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From the President:By Karyn Gill, President, League of Women Voters of California
State Convention—May 14-16—San Jose. I urge all of you to attend and participate in decisions which will guide future League actions into the next millennium. You can join in choosing a new Board, shaping the budget, approving new positions, and selecting our California issue for emphasis. This important biennial event gives League members an opportunity to meet new friends, and share experiences and new ideas. Check with your local president to learn if you can attend as a delegate—or send in the visitor registration form in this issue of the VOTER. Then you can participate in workshops, attend convention sessions and caucuses as an observer, and enjoy the Saturday night banquet and an outstanding speaker! The Convention will also mark the end of my two-year tenure as your president, an experience that has been an incredibly fulfilling one for me. I think our outstanding volunteer Board and our committed and hardworking staff can be proud of the accomplishments which increased the League's visibility—both as a political educator and as a key political "player" in the state.
Voters Service Our service to voters throughout California is unique—a multifaceted combination of media including print, television, and electronic communications. We publish hard-copy analyses of all ballot measures which are distributed by local Leagues and several newspapers. For the November, 1998 General Election, the League distributed over 285,000 copies of Pros and Cons and 200,000 multi-language Easy Reading Voter Guides to California voters. We produce television programs with candidate interviews and debates (and in 1996, ballot measure descriptions) which reach a substantial audience and have received widespread praise. We are now a well-known resource for electronic candidate and ballot information through our Smart Voter computer web site at www.smartvoter.org. This site received more than one million "hits" prior to the November General Election! Another of our exciting projects in 1998 was the Parent/Student Mock Election which was held six days before the General Election. Traditionally, this event provides students and their parents with important background information about candidates and ballot initiatives and encourages informed student participation in their very own election. More than 350 schools in the state registered 325,599 students to vote in this year's mock election. More than 135,000 of these students actually cast their votes on-line through a web site provided by the University of California, Davis. The League's sponsorship of such an important public event makes us a very visible and highly respected organization. We will need the enthusiastic support of our members so that we can aggressively expand this project for the general election in the year 2000.
Civic Education The League's mission also provides us with a unique opportunity to educate California citizens about our local, state, and national governments. Thanks to our volunteer Webmaster, Carol Watts, of the Los Altos/Mt. View Area League, we maintain an excellent state League web site at www.ca.lwv.org. This site provides an amazing wealth of information and materials about the League and California politics. Our reputation as an important electronic resource is now worldwide—computer users from 57 countries accessed our web site during 1998! And just before the November General Election, our web site recorded 430,000 "hits"—with more than 40,000 on November 2 and 3 alone! We have also tried this year to be more responsive to California citizens (and to you, our members) with a toll-free phone number at 1-888-870-VOTE (8683). This service provides answers to questions about voting and about how our state government works. We also created an e-mail list at lwvinca@thecity.sfsu.edu which posts electronic messages to local Leagues and their members about the ongoing work of the state League and also answers questions about League activities in the state. Using materials developed by the state League, a number of educational forums were held throughout California this year. These forums provided nonpartisan information to local communities about the juvenile justice (dependency) system and the initiative and referendum process. Forums such as these help us to educate the wider community about the need for governmental reform and also provide credible evidence and support for the League to study an issue and to develop its positions for future legislative action. Our state VOTER entitled "The Road to Reforming Government in California", sent to over 20,000 individuals and organizations in the spring of 1998, was an important and timely educational publication that received accolades from many thoughtful policy makers throughout the state.
Action If voters service and civic education are the heart of the League, action on program must be its soul. Based on positions developed as part of our government, social policy, and natural resources portfolios, the League lobbies our state legislators on more than 50 separate issues. Given the dynamics of the Legislature and the Governor's Office during these past two years, our efforts have often been forceful and timely—and sometimes successful! The state League routinely tracks more than 100 bills during the Legislature's two-year cycle at the direction of our Sacramento-based Program Director/Advocate, Trudy Schafer, and with the help of our Legislative Committee and 38 volunteer off-board program directors and legislative consultants. Based on legislative priorities approved by this cadre of volunteers and the state Board of Directors, 17 Calls to Action were sent to local Leagues in California on issues ranging from reproductive rights to youth violence prevention to online disclosure to local government revenues. These were often supplemented with more detailed information in our In the Capitol Corridors newsletters and our monthly UPDATES to local League presidents and other subscribers. Many League members used our advocacy materials to inform their local legislators and newspaper readers about our positions. We were particularly successful in our efforts to influence the passage of SB 49, the Online Disclosure Act, which now requires the routine and public disclosure of campaign financing and lobbyist reports to the Secretary of State's Office using electronic data. The League was also visible in last year's budget debate in opposing the vehicle license fee (VLF) cut—which may account for a VLF cut that was less severe than originally proposed (and a move to link future cuts to specific economic conditions). We have found that the synergies developed by joining in coalitions can substantially improve the effectiveness of League action. For example, working within the California Coalition for Reproductive Freedom, we successfully lobbied to defeat a number of bills that would have restricted women's reproductive rights in California. Statewide, we are much sought after by other groups because of our reputation as an effective and reliable political ally. Some of our most successful ballot measure campaigns, such as Proposition 226 in the 1998 primary election and Proposition 8 in the general election, resulted from important collaborative relationships with the California Teachers Association, the California PTA, and other educational organizations within the state. The breadth of state League action further increased this year as local Leagues voted to support positions on mental health care and public libraries. At the upcoming May Convention, delegates will have an opportunity to vote on a proposed action policy, using positions from all three of our portfolios (social policy, government, and natural resources), to address the issue of sustainable communities.
Thank You This catalog of accomplishments is truly impressive. I think all of our involved volunteers deserve a "pat on the back" for the tremendous job they do on behalf of the League. As members of the League, your gift of time and your generous financial support have created the outstanding reputation of the League of Women Voters as the preeminent citizen education organization in all of California. I am most grateful for what you have given to me—the opportunity to serve you and this wonderful organization—and I look forward to speaking "in-person" to many of you at our Convention in San Jose—save the dates—May 14-16! Karyn Gill, LWVC President
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