The President's Message
Dennis Mar, President, League of Women Voters of the Monterey Peninsula
Study Process
Sometimes you hear that "it’s all about the process" when it comes to League. This September, League process will be on full display.
At the May Annual Meeting, the membership voted to include a local study of incorporation criteria as a project this year. The question is "How should a potential incorporation be evaluated?" What questions would give the League the necessary answers to judge the positives and negatives of the creation of a new town?
The study committee, chaired by our VProgram Director, has spent the summer working hard. The committee had to learn about constraints imposed by state and county regulations. They read what others have said about the necessary conditions for a viable incorporated city.
This process is very wonkish (characterized by studying "a subject or issue in an excessively assiduous and thorough manner"). But it is this delving into the details that supports the League’s credibility.
Serving on a study committee is an activity every League member should think of doing. Working on a League study is a good way to apply your reading and writing skills. You don’t need to be an expert in the subject. But you will be when the study is over.
The next step in the process is to take consensus on the study results. League members will question and discuss until a consensus emerges. From this process, the League obtains a local position. We encourage everyone to attend the consensus meeting at noon on September 16 at Mariposa Hall, Monterey.
However, before the consensus meeting, League members will see how well the list of incorporation questions can frame the debate. At the September 9 general meeting, speakers for and against the proposed Carmel Valley incorporation will be asked to frame their arguments according to the criteria developed by the study committee. League members can learn about the proposed incorporation and judge how well the criteria can bring out the relevant facts.
Summer Vacation
This summer I visited the Iowa roots of Carrie Chapman Catt, the founder of the League of Women Voters. I attended a statistics conference (not as lively as League meetings!) at Iowa State Univ. in Ames, Iowa. Iowa State has a building named for her. Mrs. Catt was graduated from that school in 1890. She was the valedictorian and only woman in her graduating class. In 1921, she was invited to be the first woman to deliver a commencement address.
I also drove to Charles City, Iowa, population 7,812 and midway between Minneapolis and Des Moines. I visited the farmstead where Carrie Lane grew up. The house is still in the country and on a gravel road. It is preserved as a museum, mostly devoted to the struggle for women’s suffrage and the 19th amendment. Oddly, the League is only mentioned in passing. I asked the docent if there was a local League. Alas, she said there had been a local League but it is no longer active.
