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PLANNING MEETINGS FOR 2006-2007

Members are urged to suggest topics for general meetings in the upcoming season. If you have a suggestion for a subject or would like to recommend a speaker, please contact a member of the Board before August 27.

Peg La Point
Program VP

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Membership in the League of Women Voters is $50 for an individual member for the period June 1, 2006 through August 31, 2007. Household memberships are $50 for the first member and $25 for each additional member residing at the same address. Student memberships are $20. Send a check payable to the League of Women Voters of Denton to P.O. Box 424945 TWU Station, Denton, TX 76204.

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LIBRARY FUNDING CONSENSUS REACHED

At its meeting on June 25 the Board of Directors approved the consensus statement on the Funding of the Denton Public Libraries. The following statement would become part of the Municipal Services position in local Program. The second paragraph would be expanded from “Library services should be provided for all municipal residents without charge."

“Services of the Denton Public Libraries (DPL) should be available to all who wish to use them on site, access them electronically, or check out materials, subject only to the number and kinds of materials that can be checked out of the library at any one time.

Adequate funding for the DPL should be provided by governmental bodies representing the library patrons who utilize these services, i.e., the City of Denton and the Denton County Commissioners Court. Funds from these resources are preferable to levying fees on individual families who wish to check out library materials. The amount that each governmental entity provides should be negotiated by the city and the county based on the number of library patrons from each entity’s jurisdiction.

Eligibility for funding should not be tied to imposing filters on library computers. Software filters that prevent full access to the Internet are censorship and unacceptable according to the American Library Association’s ‘Library Bill of Rights,’ which has been adopted by the DPL and its Board of Trustees.”

Sondra and Ken Ferstl
Study Co-chairs

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PRESIDENT’S PODIUM

If you attended Annual Meeting, you know we had a great time. If you missed it, here are a few highlights. It was held April 29 with 21 members present. Linnie McAdams was thanked for making arrangements, tellers were Dale Conway and Duane Kraeger, and Parliamentarian was Dorothy Adkins.

All board members were thanked for all their hard work this year. Jean Aboul-Ela was recognized as the only member going off board. Sondra Ferstl will be changing hats from Community Relations Vice President to Director. We have one vacancy, Community Relations VP.

Proposed budget and dues of $50 per member, $25 for each additional member at the same address and $20 for student membership were adopted. The proposed concurrence on Domestic Violence and our current local program as listed in your membership handbook were adopted.

Sondra Ferstl was the first recipient of the Gladys Barstis Award. Gladys served on state boards in California, Louisiana and Texas and was a walking League encyclopedia. Since Sondra served in so many capacities this past year, it was a fitting recognition of her outstanding service to LWV-Denton. Kevin Carr who keeps our website up-to-date, received the LOLITS which was decorated by Marilyn Smith.

Peg La Point introduced our guest speaker, Dr. David McEntire.

Sondra and I were delegates to LWV-TX convention in Corpus Christi. I’m sure you read the Spring 2006 Texas VOTER article on the meeting. The new state study on Testing in the Public Schools will be an interesting undertaking. At the workshop on How to Lobby, the speaker commented on what a bad reputation the word lobbyist has today. She suggested calling ourselves Public Interest Advocates. The importance of contacting our elected representatives was strongly emphasized. I hope you respond to all action alerts.

Sue Smith

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SPEAKER AT ANNUAL MEETING

Our speaker at the Annual Meeting was David McEntire from the Emergency Administration and Planning Department at the University of North Texas. Mr. McEntire outlined issues of the impact of natural disasters on women and gave us a rundown of various threats for which we should be prepared.

Peg La Point
Program VP

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NATIONAL CONVENTION MEETS IN THE MIDDLE

Minneapolis was the meeting place of this year’s National Convention of the League of Women Voters of the United States. I represented the Denton League at the event and was thrilled when the delegates adopted a three-year study of immigration policy as a new national program item.

Remember my musing at the holiday party during the discussion of possible new studies at the national level: “I wonder if other Leagues would be interested in studying immigration?” I offered to e-mail other Leagues in Texas and ask them. Several of the League presidents I contacted supported the idea, though we didn’t always agree on what aspects of immigration we wanted to study. This was in February, when there had been no immigration rallies or demonstrations to call attention to the topic.

Imagine my pleased surprise when LWVUS proposed a study of immigration policy as a new study, principally because the topic had been suggested by 74 local Leagues throughout the country. You don’t have to live in a border state to be aware of the subject these days!

In a parting with tradition, LWVUS recommended that we take three years to carry out the study rather than two. The delegates to National Convention, after some minor proposed amendments, voted for the original program recommendation.

Next step? A national committee, under the leadership of LWVUS national board member Carolie Mullan (a former president of LWV-Texas and LWV-Lubbock) will grapple with defining the scope of the study and preparing background materials for distribution to local Leagues.

Other highlights of National Convention: delegates passed the concurrence (proposed by LWV-Illinois) on abolition of the death penalty. We also heard about the new membership initiative, targeting women of retirement age (50-65) who are already civic minded. On the lighter side of things, it was a pleasure to hear Garrison Keillor as speaker at the last evening’s banquet. Apparently a Minneapolis League member who knows him got him to commit to speaking to the League two years ago. He appeared just as his film A Prairie Home Companion was being released.

Most League members don’t have the opportunity to feel that they are part of the national organization. In fact, about one-third of the delegates in Minneapolis were first-time attendees! But all of us, old pros or neophytes in League, came away from National Convention and our “Meeting in the Middle” with renewed enthusiasm for the League of Women Voters!

Sondra Ferstl
Director

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WHAT’S NEW IN VOTERS SERVICE

When 203 persons from 51 different countries became naturalized citizens on May 11, representatives from the League of Women Voters of Denton were present to hand out voter registration applications at the end of the ceremony.

Anne Starnes, Director of Opening Doors Immigration Services, invited the League to participate in the largest naturalization ceremony held to date in Denton.

Maggie Dodd, Ann MacMillan, and Sondra Ferstl were stationed at the League table inside the Gateway Center at the University of North Texas to hand out voter registration applications. While Sondra received applications from those new voters residing in Denton County, Maggie and Ann took cards and distributed them to the new citizens living in surrounding counties, giving instructions on the mailing address to use for the county elections administrator. Dorothy Adkins lent a hand to that effort when she realized how overwhelmed the others were with business! Thanks also to Dale Conway who planned to help register voters and provided red, white, and blue pennants to decorate the table and voter registration cards.

Sondra Ferstl
Director

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WRAPPING UP FINANCE DRIVE

We had a very successful finance drive this year. For the 2005-2006 budget we had estimated collecting $3,000 during the finance drive. It was broken down into two categories; $2,000 from members and $1,000 from non-members. We made the goal and then some, receiving a total of $4,065. There were 24 members who contributed $2,690, and 33 non-members who gave a total of $1,375.

We received $825 in contributions for the LWV-Texas Education Fund (for future educational expenditures of the Denton League). Eight people contributed to this fund; 6 members and 2 non-members.

Thank you to all who made this finance drive so successful. Also a special thank you to Marilyn Smith and Linnie McAdams for heading up this year’s finance drive.

Ann MacMillan
Treasurer