LWVFL Convention Jun 2-4
Cathy Swerdlow –
Attending the LWVFL State Convention was an amazing and informative experience for me. The sessions were all interesting and educational and I learned a great deal. I also gained insight into how our League functions within the state and national League. Most importantly I benefitted from the informal networking – these men and women were welcoming, involved, and interested in sharing what they were doing and brainstorming on solutions to common issues. I met Leaguers from the Lower Keys to Tallahassee and Jacksonville and all points in between!
Katie, Val and Rebekah have shared more detailed information from the sessions.
Valerie Schulz –
I have been to many conventions for my profession, but this was my first with the LWV. First, I enjoyed the spirit of happiness and sense of humor emanating from the podium! Getting to know several LWVSC members better was a plus. What I appreciated most was learning more about returning citizens, how the League operates, and of course, representing the National Popular Vote group of which I am part!
Katie Murphy –
I was delighted to attend my first LWVFL Convention and registered to attend the workshops on Friday and Saturday. The five of us from LWVSC in attendance coordinated to have multiple workshops covered.
I attended:
National Popular Vote: Kathleen Crampton, Floridians for National Popular Vote
The NPV will require all states who join to honor the popular vote with all their votes when
there are enough state electoral votes committed to the NPV. This ensures that the popular
vote candidate wins. Not all votes are equal currently -for example,
WY, VT, ND, RI, SD, NH, MT, DE, AK
together have 30 electoral votes representing 8,042,628 voters
Florida has 30 electoral votes representing 21,477, 437 Voters
Currently there are 16 states and DC with 205 votes. There are only 65 more votes needed.
Targeting Young Adults: Young Adult Steering Committee, Kay Hoveskeland, Kathy Sheerin, Kylie Smith
How to reach out to the youth in the local educational programs to get involved in LWV. What
they can do as a group. How to include them in our local units.
How to Be Non-Partisan in a Political Environment: Pat Drago, Debbie Chandler
Reminders of the need for being issue oriented and non-partisan, and the rules that must be
followed .
Returning Citizens with Kelly Williams and Debbie Chandler
PeopleofPurpose.org, Brennan Center for Justice https://www.brennancenter.org/
Great explanations of the attorney network, speaker bureau, tool kit
Ask: units distribute Returning Citizens information to the communities,
write 100.000postcards to RC’s
Speakers Bureau presentations
Work with local reentry programs
Implementing LWVFL’s Education Program Jill Lewis-Spector
What we worked on this year and ongoing issues. Alliances with other organizations.
Continuous contact with elected officials
Young Adult Innovator Panel
What we can do to harness youth energy, skills, and population.
I also attended all three Plenary sessions and saw our State League in action!
Rebekah Richey -
What a special treat it was to be able to attend the 39th Biennial 2023 Convention of LWV of Florida. Empowering Voters, Defending Democracy is our Mission. We envision a democracy where every person has the desire, the right, the knowledge and the confidence to participate is our Vision. The League of Women Voters of Florida is an organization fully committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion in principle and in practice. I love that since DEI is being outlawed in our state as we know.
We have many reasons to be proud of our new president, Cathy Swerdlow, Cathy is not only our LWVSC Gun Violence Prevention Chair, but also the chair of the state’s committee. Cathy’s workshop was very popular. She motivated us to want to help promote efforts to remind everyone who has a gun to safely store it so that gun deaths can be lowered. We all are aware of how many children (birth to age 17) die by guns, often in accidents.
We missed our President of the state LWV, Cecile Scoon, who was unable to attend in person but spoke with us via video connection. However, her presence was felt in so many ways. I was able to attend the Returning Citizens workshop where Neil Voltz from the Florida Restoration Rights Coalition dropped in to thank the League for the work we have done to help in restoring voting rights through the passage of Amendment 4. We still must work to ensure that all those who have “done their time” should be welcomed back into their communities and should be able to vote. Cecile, as a Civil Rights Attorney, has trained about 1,000 volunteer attorneys who are available to assist returning citizens with paying fees and having their rights restored which means they can register to vote. In this workshop, we were encouraged to continue to write postcards to returning citizens whose names we will receive from FRRC. Pat Southward has helped us begin this process and I feel motivated to want to come alongside Pat to write those cards. I hope others will join us soon. We discussed safe ways to help returning citizens and others to register to vote and actually vote.
As a member of the Education Committee I have often attended the State Education Action Committee meetings, chaired by Jill Lewis-Spector, Ed.D who is also our 2nd Vice President of the State League. In Jill’s workshop she gave an overview of the legislation which has been passed in the last session such as the Don’t Say Gay bill, efforts to ban books, and the increased drive to make school boards partisan. She also shared the trifold the committee has created to compare public, charter and private schools and encouraged us as local leagues to have it printed in Spanish as well as English and to distribute it everywhere —libraries, school board meetings, faith communities, league and other community events. I hope that we will be doing that very thing in our community.
I am grateful to have been able to attend this convention and highly recommend that others who may have not ever attended consider doing this in the future. Not only does it provide an opportunity to get to know our own members who also attend, but to meet leaders and dynamic members from all over the state.
Lynn Fenster –
Overall, LWVFL Convention was about reconnecting with old friends, meeting new people, and learning. Many of the workshops were excellent and full of lots of information. We heard from a panel about the banning of books and actions that organizations in Florida are taking to fight this.
One of the most interesting new things I learned about is a Leadership Class that Collier County LWV is doing with up-and-coming members. Their class meets for several months to learn about leadership in general, leadership in the League, and about how their county operates. I have been inspired to try to adapt it for our League, so look for more information about that in the future!