LWVNM Board Meeting Minutes, May 19, 2018
MCM Elegante Hotel, Albuquerque
The meeting was called to order at 2:30.
Present:
Judy Williams
Akkana Peck
Barbara Calef
Diane Goldfarb
Dick Mason
Meredith Machen
Leah Ingraham
Kim Sorenson
Becky Shankland
Janet Blair
Karen Wentworth
Review and Approval of Agenda
Approval of March Minutes: The minutes were approved with a few minor corrections.
Candidate Forums, Voter Guides : Diane Goldfarb will be having a conference call the first week in June with all the state League Voter Guide editors.
Program:
Internet neutrality position consideration : Barbara moved to adopt the proposed Net Neutrality, High-Speed Internet, Public Access Media position, through concurrence with the LWV CT. Approved.
Election Procedures position changes: Meredith Machen had recommended that we drop the reference to "in the US House of Representatives" in our election position. At the March meeting, the board members had asked why it was limited to the House; Machen has tried to find out why and wasn't able to find any discussion of it. Machen moved to strike that part. Approved.
Machen also suggested that "Ranked choice voting (RCV) for all statewide elections" be rewritten without “statewide” so it could apply to local elections too. Akkana Peck so moved. Approved.
Machen's proposal prior to the March 31 board meeting had included several other items which had been postponed for further discussion:
Supporting automatic voter registration and same-day registration: obviously we already support this, but the addition would make it doubly clear. Machen moved that we adopt that. Approved.
"Systems that improve the election experience and provide ease of ballot access, including vote by mail supplemented by secure ballot dropbox and accessible voting centers." Concurrence with LWVOR (and also WA, CA but OR has the best language). Machen moved we add this language to our position. Approved.
LWVUS Convention in Chicago, June 28-July 1
The state delegates will be Judy Williams, Janet Blair, and Laura Atkins.
Major issues: Williams will send Amy Hjerstedt some questions and concerns she has. LWVUS is trying to narrow the scope of what LWV works for, and some people feel they're denigrating what the local Leagues do.
LWVUS wants to recruit more and younger people, and to expand their membership categories (adding new categories like "supporter"), and they're proposing that all members join through LWVUS via a button on the national website; LWVUS would handle the money and send some undisclosed amount of money down to the local leagues. Common Cause does things this way; there's some disagreement as to how well this works for Common Cause NM.
Most board members felt that membership would drop significantly if we did things this way: there would be no incentive for local Leagues to recruit members, and members wouldn't feel they were part of the local League.
Dick Mason suggested that National could do other things to help local Leagues, like approaching large corporations to solicit donations for Voter Guides.
There was discussion of Vote411 and the problems with it. Williams encourages everyone to send her their thoughts on the various national changes and how they might affect us.
National also wants to get the state Leagues to manage the administrative burden of the local Leagues. Obviously, that wouldn’t work here in New Mexico since the state League doesn't have staff as do some state Leagues.
Barbara Calef will send her summary of objections to the transition document to the board.
We need to keep our comments positive, not just harp on what's wrong with the document.
Becky Shankland suggested wording like, "We want local Leagues to feel empowered. This transformation plan will not do that." Dick Mason offered, "We want national to make things easier for the local Leagues." We'll be continuing the discussion online.
Draft: LWVNM Board Calendar 2018-19
2018
May 19 LWVNM Board meeting following ConventionJune 5 Primary election
July 21 LWVNM Board meeting, Albuquerque, 10:30 – 2:30
July 25 Deadline for Summer La Palabra
Sept 8 LWVNM Board meeting, Santa Fe, 11:00 – 3:00
Sept 11 Deadline for Fall La Palabra
Nov 6 Election Day
Nov 17 LWVNM Board meeting, 11:00 –3:00, Socorro????
Dec 11 Deadline for Winter La Palabra
Dec 8 LWVNM Lobbying Workshop, Santa Fe, Capitol Rm 322
2019
Jan 19 LWVNM Board meeting, Albuquerque???? 11:00 – 3:00Feb. 6 Legislative Reception, 5:30-7:30, Garrett's Desert Inn
Feb. 7 League Day at the Legislature, NM Land Office?
Mar 30 LWVNM Board meeting, Santa Fe (Las Cruces?) 11:00 – 3:00
April ???? Deadline for Spring La Palabra
May 18 LWVNM Convention - Los Alamos???; Board meeting directly following Convention
LWVNM Board meetings are on Saturdays and are open to all members. To add agenda items, please write to president@lwvnm.org or contact Judy Williams.
Planning / Directions to the Board
Judy Williams will compile the "Directions to the Board" some delegates left after the council.
Meredith Machen passed around a set of cards celebrating the LWV centennial; we could have some customized as a fundraiser, or to use when thanking donors or lobbying legislators. The consensus was that we should not purchase the cards.
Meeting adjourned at 3:35