just yesterday sent my first press release!
Sharing knowledge and building connections is the primary committee goal. For instance, Y-Essay contests (Y= Yes, Youth & Why?) ran in October in LWV Deschutes County of Clackamas County, with very generous awards. See the LWVOR Oregon Student Mock Election page.
The Youth Outreach Committee is beginning with these goals as an initial wishlist:
Encourage LWVOR Child Care Study to expand focus on 20-30 something parents, our best new membership source, so affected by childcare costs and the vast burden of childcare falling on women during the pandemic to detriment of long-term career decisions.
Under the League Resources Tab, create a Youth Outreach Resource with online toolkits, timelines around school calendars up to and including young adult families with young children, a work in progress, suggestions are welcome.
Work with LWVOR Staff to improve communication and resources for all Oregon Leagues and Units - the present Google Group format and member-only sign-in Who's Who resource which may not get updated quickly due to slow or absent local league submission on the LWVOR site and neither is user-friendly for finding historical info resources and does not foster inclusive teamwork for comprehensive contact information and collaboration
The LWVOR staff is exceptional, and Abigail (Abby), Rae and Sarah can perhaps assist in supporting ideas to present to LWVOR Board for approval
Mentoring youth-led leadership to become youth-led League partners. See https://www.mainestudentsvote.org/
Oregon Youth Organizations and Clubs relationship-building guidance for state and local leagues in communities
Perhaps Youth Outreach Workshops via Zoom for specific skills and successful strategy sharing
OSME - Oregon Student Mock Elections
The LWVOR 2022 Oregon Student Mock Election results are in! Hearty Congratulations and thank you to Oregon teachers and students who participated from all around Oregon!
Thank you to Governor Kate Brown,
Secretary of State Shemia Fagan, President of the Oregon Association of County Clerks, Tim Scott, for endorsements. Thanks to the Oregon Dept. of Education Social Science Specialist, Amit Kobrowski, for outreach support, continuing a decades long Mock Election working relationship.
LWV, CLIMATE CHANGE, AND THE U.N.!
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, elevated LWVUS to Observer Status!
Congratulations to LWVUS, with direct personal thanks to LWVOR First VP, Robin Tokmakian! The IPCC roster has added LWVUS to their NGO (non-governmental organizations) roster. LWVOR is proud to have Robin working at the international level!
We look forward to COP27 news in Egypt, November 13-14, the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
This from Robin Tokmakian, LWVUS UN Observer for Climate: Yea!! LWVUS now has observer status at IPCC.
RECOMMENDED READING
Guess what! Our Recommended Reading this month is our Voters’ Guide and Resources, with links throughout this newsletter. Treat yourself and look at our Civics ED Curriculum for the Oregon Student Mock Election
MEMBERSHIP FORMS
Here’s to the pumpkin pie of this newsletter, a little extra! Thank you to our Washington CO Unit for asking for Membership brochures! And Thank you to Staff, who put together a timely handout that was emailed as a PDF and printed locally for their event! It highlighted news that is already outdated but was up-to-the-minute for the purpose! Let’s talk about this!
Thank you! I am so very grateful for so many of us contributing to Making Democracy Work! Your League work is making big differences. Just look at what we are accomplishing together! Don’t minimize the value of being informed and thinking carefully about ballot choices.
Becky Gladstone
President, LWVOR
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