September 2003 Home   Newsletters

October 2003

December 2003

President's Message
Action Report (Jackie Parnell)
Primary Urban Center Development Plan (PUCDP) (Charles Carole)
Council 2003 (Malia Schwartz)
Have You Faced a Closed Door? Fair Housing... It's the Law! ( Legal Aid Society)
Action Alert - Action Needed Now to Support Clean Air ( LWV - US)

COUNCIL 2003

LWV National Council 2003 took place June 7-9 in downtown Washington DC.

In addition to plenary sessions on the 7`h and 8", there were workshops and other sessions on HAVA (Help American Vote Act), Judicial Independence, Media Training, an Update on Presidential Selection and various opportunities to network with members from other states. There was considerable concern at plenary regarding threats to civil rights (i.e. Patriot Act/ Homeland Security), Title IX, the environment (Clean Air, Global Warming, Oil Drilling in the Arctic Wildlands), health issues (lack of access and reproductive choice).

National has been involved in numerous Voter Outreach projects, many of which have received external funding. National produced a booklet entitled Navigating Election Day and is publishing Choosing the President: A Citizen's Guide to the Electoral Process which is expected to arrive soon - I bought and will place copies in our local league office and Kapolei Library. Voter information projects also include "Smack Down the Vote. Get Out the Vote (GOTO) involves a Youth Vote Coalition and Take A Friend to Vote.

As an official NGO, we have an observer at the UN and are involved in various international activities alone and in coalition with other US groups; if you plan to be in New York, you can arrange to attend the Thursday briefings at the UN if you give LWVUS (national) two weeks notice.

The Sunday night dinner speaker was Justice Sandra Day O'Connor; she was scheduled to speak on her new book (The Majesty of the Law: Reflections of a Supreme Court Justice), but instead spoke about the history of the suffrage movement - as if the LWV attendees were not already aware of it!

Monday some of us visited the US State Department; we had lunch and received a presentation from one of the staff on the "situation" in Iraq.

Financial reports, brochures and other materials will be stored in the Honolulu office.

Convention 2004 will take place June 1 I15 again in Washington DC. Consider attending this opportunity to network with League members from across the country.

Malia Schwarz

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