Program Planning Guidance

This notice is being provided to LWV leadership to help pre-plan and prepare for (1) local League annual planning and (2) LWVIL Program revisions and additions to be voted on at the June 2025 LWVIL State Convention.

Links to background materials can be found at the end of this notice. Please attend monthly Issues & Advocacy office hours to discuss specific questions for your League.

PROGRAM PLANNING IN A NUTSHELL

League Program is the platform that LWVIL adopts to move our mission forward. Every two years, in the months leading up to convention, Leagues around the state meet to review the LWVIL program and propose issues for study or action.

The League of Women Voters of Illinois’ Program is comprised of two parts:

Part 1 – LWVIL Principles and Positions as documented in Where We Stand. Where We Stand accumulates all past studies and approved changes to the positions on which our advocacy and lobbying efforts are based.
Part 2 – LWVIL Program Pillars, which describe the positions that will be the focus area of LWVIL for the next two years while taking advantage of other opportunities to create social change with high impact legislation.
Pillar #1: Empowering Voters and Defending Democracy (examples: voting rights, civil rights, good government, election process)
Pillar #2: Promoting Equity of Opportunity (examples: educational funding, healthcare including reproductive rights, ERA, employment)
Pillar #3: High impact legislation (examples: in environment, community safety, housing)

Local Leagues are asked to discuss Program recommendations in a general membership meeting, or (less desirably) in a board meeting. This is a hallmark of the League of Women Voters grassroots' role in study and action. As local Leagues consider their input to the LWVIL Program, it is important to reflect on the League’s core mission and acknowledge that LWVIL cannot, nor does it aspire to, be all things to all people.

The basic outline below is provided to assist your League with starting the planning process, to make sure you understand the planning calendar, and to give you an opportunity to ask questions before you get started. Tools and surveys will be sent to you in December.

REQUIRED LOCAL LEAGUE ACTION

Part 1 – Review and make recommendations on existing LWVIL positions in Where We Stand.

Local Leagues are asked to make recommendations to retain, drop, or make changes to existing LWVIL positions as articulated in Where We Stand, or they may recommend new ones.

In order for a local League to make such recommendations, local Leagues should undertake a Program Planning exercise with members and identify the positions that should be retained or dropped. Local Leagues should also entertain recommendations for changes to LWVIL’s existing positions (see the chart below). While brainstorming sessions are encouraged, final recommendations should not be generic or general (e.g. “LWVIL should have a position on Transportation”). Rather, recommendations for changes should include a summary of resources the League will need to advance those changes, and the local League’s willingness to participate in such a study.

ACTION	PURPOSE
Retain or drop existing positions	Document member recommendations to retain or drop existing positions. These are voted by members at Convention, and no further study or concurrence is required.
Minor tweaks or clarifications	Are any positions antiquated or have not kept pace with current definitions? For example, is there an opportunity to update previous discrimination language or principles by using the language “gender / gender identity” rather than “sex”. These could be done by board approval and member vote with no addition study needed, but recommendations are welcome.
Concurrence	Does your local League have an existing position, or is there a position held by another state or local League, that you would like LWVIL to adopt by concurrence? Does it make sense as a state-wide position? Is there someone in the local League to champion soliciting support from other Leagues to get a concurrence position on the docket for Convention?
Studies (Consensus)	Is your local League recommending a study to create a new position or make changes to an existing position? If so, is there someone in the local League (or a coalition of Leagues) that will champion the study and recommend it to state membership for action in 2025?

Part 2 – Affirm support of LWVIL’s Pillars and identify other priority areas for your League.

Local Leagues are asked to provide feedback to LWVIL related to the following:

Will your League’s advocacy actions and member education events support Pillars 1 and 2 of the LWVIL Program (“Empower Voters and Defend Democracy” and “Promote Equitable Opportunity”)? If so, which issues are your League prioritizing?
What are the LOCAL priorities (if any) on which you will focus?
Which issues are your members most interested in for high impact state legislative action (i.e. Pillar 3)?
Identify any mission-critical advocacy items that LWVIL should consider adding.

PLANNING CALENDAR

Between November 15 and December 31, 2024	Local boards should use this time to plan for how they will create a response to the LWVIL board’s request for comment on the 2025-27 Program. This includes meeting date(s), manner of meetings, development of surveys and other methods it may wish to employ.
On or before January 14 (5 months before Convention)	LWVIL Board will send a status report of the current Program to the presidents of local Leagues and ILOs and the Chairs of MAS units. This may also include the Response form that each League is asked to complete with your responses.
Between January 14, 2025 and March 13, 2025	Local League members and boards use this time to evaluate the existing Program and create and approve suggestions. This includes gathering any documentation required to support locally-proposed program items or concurrence proposals.
On or before March 14 (3 months before Convention)	Local League members and boards must submit their suggestions. Only program recommendations submitted by this date will be eligible for consideration by the LWVIL Board and the convention.
April 1, 2025	Board to review the input and approve the Proposed Program.
On or before April 30 (6 weeks before Convention)	LWVIL Board will submit the recommended program and the “not recommended” items, if any, to the presidents of local Leagues and ILOs and the chairs of MAS units to notify their members of the proposed program. Any concurrence items to be voted on at convention must be submitted to members by the proposing League(s) by this date!
June 14, 2025	LWVIL Convention delegates vote on the proposed program.

USEFUL RESOURCES

Where We Stand (Current Positions held by LWVIL)
LWVUS Clearing House (Catalog of Studies from Around the Country that may be used for Concurrence)
Issues and Advocacy office hours (Second Tuesday of each month at 11:00am): https://zoom.us/j/95462852966?pwd=vpngsgus1FdVKDZwda4WELiBpjRrsE.1
Contact us at issues@lwvil.org with questions

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The League of Women Voters of Illinois is nonpartisan and neither supports nor opposes candidates for elected office but does work to influence public policy on specific issues after member study and consensus.

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