By Lynn Frazier
Dear Alachua County,
Our Annual Meeting is on May 25. We will elect officers, pass our annual budget, and adopt our local program. You should have received an invitation but the information is also below. If you cannot attend the virtual meeting, please be sure to email me your vote on each of the items so your vote can be counted. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me. Be an active member of the league and cast your vote.
Voter Services Committee is inviting all members to submit questions for candidates who qualify for the 2022 Primary Election on August 23. LWV Alachua County and the UF Bob Graham Center for Governmental Responsibility will be co-hosting a virtual candidate forum on June 26. More details will follow but please take the time right now to submit your candidate questions to Diana or Gwen. You may check out who has qualified to date by going to this website. Watch for more information about the upcoming Candidate Forum.
Thank you for allowing me to serve as President of LWVAC these past two years. I have learned a lot and met (virtually) many league members dedicated to empowering voters and defending democracy.
With so much going on, especially now, we need to keep up the good fight to protect voting rights and ensure that everyone is represented in our democracy.
Lynn
elgfrazier@gmail.com
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Redistricting Updates
If you have been following along, you know Florida's redistricting plan is currently being battled in the courts. The situation changes, almost daily, as cases are heard and appealed. Below is a brief summary of just the past two weeks. It may even change by the time you read this, but we will continue to keep you updated as the process continues.
As of 05/13/22
Governor Ron DeSantis’ administration has appealed the decision against a key part of his congressional redistricting plan, triggering an automatic stay of the ruling by Leon Circuit Judge Layne Smith. This effectively means his decision will be on hold until the appeal is considered by the 1st District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee. - Politico
As of 05/11/22
Circuit Judge Layne Smith has decided that Florida’s new congressional redistricting plan is unconstitutional to the extent it eliminates prospects that Blacks in North Florida will be able to elect a candidate of their choice. - Florida Phoenix
As of 05/03/22
U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor canceled a trial set to begin May 12 after plaintiffs filed to change the scope of the case and argued the map Gov. Ron DeSantis’ team designed was “infected by racial discrimination against Black Floridians.”. Attorneys for Florida Secretary of State Laurel Lee have until May 9 to respond to the allegations of racial discrimination waged in the suit. While the case file remains open, taking the redistricting trial off the calendar means there’s no way courts can replace Florida’s congressional map ahead of the 2022 elections. - Florida Politics
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To learn more and for background information, follow redistricting in Florida with the ongoing series of articles about the redistricting process in Florida on the LWVAC Redistricting webpage. | |
The Latest From Your Committees | |
In this section, we bring you updates from your LWV Alachua County committees. Committees are the best way to get involved in LWV Alachua County and your local community. Feel free to reach out to the Committee Chairs to express interest, join their meetings, and get involved. | |
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Contact: Karen McCann
The education committee meets regularly via Zoom on the second Wednesday of the month from 12-1:30 p.m. Our committee is taking a break over the summer months of June and July so the May 11th meeting wrapped up the year until we meet again in August.
In April, we asked for volunteers to attend an in-person meeting to
- develop questions for the Voter Services committee candidate forum to be held on June 26th and
- discuss what areas of education we want to focus on for the candidate questions.
The primary election on August 23rd will determine four of five Alachua County school board seats. The new board will be sworn in November 2022 and charged with hiring the Alachua County Public School superintendent. The June 26th LWV Alachua County candidate forum will be an opportunity for league members to hear from candidates so we encourage everyone to attend.
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Contact: Jeff Shapiro
Our meetings are held on the third Thursday of each month (next on May 19) at 5:30 p.m. via Zoom.
- Our current agenda stresses equity and “good health for all” through study and action.
- See the March 17 presentation by Dr. Laura Guyer of UF Health on our website.
- This month we have invited James F. Lawrence, Director of GNV4ALL. He will discuss the Gainesville Empowerment Zone (GEZ) and its Family Learning Center. The Learning Center will focus on family support and health in east Gainesville.
Contact Jeff Shapiro to join our meetings.
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Contact: Jay Rosenbek or Roberta Gastmeyer
It's been another busy month for the NR Committee as we:
- had a meeting with guest speaker Rock Aboujaoude from Campus Climate Corps who told us how young leaders throughout the world are addressing climate concerns on the global stage,
- participated in the League’s outreach event at the Fifth Avenue Arts Festival,
- talked with City of Gainesville Interim City Manager Curry about the new Climate Director position, and
- continued to promote our message on our three items of focus: the creation of a Climate Director position within Gainesville's general city government; elimination of GRU rebates for fossil gas appliances and further extension of any gas pipelines; and promotion of a Comprehensive Electric Vehicle Policy.
We will not be holding a May meeting but will pick up again in June. If you have ideas for speakers for future meetings, please reach out to us.
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Contact: Bennett Brummer
The SCJC hopes you enjoyed this month's Hot Topic on Serious Juvenile Violence: Recommendations for Policy and Practice with Dr. Jodi Lane, which was rescheduled from April to May.
The focus of SCJC is on improving the adult and juvenile criminal justice system. We emphasize deflection and diversion from the criminal justice system through prevention and treatment consistent with accountability and justice.
While the SCJC does not meet regularly, any LWV Alachua County member who would like a committee orientation or would like to initiate a new committee project (and who is willing to do the work to carry that project forward) is also welcome to consult the chair to screen and plan for that project.
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Contact: Gwen Wagner and Diana Boxer
The VS committee continues work on our County version of Vote411, to go live in July.
We are happy to announce that we will be partnering with the Bob Graham Center for Public Policy to produce a virtual Candidate Forum, to take place on June 26 at 1:30 p.m. A hearty thank you to VS member Candy Birch, who is sending out save the date emails to current candidates. Look for a zoom link for the forum, coming soon.
Other activities are tabling for outreach and voter registration. We attended the 5th Avenue Arts Festival on April-23 and 24 and registered a handful of new voters. Thanks go to Anne D’Amico, Candy Birch, Peter Marino, and Ruth Provost for participating.
Our next registration event is scheduled to take place at The Village on May 24. We need volunteers for two shifts: 10:00 a.m. to noon and 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Contact Elaine Francis to participate.
Our last meeting took place on April 28. The next meeting is scheduled for May 24 at 6:30 p.m. To get involved, please contact the co-chairs listed above.
We are still collecting questions to be asked at both the Candidate Forum as well as for Vote 411. We would love questions from all the committees. Please submit your questions today!
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Annual Meeting - May 25 @ 6 PM | |
LWV Alachua County Annual Meeting - May 25, 2022
Don't forget, the LWV Alachua County Annual Meeting is on May 25 via Zoom. This is a good opportunity to see other members and share in making administrative decisions for the next year. The general membership is responsible for approving the budget, voting for officers, and adopting the local program for next year.
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We have lost strong supporters of LWV Alachua County. If you know of a member who has passed, please let us know. | |
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Margaret Boonstra died on April 12, 2022. Margaret was an active member of the League from the time she arrived in Gainesville in 1975. She poured her energy into volunteering for public schools and related causes, the Democratic Party and candidates, the Alachua County Democratic Executive Committee, Girl Scouts, The Education Foundation of Alachua County, Inc., and the League of Women Voters, among others. She served as a friend and mentor to many in the League.
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Rhoda Swerlick, (born 1925) long-time League member and Membership chair on Oak Hammock Committee died on Thursday, April 22, 2022. With a Master’s in Education and training and performing Opera, Rhoda was an asset to the League and could be found at a table recruiting new members at every meeting.
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Tips to Detect and Avoid Online Scams | |
- Don’t take the “bait.” Never click on pop-up messages, posts that contain content that seems shocking, scandalous, or too good to be true, or links or attachments in unsolicited emails and text messages.
- Create a strong password. This means that it is a minimum of seven characters and contains a mixture of upper and lower case letters, symbols, and numbers. You should never provide your password to someone you do not know.
- Don’t provide your information (personal or financial) online unless you know the website you are using is legitimate, secure, and encrypted. It is also important to make sure that you are dealing with the right entity and using its real website and not a look-alike site created by a scam artist. Also, look for “https://” (the “s” stands for secure) before a web address.
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LWVAC Leadership Team
President: Lynn Frazier
Vice-President: Deb Shimon
Secretary: Carole Fernandez
Treasurer: Fran Towk
A full list of LWVAC Board Members and Committee Chairs can be found here.
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To avoid missing future LWVAC email, please add our email address to your Safe Senders List
or add the From address (lwv@lwv-alachua.org) to your Address Book or Contacts.
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