Local League Success Stories
2019 Edition
Read what other Leagues are doing – and if you see an idea you like,
contact that League for more info and inspiration!
LWV Bemidji is coming back! We had a wonderful revival year! We started meeting again formally in March 2019, and our biggest event so far has been a panel discussion on Women in Politics on November 12, 2019. We collaborated with Kitichgami Regional Library to host 5 women in local politics to speak about how a female presence in politics is changing the face of our republic for the benefit of everyone. Panelists included: Annette Johnson, Red Lake Tribal Treasurer; Rita Albrecht, Mayor of Bemidji; Dr. Faith Hensrud, BSU President; Kay Mack, Beltrami County Administrator; and Emilie Rivera, Bemidji City Council. We had about 60 people attend with local Gary Rozman leading the discussion. We look forward to 2020 as our anniversary of 100 years of equal votes for women with many more events planned to mark this momentous occasion.
LWV Bloomington sponsored the first Bloomington Civics Bee in cooperation with Bloomington Public Schools. Competition began in 7th grade civics classes in all three middle schools before moving on to school-wide Bees with top performers then moving on to the city-wide final competition. Finals were held at Bloomington Civic Plaza with the mayor asking the questions.
The first round of 40 questions was administered to roughly 700 seventh graders in their civics classes. Bloomington students all have Chromebooks, which meant the test could be administered online and scores were immediately available. The cooperation of the Bloomington schools was crucial in this first step.
Level II competition was held at each of the three middle schools. Depending on the school, anywhere from 15 to 20 top performers on the Level I test moved on to the after school oral Civics Bee. The top four winners in Level II at each school qualified for the Level III Finals.
The Level III Finals were held in the City Council Chambers at Bloomington Civic Plaza. Mayor Tim Busse asked the questions. After seven rounds of questions, the Civics Bee champion emerged along with 2nd and 3rd place winners. Questions for all levels of the Bee were written by League members. These volunteers spent more than 100 hours on everything, from writing questions and meeting with teachers, to proctoring and rule writing.
The Civics Bee was a lot of work but immensely satisfying. The students were delightful!
LWV Brainerd hosted a speaker from the National Loon Center, attended a presentation by a U.S. Census specialist, and discussed a wide variety of topics with Crow Wing County officials. Some press coverage:
Voter Registration
LWV Dakota County has an active voter registration program in the county high schools. In 2018 and 2019, we registered almost 1100 students at 12 high schools (Eagan, Apple Valley, School of Environmental Studies, Simley, Eastview, Rosemount, Lakeville North, Burnsville, Lakeville South, Sibley, St. Thomas Academy, and Farmington). Our biggest day was 123 registrations at the Burnsville High School Senior Fest! Our members contributed 173 volunteer hours to make these registration events successful!
Candidate Forums
We held a variety of candidate forums in 2018 and 2019. Our forums have covered elections for Dakota County Commissioner, West St. Paul Mayor, State House races, and school boards. We most recently hosted forums for two school board races: Hastings (ISD 200) and Eagan, Apple Valley, Rosemount (ISD 196). Both elections had an expansive field of candidates and turnout for the forums was large. The Hastings Forum was co-sponsored with the American Association of University Women-Hastings Branch.
Voter Registration at Burnsville High School Senior Fest
Hastings (ISD 200) School Board Candidate Forum
Our League did not have any elections in 2019. Instead, we focused on programs educating members and guests about a variety of issues – women in politics in Morocco and Tunisia was a highlight, along with a comprehensive overview of county government and the upcoming census. We also did a community service project in December. This year, members donated gift cards for products and services to at-risk youth in our school system. Work began in 2019 on the 2020 election with members creating three teams focused on voter registration, voter education and get out the vote.
LWV Duluth’s 21st Annual Citizens in Action was held on January 26, 2019, with the theme of “Voices Rising UP for Change.” Citizens in Action is one of the Duluth League’s largest events each year, offering local citizens the unique opportunity to network with local leaders. At this event, we had over 20 government leaders in attendance from the Minnesota State Legislature, the Duluth City Council, the St. Louis County Board, and the Duluth School Board. Participants also had the opportunity to network with our 30 co-sponsoring organizations.
The 2019 event was especially unique, focusing on five young women leaders from the Duluth Community. These young women shared information on their backgrounds, their paths to citizen involvement and ideas on how organizations can support involvement of new voices and individuals. These leaders provided inspiration and perspective that helps set the stage for our workshop theme of Voices Rising UP for Change. Workshops offered opportunities for participants to increase their citizen involvement through building partnerships and strategic collaborations. Each of our participating organizations gave examples of promoting advocacy and stressed the importance of relationship building. This event energized and motivated participants to become more active and engaged in their community, while offering them the opportunity to directly communicate with local leadership.
LWV Fillmore County had the traveling exhibit three times in three different locations around Fillmore County. The locations included Peterson, Lanesboro, and Chatfield, and each venue was different so a diverse crowd would be able to view the exhibit. We estimated that over 900 people viewed the exhibit. We included a showing of the ERA film to educate people about the importance of the Equal Rights Amendment. Pretty good for a county population of 22,000 people!
We also had our first Annual Meeting. About 60 people attended. Donna Rasmussun spoke on water quality. The picture is from this meeting (sorry for the really small image!).
LWV Minneapolis embarked on a League-wide exploration of how to deepen and strengthen our community engagement through incorporating principles of diversity, equity and inclusion. As follow up to the broad expansion of voter engagement in 2018, our board defined specific goals for 2019. By examining our communications, we're determining which communication vehicles reach target audiences and applying a DEI lens to that outreach.
We've connected to a wonderfully diverse community following an office move to a more central and accessible location at Sabathani Community Center. Our 2018 voter registration and GOTV events across Minneapolis made us aware of capacity for new League units in underserved parts of the city, specifically in North Minneapolis. We continue to develop units to bring new and diverse voices into the community conversations that are the foundation of all we do.
LWV MEPH was very active in our community in 2018 through 2019. Our group hosted nine candidate forums, four new voter education events, and 14 Voter Registration Drives, in addition to monthly public programs on policy topics. We were honored by making the front page of the Sun Sailor Newspaper’s “Year In Review 2019” edition, with a story highlighting LWV’s Centennial and our local community service.
In April 2018, our League joined forces with NUCAT (New Ulm Community Access Television) to produce a regular Community Forum which is broadcast on its network and also accessible on its YouTube platform. The dozens of topics have ranged from "Tobacco 21" to the "Turner Ladies" to the "Tree Commission's Battle against Ash Borer."
We also continue our regular work: registering voters, keeping up on local government affairs, organizing candidate forums and marching in the Bavarian Blast parade.
One significant highlight of LWV Northfield Cannon Falls was our local history project. In partnership with Serena Zabin, a board member and professor of history at Carleton College, a Carleton class constructed a website of our local history using local and state archives and incorporating interviews and other interactive elements in the website. At our annual meeting we launched the website and also heard fantastic League stories from members who shared insights from their time serving on the League board from the 60s and 70s. At the State Convention, we also presented our website which allowed others to imagine how they could do a similar project in their communities.
The photo is from our annual meeting. One of the speakers is sharing her files of records with the college students doing the website project. It was really fun to see all the intergenerational excitement during the day and be reminded of the obstacles that the League leaders faced in the last 60 years.
LWV Roseville has had an interesting and enriching one and a half years! Our League has been very blessed with the dedicated volunteers who have made this happen!
Let's begin with our Centennial celebration: On December 12, 2019, our League met at Gulden's Restaurant in Maplewood to celebrate 100 years. This involved the performance of the string ensemble TaTa Quartet, a buffet dinner, and a wonderful program by Madeline Hansen called "From Seneca Falls to South St. Paul.”
We did an update to our LWV Roseville history booklet, "Meddlers, Activists, and Watchdogs," and commissioned the state office to create a banner that showcases our local League’s history. We displayed it alongside the LWVMN Traveling Exhibit and at other events.
We also had social events by attending local live theater. On October 10, 2018, we went to the Park Square Theater to see a play about Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglas. A year later, we attended a performance about Gloria Steinem at the MN History Theater. And we attended the same theater in March 2020 to see a play called "Not For Sale" about neighborhood integration in our metro area.
Our Voter Services committee has been active, more in 2018 and a slower year in 2019. In 2018, we conducted six candidate forums in our 5-city area. In 2019, it was one forum for Falcon Heights City Council. We have done voter registrations in the area high schools, at local breweries, and senior citizen's complexes. Our League's famous Judy Stuthman and her LWV gang of volunteers has registered several thousand at the Naturalization ceremonies. We have done several programs following our intensive 2016-2018 Housing Study, collaborating with LWV St. Paul in a very well-attended program called "A Place For Everyone" in later 2019. Our other programs during this period include collaborations with Do Good Roseville on a panel called "Women In Politics," and our collaboration with them on our three-part Civic Literacy Series. Further programs in our League include issues like Healthcare, Better Angels Workshop, the ERA, Sustainability and the Environment, Elder Abuse, the upcoming Census, Gun Safety, and more.
Our Vice President, Barb Barany, has dedicated many, many hours to our work with the upcoming Census. She has included our League with the Ramsey County-St. Paul Complete Count Committee.
Finally, we have an Action/Advocacy committee that posts information on our website about the city council and city commission meetings times, locations, and agendas from each of our five cities. This committee then alerts our members of particular meetings to attend to promote the LWV positions. This committee has also created an environmental subcommittee to focus on all things environmental, which includes many passionate members. Our Roseville Area League has done well and is always dedicated to our philosophy of Democracy Working Well and Working For All!
LWV St. Paul is most proud of its board's efforts to organize a nonpartisan and fair debate on the trash referendum at SPNN. Despite some pushback, we had a very successful event with over 250 in attendance and over 1000 online views. We were able to skillfully take a heated and confusing issue and provide a safe and nonpartisan space for people to learn.
LWV St. Peter stayed busy all throughout 2019. With the help of our increased membership, we registered voters at a number of events in the St. Peter/Mankato area. We had special fun at Mankato’s Pridefest interacting with young people eager to vote. We hosted two local candidate forums, enjoyed viewing the traveling exhibit at Minnesota State University’s Mankato campus, and held a mock forum and election at St. Peter’s East African Elders Lunch. We also held a mail fundraiser that not only raised money, but brought in new members.
League members enjoyed the traveling exhibit
Legislative Interview with legislators from SD 19 A & B
Somali women and men voting in a mock election
Somali women and men voting in a mock election
October 2018
Held a Candidate Meet & Greet with over 150 general public attendees. Everyone came to meet the 33 city council, mayor, and MN House candidates and personally discuss issues that are of importance to them.
December 2018
Hosted Hennepin County Sheriff elect Dave Hutchinson to discuss his intended policy changes for the Sheriff's Department.
February 2019
Held the annual "Mayors Forum" where the mayors from our six communities answered questions regarding issues that affect their individual city as well as the South Tonka area.
July 2019
Held a public forum with Sheriff Dave Hutchinson presenting, and the community responded to issues affecting South Tonka and Hennepin County.
October 2019
Community Forum on Human Trafficking – Keeping Kids Safe in the Western Suburbs.
Voter Registration
We sponsored booths at the Excelsior Farmers Market to sign up students for voting using a QR code and instant registration.
LWV Wayzata Plymouth members contributed 1,508 volunteer hours to conduct fourteen candidate forums, which included Minnesota Senate, House seats, city mayors, city council races and school board forums with 550 in attendance, as well as voter registration events and voter registration training at two high schools for 256 new registrations.
Our members conducted Legislative interviews, observed city council meetings, attended rallies and marches, gave speeches at community events about LWV and the 19th Amendment, and held events on redistricting, ERA, census and the new Minnesota Presidential Primary.
In 2019, our 65th Anniversary, LWV Wayzata Plymouth increased its membership, welcomed new partnerships, student volunteers, and new opportunities for visibility and voter education in the community.
Our 65th Anniversary Annual Meeting in 2019
LWV members and friends in the James J. Hill Parade in Wayzata
Our March 2018 local study on Civics Education continues to pay dividends as the study authors (Lisa Larson and Mary Santi) lobbied for LWV Minnesota to adopt concurrence with a LWV Kentucky study at the 2019 State Convention. The same authors now use our local study and the state position to lobby for reforms to civics education at Minnesota Senate and House hearings.
Photo: Testifiers for Senate File 924 at the Capitol included two members of LWV White Bear Lake Area. Pictured from left are former Minnesota Supreme Court Associate Justice Paul Anderson, LWV White Bear Lake Area members Lisa Larson and Jessica Ellison, State Senator and Chair of the K-12 Education Committee Carla Nelson, and Learning Law and Democracy Foundation director Jennifer Bloom.
Top photo:
On September 9, 2019, LWV Willmar Area had a Centennial celebration featuring the LWV traveling exhibit, which honors the work of the Sufferagettes and Women's Right to Vote. Front to back: Jan Forkrud, Willmar League President; Laura Helmer, Minnesota LWV President; Michelle Witte, LWV Executive Director; Jessica Rohloff, local LWV member and LWV National Board member.
Bottom photo:
LWV Willmar Area founding and legacy members (left to right): Betty Schneider, Mary Jo Minter, JoAnne Wright, Dodie Davies and Mary Lindstrom. Each were honored with a biography board at the Centennial Event Open House on September 9, 2019.
The LWV WGCA October Sampler used the concept of “speed dating” to help move everyone between information tables in a fun and effective way. The materials, brochures, bookmarks and videos allowed our guests to learn a lot about the League, our activities, upcoming events and how to become involved.
Our Thanksgiving social was a time to share our gratitude and celebrate all our accomplishments and blessings. Our guest speaker, First Lady Gwen Walz, shared her background and passion for education and supporting prison inmates in furthering their education while incarcerated.
