February Opportunities for Action
About the Action Newsletter:
The Action Newsletter is emailed to all members during the first week of each month. It is designed to provide members with the information they need to take action or get involved, covering requests for action on bills, lobby days, rallies, and other League events. We suggest you choose one or two items for action. The items included in the newsletter fall under LWVMA Program Priorities:
  • Improving Elections 
  • Empowering Voters and Fostering Civic Engagement 
  • Advocating for Justice and Equality 
  • Addressing the Climate Emergency 
  • Advocating for Equitable Access to Basic Human Services 
These priorities are referenced for each item as a way to orient you as you survey the list. Thanks for helping to move LWVMA priorities forward!

Volunteer Opportunities for YOU

Priority: Justice and Equality/Civic Engagement
Growing League Membership—You're Needed!
Are you interested in working on new member recruitment to grow and diversify your own League and deepen the collective impact of the League state-wide? Join our Taskforce on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion/Membership.
Do you have ideas about how we can turn our commitment to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) into action so that our membership reflects that commitment? LWVMA is forming a new joint DEI/Membership Task Force to work on the membership goals outlined in our 3-year strategic plan. If you are interested in joining, please contact Pattye Comfort here.

Priority: Civic Engagement
Leaders Shine—Nominate One
The Nominating Committee is seeking suggestions for nominations to the 2022-2024 LWVMA Board. This is an opportunity for League members to step up and help shape the League's impact on the state level. Click here for a nomination form. Please submit nominations by Friday, Feb. 25. Contact the Chair of LWVMA's Nominating Committee, Sharyn Roberts via email or 617-259-0132 with questions or for more information.

Priority: Civic Engagement
Be a Bill Booster
This is an opportunity to learn about the legislative process, League-supported bills and get to know your own legislators and their staff.

The Legislative Envoy Program is designed to have at least one member from each League as its Legislative Envoy serving as a conduit, connecting the state League, local Leagues and legislators. Envoys will be connected to the Legislative Action Committee (LAC) for periodic updates from legislative specialists. Envoys will receive instruction in best practices for advocacy and briefings on the legislative process.

Legislative Envoys are the voice of their local League. They develop a working relationship with their League’s State Senators and Representatives and keep up with the progress of LWVMA priority bills on Beacon Hill. See the program description here. Please notify your League’s leadership that you are volunteering to represent your League and contact Envoy Coordinator Mary Cummings to join the program. We are seeking at least one Envoy from each League.

Priority: Civic Engagement
Be Inspired!
Ms. Magazine details how the League came to its position on abortion. Read how the League study process creates a path forward even on complicated issues in this article.

Advocacy that Depends on YOU

Priority: Equitable Access to Basic Human Services
Healthcare Alert!
One of our LWVMA priority bills needs help immediately. Call or email your state Senator and Representative with the following message:
“I am one of your constituents. It is important to me that you co-sponsor H.1267/S.766 Medicare for All in Massachusetts (single payer healthcare coverage for all Massachusetts residents.)” Be sure to include your name and street address in an email.

You can check here to see if your legislators are already co-sponsors. They only need to co-sponsor one of the bills:

Ask your friends, family members, and co- workers to send the same message to their state Senator and Representative.

We need an overwhelming number of House members and Senators signed on as co-sponsors to the bill if we are to get it to the floor for a proper full legislative discussion and vote!

Priority: Environment—Natural Resources
Yikes! Drought and Invasive Species Bills Need Push
Two Natural Resources bills we support, the drought bill (H.898/S.530) and the invasive species bill (H.999/S.563), are still in the Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources, and Agriculture (JENRA) and need help.
Please Contact your state legislators and urge them to ask that both bills be reported both out favorably. We need to show JENRA and leadership in the legislature that there is public demand for the solutions proposed in both bills!

The drought bill mandates statewide policy and authority for water conservation in times of drought, applying this to all types of water sources, including private wells and only exempting agricultural usage. (See Testimony here).

The Invasive Species bill creates a coordinated approach to invasive species management with streamlined assistance and funding. Without sound educational resources, landowners may pursue invasive species eradication methods that are unnecessarily expensive, laborious, and toxic, or delay action that allows infestations to get worse. The Massachusetts Invasive Plant Advisory Group, which includes environmental groups, developers and \state agency representatives, stated in their final report, “We recommend that Massachusetts establish and support a centralized means within state government for inter-agency coordination on invasive species management, in partnership with public and private sector interests."
This bill does exactly that. (See Testimony here).

Priority: Elections
VOTES Act Passes House
The House passed, 124-34, a strong voting reform bill, H.4367, to parallel the Senate version, S.2554, on Jan. 27. The two versions will now go to a conference committee to iron out the differences. The final bill will bring strong voting reforms to Massachusetts, including unrestricted voting by mail and expanded early voting.

The House version does not include a provision for same-day voter registration, though the Senate version does. See the member email sent Jan. 28 for details. Many thanks to all of you for the emails and phone calls to your Representative to get same-day registration included in the bill. You helped tremendously and you changed minds. Stay tuned for updates on the conference committee. We are hoping for a final bill in time for this spring’s town elections.

Massachusetts Legislation Update:
Bills that have not been voted out of a joint committee favorably or given an extension by February 2, with a few exceptions, will no longer be active. LWVMA specialists wrote to ask the committee chairs to favorably report our bills out of the joint committees, so we’ll see what happens!
Progress on our bills
Bills that passed both chambers
H.4367/S.2554 VOTES Act makes permanent many pandemic-era improvements to voting; House bill does not contain same-day registration, see Testimony. Will be referred to conference committee.

Actions for LEAGUE LEADERS

Count the Ways Your League Matters
We need volunteers to collect data on your League’s activities. Numbers matter and by collecting data on a state-wide basis, we will be able to measure our collective League impact. This, in turn, will help bring in new members and leaders, do more effective fundraising and ultimately sustain the League throughout Massachusetts.

To achieve this goal, we need a designated person from every League to submit data for each local League activity. See the data collection form, the user guide and other materials here.

Check in with your local League leadership to volunteer for this crucial task and then notify Brynne Gorman.

Priority: Civic Engagement
Raise $$$ for Your League with Phonathon
Participating in the annual Massachusetts League-wide Phonathon is a great way to raise money for your local League and the LWVMA. For each donation LWVMA receives as a result of your Phonathon call/email, your local League will receive 10% of that donation. If you are interested in participating in Phonathon, contact Taylor Grenga.

Priority: Civic Engagement
Need Speakers? Use Our Experts!
Our Legislative Action Committee’s specialists are willing to present to your League on LWVMA-supported legislation in Criminal Justice, Healthcare, Climate, Women’s Issues, and more. Ideal for Annual Meeting or general programs for your members. Programs can be tailored to your League. See areas and bills here. Sample previous Meet the Specialist presentations here. Contact the Legislative Action Committee here.

LWV Birthday Action
Celebrate the League's legacy by joining Leagues across the country for LWV Birthday Action on Feb. 14. Sign your League up to take action using this form. Women have powered democracy for over 100 years, and for our birthday we are coming together across the country to build power for elections in 2022. We will honor the 102-year legacy of our organization with a day of unified, pro-voter action as one League, together.

National Convention Set for June 23-26
LWVUS has published the first call for our 55th Annual Convention June 23 – 26, 2022. More information can be found here. Select your League’s delegates.

LWVUS 2022 Program Planning Leader's Guide & Survey
The Program Planning Leaders' Guide and survey response form are now available for Leagues to use at their program planning meetings in early 2022. The input of League boards will help shape the proposed program of study and action that will be voted on by convention delegates in June. Program planning report forms must be returned online by Tuesday, March 1, 2022. Each League is entitled to one response, and individual member responses are not accepted. You can access the Leader’s Guide here and the 2022 Program Survey here. For questions about program planning, email progplan@lwv.org.

February 11 LWVUS Program Planning Webinars
Program Planning 101, a webinar which outlines the basics of LWVUS program planning, was held on Jan. 12. A recording of the webinar can be found here. A second webinar, which will have additional information on proposed issues, will be held on Friday, Feb. 11, at 2 p.m. Register for that webinar here.
How to Contact Your Legislator: You can find phone numbers, email addresses and office addresses on the legislature’s webpage for your Senator and Representative. Go to www.malegislature.gov and click on the Legislators tab. If you don’t know who your legislators are, click here.
The LWVMA Action Newsletter is distributed to all LWVMA members. Anyone can request the Action Newsletter by clicking here. Please review this Newsletter for articles of interest to your League and include them in your local Bulletin.
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