League of Women Voters

Co-Presidents' Message

May 2008

Two busy League months coming up -- May and June: Prelude to a busy six months.

Check the calendar for events and your needed responses to some of the activities. We especially want to encourage our new members to attend the 10 am board meeting at Helen Coffey's home on May 14.  We will be joined for lunch at noon by the LA County League board members who will be on retreat at the Mary & Joseph Retreat Center for two days.  Nancy Mahr is the new County president so the event is an opportunity to meet some terrific League leaders from our 12 County Leagues.

The Land Use Committee has worked hard to put together a splendid program for promoting "Green Living" on the Peninsula, in cooperation with AAUW, the Palos Verdes Library District, and the California Energy Center. Our local high school students (and their teacher) will be working with us on a display and presentation.  Our community needs to work on every aspect of green living in order to continue to make PV a special place to reside.  Please support this activity the evening of May 13, as well as taking part in Thursday the 24th of April's go-see trip to Santa Monic, not to enjoy the surf, but to see how one of California's most conscientious cities has made "green" a password to changing the citys streets, buildings, and general lifestyle.

We need to find special people to continue in jobs long-served by retiring (or in one case, moving out of the area) League members.  Dealing with our local public agencies, Social Policy, is a position with an interest for anyone who cares about our community at large.  One of Leagues ongoing concerns is the statewide support of Service Planning Areas (SPA) and their agencies.  Our local SPA-8 will meet on Saturday, April 28 at the Carson Community Center.  Call Judith for information (318-833-5864) for details on the program if you are interested.

Also needed is a Tri-League representative.  This group (Beach Cities, Torrance, and PV Leagues) meets four times a yea, jointly planning events that are centered around mutual concerns of the South Bay, including a lasagna supper and a summer luncheon.  Judith has worked with this group for the last year (stepping in when longtime representative Rosemary Caterson was unable to continue; we miss her contribution, but she still comes to some events).  We would like to find someone to assist Judith, eventually stepping into the representative position.

Please check the calendar for other events.  Prime, of course, is the June 7 local convention.  We would like to meet all of our new members at one of these events between now and June 7! Please join us in body as well as spirit!

Also, because of the budget crisis and its horrific effect on our schools, we can't help but note the local effort to raise funds specifically to keep the Peninsula's teachers employed.  Although League deals with issues on a governmental level, this effort is clearly of much importance to our community.  While this is only a stop-gap measure, our schools are outstanding and certainly the League is supportive of keeping our schools (and all schools) at their best .
Judith and Linda, Co-Presidents