Happy Thursday! Here is your Weekly Update from the League of Women Voters Milwaukee County (LWVMC). Something for everyone! | | We look forward to seeing you at the LWVMC Annual Meeting at Summit Place, 6737 W. Washington in West Allis, on Wednesday, May 24!
Please join us at 5:00 p.m. for cocktails. A catered dinner will be served at 5:45 p.m. for members and their guests who have purchased tickets. (Please see later Updates for details.) Our guest speaker this year is LWVMC member, Anita Johnson, - voting rights advocate and recipient of the 2020 Robert H. Friebert Social Justice Award and the 2023 Black Excellence Award in Community Leadership.
No ticket is required to attend the business meeting, which will begin at 7:00 p.m. The annual meeting is our opportunity to elect officers and directors, vote on bylaw changes and adopt a budget and program of work for the coming year in League.
We look forward to seeing you there and thank you for all you do for the League! |  | | Consider attending the upcoming nonpartisan Trusted Elections Forums from The Carter Center and sponsored by the UW Madison's Tommy G. Thompson Center on Public Leadership occurring in Waukesha/Pewaukee on Tuesday, March 28, from 6:30pm to 8:00pm. This forum has assembled highly qualified panels and is open to the public. The aim is to share information about the safety and integrity of the elections process in Wisconsin. |  |  | The Voter Guide on Vote411.org is PUBLISHED!
The Spring 2023 Voter Guide is your resource for the election on April 4 which will include races for state-wide and local offices. Go to Vote411.org and type in your address. You will see the races that appear on your ballot and the candidates running for these offices. Candidates participate by entering their campaign information and answering the League’s questions. All candidate responses to our questions come directly from the candidates and are unedited by the League of Women Voters.
Thank the candidates who responded to our questions. If a candidate on your ballot has not answered the League’s questions, contact him/her and ask that they do so! Voters want to be informed on the issues. If a candidate cannot find his/her invite, they can contact Sarajane Kennedy at voterguide@lwvmilwaukee.org. | Share Your Experience with New Members
We’d love you to share your experience with LVWMC, so new members learn how LWVMC’s work is reflected in our community and how they can get involved.
We’re creating videos to supplement our new member orientation, so new members can learn about the League right after joining. These videos will help new members feel connected to the League and hopefully lean into getting involved in something of their interest.
What we’re asking
Take a few minutes during a scheduled time for Melissa Kelley to interview you with a few questions while recording your testimonial on a topic of your choice. Or Melissa can share a few questions to help you start your video, and you can record yourself on your phone or tablet and then email the video to us.
Video Topics
Email Melissa at m.kelley@lwvmilwaukee.org if you’re interested in helping. | Jail-Based Voting - Equipment Need
We continue to work with the Milwaukee County Jail and the Community Reintegration Center (CRC) formally the HOC to register eligible residents and to request absentee ballots. Year to date we have registered 41 people and requested 79 absentee ballots. (Total number of absentee ballots is greater than the number of people registered because there are multiple elections and some of the people we registered last year [not in the YTD count] are still incarcerated.)
We are using iPads to do this work. The connectivity of these devices work well in the work that we do, however we need more of them. So if you have an iPad that you are no longer using or if you are thinking about upgrading would you please consider donating your old iPad to the LWVMC/Voter Services!
You can contact me if you have questions about this or to arrange for pickup, p.schrader@lwvmilwaukee.org.
Thank you in advance for your consideration of this request. |  |
Early Voting Schedule for the 2023 Spring & Special Elections
Tuesday, March 21 - Saturday, April 1
(Voter Registration, including address changes, ends on Friday, March 31, at all locations)
Midtown Shopping Center, 5740 W Capitol Dr
Zeidler Municipal Building, 841 N Broadway
Zablocki Library, 3501 W Oklahoma Ave
Additional Locations
Tuesday, March 21 - Saturday, April 1
Good Hope Library, 7715 W Good Hope Rd
Mitchell Street Library, 906 W Historic Mitchell St
Villard Square Library, 5190 N 35th St
Washington Park Library, 2121 N Sherman Blvd.
Not in the City of Milwaukee? To find out about early voting in your city go to
My Municipal Clerk and call or email them. |  |
UPDATE on the Milwaukee City-County Climate and Economic Equity Plan.
The Milwaukee County League has again expressed support for the City-County Climate and Economic Equity Plan, most recently at the City of Milwaukee’s February 22nd virtual webinar sponsored by the City’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Task Force. The ARPA Task Force has received comments from community members about where those dollars, specifically $92.7m, should be allocated and spent by the 2026 deadline.
Our statement supported an appropriation to the City’s Environmental Collaboration Office (ECO) since is it poised to work with other City departments and community stakeholders. We asserted the ECO deserves an “allocation of ARPA funds commensurate with the challenge of meeting the Plan’s climate and equity goals so that all in our community thrive.” The two overarching goals of the Plan are:
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Reduce community-wide net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 45% by the year 2030 and achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 or sooner.
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Reduce racial and income inequality by assuring that greenhouse gas reduction investments and policies will create the maximum number of permanent living wage green jobs for people who live in the most impoverished Milwaukee neighborhoods with limited economic opportunity.
To prepare to advocate for the Plan, PLEASE read the Executive Summary of the latest Plan draft HERE. Many League positions support the Plan. We will monitor the Plan as it moves forward and will solicit your timely support as it is considered by the City Plan Commission and appropriate Committees - and, if recommended, by the Common Council. |  | A century ago, 3 women blazed a path in the Wisconsin Legislature | | Mildred Barber stands to the left of Helen Thompson and Hellen Brooks. The three were the first women elected to the state Legislature in 1924. Barber, Thompson and Brooks served in the Wisconsin Assembly. Photo courtesy of the Wisconsin Historical Society and Wisconsin Historic Images
Learn more about the history of women representatives in the Wisconsin Legislature and where we are today in this Wisconsin Public Radio segment or read about it here. | Join the YWCA’s Racial Justice Challenge | | For a full month, beginning on April 17, the YWCA will send you daily activities to foster personal reflection, encourage social responsibility, and motivate you to identify and act on ways to dismantle racism and other forms of discrimination.
Download the Racial Justice Challenge app for free today:
Not into App's? You can register online from your computer here.
Watch the video detailing why you should join thousands of other participants across the country for the YWCA Racial Justice Challenge. |  | | In “Brief and Incomplete,” National Museum of History educators ask us to take a look at the histories we think we know and ask: What have we chosen to remember? Who’s missing? And what’s the whole story?
As 19th-century women formed national organizations to work toward woman suffrage, white organizers often marginalized women of color and excluded them from the movement. To advocate for suffrage and address the myriad challenges racism caused their communities, Black women organized through the Black women’s club movement.
Watch here.
Or browse the online exhibit Creating Icons: How We Remember Woman Suffrage at the Smithsonian. | Groundwater and Surface Water - Critical and Vulnerable | | Webinar | Monday Apr. 3 | 1 to 3pm
Groundwater and surface water in the Driftless Area are inextricably linked, and what happens on the land affects both. In this meeting, we will examine how the system works and how human activities are impacting our water resources. We'll look at two examples - the Winona-La Crescent watershed in Minnesota and Bloody Run in Iowa.
LWV Upper Mississippi River Region's April 3 meeting will focus on groundwater and surface water in the Driftless Area. Our speakers will be Jeff Broberg, Paul Wotzka and Larry Stone. They'll explain how groundwater moves from the surface, through the ground, to come to the surface again in this Karst landscape, and then look at specific examples of how land use and drinking water quality are as integrally linked as surface and groundwater are.
To register for this webinar, CLICK THIS LINK | | If you are unable to scan the QR code in the flyer above,
| | Lunch and Learn from March, 21 2023, was Facing Racism: One White Woman at a Time, featuring Mary Delgado and Althea Washington. Mary and Althea talk about the upcoming 9-month (18 sessions) learning series for white women to attend virtually and explore racism and how their whiteness and experiences contribute to racism and how they can change their thoughts and actions. Sessions start in June 2023 and go until March/April 2024. If you are interested in attending this 9-month virtual learning series, please email Mary Delgado, maryd8@gmail.com, as she will schedule an hour Zoom call with you to discuss.
Watch the recording of the Lunch and Learn, here; and all previous Lunch and Learns, here.
Next Lunch and Learn April 18th at Noon
(Lunch and Learns are always the 3rd Tuesday of the month at noon) | Support Democracy. Support your League.
Your support is critical to help our nonpartisan grassroots organization reach voters play a critical role in democracy. It would not be possible to empower voters and defend democracy without your support.
Thank you!
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