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LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS - HILL COUNTRY
P.O. Box 290303
Kerrville, TX 78029
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Message from the Leadership Team
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Happy New Year!
After a busy holiday season, we now must hit the ground running. The 86th Texas Legislative session will convene on January 8, and the League is ready. The State league's three Priority Issues are
Voting Rights
,
Public Education,
and
Women's Health.
Click on the links to visit those Issue pages.
In addition, there are 25 Issue Chairs who are covering 30 other issues. They will be following bills, writing testimony for and against those bills, contacting legislators, and writing Action Alerts when all our members need to take action on a bill. Let's do our part.
And don't forget that Volunteer Deputy Registrar appointments have expired. To be appointed again, you must attend Volunteer Deputy Registrar training. See below for the date and times of the training sessions that our league is sponsoring.
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Volunteer Deputy Registrar Training, January 7
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A
ll volunteer deputy registrar appointments expired on December 31, 2018. For those who are interested in being appointed - or reappointed - as a VDR, our League will sponsor two sessions of volunteer deputy registrar training on Monday, January 7th. The first session will begin at 12:00 noon, and the second session will begin at 5:30 p.m. Both sessions will be held at the Riverside Nature Center. Reservations are recommended, as seating is limited. To reserve a seat, please contact Bunny Bond by phone at 830-377-9940, or by email addressed to mmbond@ktc.com.
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General Membership Meeting, January 17
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Enjoy the Schreiner experience! Prior to our general membership meeting, dine at the Schreiner Diner at 5:30 p.m., where you can choose from their lovely salad bar, pizza and pasta, main daily entree, desserts, and drinks. Following dinner, the meeting will begin at 6:00 in the River Room in the Cailloux Campus Activity Center (CCAC). Spouses are welcome.
Program
Mark McDaniel, Kerrville City Manager, will give an overview of the role of the City Manager and the highlights of the Kerrville 2050 Comprehensive Plan.
Mark McDaniel's 32 years of experience in municipal government management now spans seven Texas cities, with an emphasis in finance, organizational development, performance improvement, planning, operations management, and economic development.
I
n May 2017, Mark was appointed to
serve as city manager for Kerrville. Prior to moving to the Texas Hill Country, Mark served as assistant city manager for the City of Dallas. In addition, Mark provided direct leadership for the new Dallas Center for Performance Excellence, an internal continuous-improvement initiative.
Previously, Mark served as city manager for the City of Tyler. He also served as assistant city manager for Corpus Christi, city manager for Woodway, assistant city manager for Lake Jackson, and budget officer for Denton.
A leader in his profession, Mark has served as President for the Texas City Management Association and Vice President for the International City/County Management Association (ICMA), representing the central United States. He now serves on the board for the Alliance for Innovation.
Mark earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of North Texas, has attended Harvard University's Senior Executive in Local Government Program, and has taught graduate-level coursework as an adjunct faculty member.
Mark and his wife Cindy have been married for over 32 years and are proud parents of three grown children and one very beloved granddaughter.
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Membership Renewal Reminder
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Membership in the League of Women Voters-Hill Country will expire January 31, 2019, and renewal begins January 1. Membership forms are available on our website at
lwvhillcountry.org
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and will be available at the January meeting.
Forms should be completed even if you are just renewing, so we can be sure to have accurate information. Anyone over the age of 16, male or female, is welcome. Dues for individuals are $60, for households, $85, and for students, $5.
Checks should be made payable to LWV-HC and mailed with the membership form to Treasurer, LWV-HC, P.O. Box 290303, Kerrville, TX 78029.
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LWVTX Lobby Days Feb. 4-5
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From the League of Women Voters of Texas...
“
Bigger, Better Lobby Days” will be Feb. 4-5, 2019
in Austin at the Holiday Inn Austin Town Lake. Save the dates and prepare for a new larger venue for lodging and training with free parking, and a shuttle to the Capital! We will all fit in the training room this year! Make plans to go to Austin and meet your State Senators and Representatives. Join Texas Leagues' members on February 4th and 5th to advocate for the issues we all care about.
The workshop will be on Monday from noon to 5:00pm. Guest speakers will include:
- Bob Popinski, Director of Policy at Raise Your Hand Texas, is a school finance expert,
- Beth Stevens, Voting Rights Program Director, Texas Civil Rights Project, and
- Evelyn Delgado, President of Healthy Futures of Texas and Chair of the Texas Women's Healthcare Coalition.
On Tuesday morning League members will visit their legislators. Making a visit to a legislator’s office in the Texas Capitol can have a great influence on how leaders think about issues. A visit is an opportunity for you to supply our leaders with valuable information. The willingness to make a visit to a legislative office tells leaders how important League issues are to you and your community.
2019 Making Democrary Work Dinner - February 4
The Making Democracy Work Dinner will be at the historic Austin Club again.
Victoria M. DeFrancesco Soto, guest speaker for the dinner, is a political scientist who works at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and engages in political talks with MSNBC, NBCNews.com, and Telemundo.
Her areas of expertise include immigration, Latinos, women and politics, political psychology, and campaigns and elections. When looking at diverse groups within the electorate, Victoria focuses on how women, Latinos, and other minorities influence policies. Underlying all of her policy interests and research agenda is the intersection between campaigns, elections, and policies—in other words how politics shapes every aspect of our day-to-day lives.
Victoria is a Lecturer at the University of Texas’ LBJ School of Public Affairs where she was selected as one of the University’s Game Changing faculty. She is also a faculty affiliate of the Department of Mexican-American and Latino Studies and the Center for Mexican American Studies. Victoria received her Ph.D. from Duke University and did her undergraduate work at the University of Arizona. She’s a diehard Arizona Wildcats basketball fan and when she’s not political sciencing, Victoria is hanging out with her family in beautiful Austin, Texas and perfecting her green chile and cheese tamale recipe.
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Mark Your Calendars
Monday, January 7
- Volunteer Deputy Registrar training, 12:00 noon or 5:30 p.m.
Thursday, January 17
- General membership meeting
February 4-5
- LWVTX Lobby Days in Austin
Thursday, March 14
- General membership meeting
Thursday, May 9
- Annual membership meeting
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Be a member of the League; we invite you to join us! A membership form can be found on our website or you may contact Julie Sentell, Membership Coordinator, at julie.sentell@me.com.
Our League’s annual dues are $60 for an individual or $85 for two in a household, and $25 for student memberships. Dues are prorated from January. Please include your name(s), address, email address, and phone number. Make your check payable to LWV-Hill Country and mail to LWV-HC, PO Box 290303, Kerrville, TX 78029-0303. Join the League and help make democracy work.
And consider giving a membership to a student, as they need only be 16 years of age to join.
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League of Women Voters-Hill Country - Leadership Team
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Treasurer
: Mary Ellen Summerlin
Membership Coordinator:
Julie Sentell
Facebook Administrator:
Twanda Brown
Voters Service:
Jeanette Ruark
Webmaster
: Debby Berry
Members-at-large
: Bunny Bond, Gillian Davidson, Maggie Megee
President’s email (presidentlwvhc@gmail.com)
: Debby Berry
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The LWV-Hill Country welcomes your questions! Post to our Facebook page or submit questions via e-mail to
presidentlwvhc@gmail.com
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About the League of Women Voters
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The League of Women Voters is a local, state, and national nonpartisan organization.
Please visit the LWV-Texas state website,
my.lwv.org/texas
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There you will find more voter information and the League positions on a variety of issues. The League develops its positions after study and consensus.
The LWV-Texas position on the issue of human trafficking in Texas: The League of Women Voters of Texas is opposed to all forms of domestic and international human trafficking of adults and children, including sex trafficking and labor trafficking. We consider human trafficking to be a form of modern-day slavery and support measures to prevent the use of force, fraud or coercion to exploit a person for sexual or labor purposes, to prosecute traffickers and to protect victims.
Go to
http://lwvedu.org
for the free, four-hour TEA continuing credit course on issues of human trafficking. Teachers, take note of this!
This is the online course for which we received the state award.
The national League, LWVUS,
http://www.lwvus.org
,
is actively working to influence public policy through education and advocacy. Go to this website and see the range of issues from voter rights, voter turnout, reforming money in politics, and defending the environment.
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- Helping fund our State League, LWV-Texas.
- Do you purchase from Amazon? Please donate 0.5% of your purchase to LWV-Texas. Instructions can be found on the State League's web site, www.lwvtexas.org. Scroll down - it's way down there.
Or just save these instructions:
- On your Amazon account:
- Search out Amazon Smile; select League of Women Voters of Texas Education Fund as your charity.
- Thereafter, for your purchase to count for the donation, log into http://smile.amazon.com
- The program will send you an email to install buttons into your browser to make this step easier.
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League of Women Voters - Hill Country, Texas
presidentlwvhc@gmail.com
www.lwvhillcountrytexas.org
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