Saturday's in-person Membership Mingle was a rousing success. Over 55 members and their guests joined us at Brookdale Senior Living in their 13th Floor Dining Room for a couple hours of lively conversation and lunch. It was so nice to touch base with old and new friends. Many thanks to Laura Bezinovich-Burstein at Brookdale for her help in making our event so successful. Our Co-Presidents, Jane Hastings and Joan Petertil, coordinated the program presentation to acquaint attendees with ways to get more involved with our League. We hope that going forward, in-person events will be become the norm and not the exception!

Join the Forest Park Library for their annual After-Hours Book Buzz on Friday, February 17, from 7:00-9:00pm. Let’s celebrate following our hearts on the journeys books take us! The featured guest is Elizabeth Wetmore, whose powerful debut novel, Valentine, is a justice-seeking page turner set in West Texas. Dessert will be served. Register for this free event here.

The April 4 Municipal Election Races are set. If you haven't checked out our website calendar for the dates of our candidate forums, here's a quick list. The Zoom registration links for these forums are on our calendar. Registration links for other organizations forums are on our calendar when available.

February 23 - Oak Park Village Trustees

March 2 - Oak Park-River Forest H.S.

March 6 - Forest Park Mayor and Commissioners

March 13 - Proviso Township High School Board 209

We need your probing, insightful questions so we can decide which of these candidates deserve our votes. Send questions to our email address. Please tell us to which race the question is directed.

Please share our forum information with other organizations, houses of worship, and your friends and neighbors.

The Illinois Gun Violence Prevention Coalition will be having a presentation on "Black History is Our History," with special guest Reverend Michael Lattimore, MA, in honor of Black History Month. On Friday, February 17, from Noon-1:00pm, Reverend Lattimore will share his personal genealogy journey that will give the attendee strategies to discover their own family stories through DNA and genealogy research available to non-professionals. The teller of this story is also a survivor of gun violence and has uncovered evidence that his “Balanta“ African ancestors faced the threat of gun violence hundreds of years ago during the slave trade in Guinea-Bissau. Register for this free Zoom event here.

The annual LWV IL Issues Briefing is scheduled for Saturday, February 18, beginning at 8:45am and with the last session convening at 2:00pm. Cost for this virtual event will be $30. Check out the schedule and session details here.

As part of our ongoing commitment to sustainability, the LWV OPRF Environment Committee is proud to be a sponsor of The One Earth Film Festival. The schedule for upcoming films is now online. Tickets can be purchased at oneearthfilmfest.org. Virtual and in-person screenings are available. Please support this initiative; tickets are very reasonable.

The League of Women Voters has long supported the direct election of the President of the United States and the National Popular Vote as one way to achieve it. In fact, at the LWV US National Convention in June, 2022, the direct election of the president, including both National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (the more immediate pathway) and the abolishment of the electoral college by Constitutional Amendment (the moon-shot pathway) were made an explicit part of the Campaign for Making Democracy Work!!!

The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC) is a state-by-state agreement that assures that the nationwide winner of the presidential election becomes president. Happily, Illinois has passed the NPVIC, but additional states must pass the law to implement it. Several states have a probability of passage in their current legislative session, including our Midwest neighbors of Minnesota and Michigan. We can help get NPVIC passed in these states!

We are putting together a list of our league members (or others in IL who would like to participate) who are willing to help make phone calls or texts into the states considering the bill. We expect the bills in MN and MI to move rather swiftly, so please volunteer in this important effort. No fears-your personal phone numbers will not be disclosed. 

To volunteer or get more information about the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, contact Barb Paterick.

We have sad news about one of our longtime members. Gail Bien, who has been in ill health, passed away last Saturday. Gail was a member since 1976 and a long serving Secretary for many years. Our condolences go out to her family. No memorial service is scheduled at this time.

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