THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
The Annual Meeting is a time for looking back over the League year. I have been reminiscing as I prepared this issue of the VOTER and tried to document our many accomplishments and the multitude of people who contributed and participated in the activities of our League. I also reviewed my own League year.
I have been a participant in the Voters Rights Coalition for two years and our League's representative this last year. The coalition was originally formed in response to Latino voters' complaints of rudeness, intimidation, and misinformation at the polls. The Elections Department has been very cooperative in working with us and has instituted the following (and more) in response to input from the Coalition:
- Spanish instruction inserts for absentee Spanish ballots (the instructions had been only on the envelope in English)
- A substantial increase in the number of Spanish public service announcements on radio and television and in the newspapers
- Increased numbers of bilingual poll workers at precincts with a high Latino voter turnout
- An exit survey at those precincts
- Poll worker training to include specific instructions about dealing with new or inexperienced voters as well as some basic manners reminders
As a consequence of the above (and the new poll worker training), there were fewer complaints and no emergency police-calling episodes in the most recent election. With the exception of my work with Habitat for Humanity several years ago, I have never been involved in an activity where there were such tangible results and where I felt I had made such a difference.
Our League is justifiably renowned for our active and dedicated Natural Resources Committee. They take action by applying League positions in order to preserve and protect our beautiful peninsula.
But there are also members with different interests: Our Government Director is pursuing local campaign finance reform; I and other members are interested in voters service year-round; Our Social Policy DIrector conducted an education finance study this year; Our Housing Chair is our "housing hawk." But our League is sometimes in a Catch-22 situation. It can be difficult to attract and keep members who are interested in a wide variety of issues when we don't always have enough members to conduct studies, participate in activities, or focus resources on those issues.
So our Annual Meeting should also be opportunity for us to look forward to the upcoming League year. We have added many new members this year that we want to include in our activities. All of them had personal reasons for joining the League and issues that interest them. I hope that we continue to encourage and support each other in pursuit of a wide variety of issues.
Nancy Green and I thank you for your support this last year. We "stepped into the breach" last fall and gratefully pass the baton to the incoming president.
Jeanne Melaugh, Copresident
