Amherst League Consensus Meetings on Local Government

Members should recently have received a mailing with information about two Consensus Meetings, in which a proposed change to the LWVA position on the Structure of Town Government will be discussed (on Thursday, September 7 at 7 p.m. in Room 101 of the Bangs Center ) and final action will be taken on the proposed change (on Thursday, September 14 at 7 p.m. in the Glass Room of the Bangs Center.)

The mailing contains the change under discussion and pros and cons of the proposal. It is important to bring the mailing with you to the meetings. If by some chance you did not receive one, contact Kathy Campbell. 

Reminder: Only members can participate in consensus meetings. Note that the Amherst League plans to sponsor a forum and/or information sessions on the Charter proposal itself in January-March 2018.

The Book Sale Organizing Committee thanks all who made the sale a success: Cindy Asebrook, Martha Hanner, Adele Gladstone-Gilbert, Janet Williams, the Brubakers, Joann Griswold -- and the many members--and non-members, also-- who helped with pricing and sorting, worked on the sale days and showed up to finish dismantling the sale. The Committee and the LWVA owe a special thank you to Kathy Campbell, on whose organizing skills and willingness to spend countless hours at Fort River gym, doing whatever needed doing, the Book Sale has depended for two years.

Numbers are not yet final, but the Sale made enough money to keep dues at their current low rate-- and provided a service to the community by recycling thousands of fine books. 

Note:  Kathy Campbell's "Winding up the Book Sale," which will be printed in the Fall issue of the print Bulletin, is briefly summarized here.

Pictures from the last Sunday of the Sale

Still a lot of books ...

	Making choices is hard...

A League of Women Voters of Amherst delegation--Jackie Wolf, Leslie Nyman, Diana Stein, Joan Rabin, Barbara Pearson, Rosemary Kofler, Jane McGowan, and Anita Page--was one of many groups joining with Indivisible Northampton and the Pioneer Valley Women's March for a spirited health-care march and rally in Northampton July 29.  The event was organized in conjunction with similar protests in Washington DC and hundreds of other cities around the country under the banner of a coalition called Our Lives on the Line.

LWVA Website apprentices needed

 

The LWVA Communications team is looking for apprentice web masters for LWVA web site.  Training provided.  Required:  logical thinking, good at detail, reasonable level of comfort with computers, and willingness to spend two to four hours per month working on the site.  Not required:  experience with web site design or management.  Training provided.  Bonus:  if you are still in the labor force, familiarity with the Drupal platform, which you will gain, is worth putting on your resume.  Contact Kathy Campbell if you are interested in finding out more.

The second will be September 14, in Boston, at 7 pm in the New England Aquarium's Simons IMAX® Theatre. The topic is: "Extreme events and climate change: What we know and what we can do." For more information about this event and the series, click here.   Registration is required through the Aquarium's website. Click here to register.

NEW Publication from LWVMA, The Citizen Lobbyist

The Citizen Lobbyist is available on the LWVAmherst website here and there's also a link through the advocacy page: find it here.

Among the August opportunities for action listed in the Mass League Action Newsletter are: signing up for the Climate and Energy Solutions Series forum in Boston (see above); attending the LWVUS Carbon Pricing Webinar (see LWVUS News for more info); writing a letter to the editor of a local paper to support Automatic Voter Registration; write to your state legislators to support the Safe Communities Act. To read the Mass League Action Newsletter, click here.