On December 7, 2024, LWVSP held its annual member luncheon at Holman’s Table at the St. Paul Municipal Airport. Our speaker and guest of honor was former Minnesota State Representative Betty Folliard, the Founder of ERA Minnesota.

She spoke powerfully and insightfully about the history of the federal Equal Rights Amendment, as well as her organization’s efforts to get it passed in Minnesota.

She also recounted ERA Minnesota’s work on the Minnesota state ERA amendment, which would constitutionalize the equal rights protections found in the Minnesota Human Rights Act. Ms. Folliard concluded her remarks with a call to action.

ERA Minnesota will hold a public Rally for Equal Rights at the State Capitol from 11:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. on January 14, 2025.

LWVSP was hard at work on voter outreach throughout Saint Paul, with efforts intensifying in the late summer up to Election Day. More than 20 League volunteers tabled at public events and in high schools, registering voters and distributing voter registration and election information. Our efforts reached hundreds of people, including high school students, formerly incarcerated persons, and the elderly.

Saint Paul Public Schools were a primary target of our voter outreach campaign. In 2024, we connected with all seven St. Paul public high schools, as well as two alternative programs.  In lunchrooms, assemblies, advisory classes, etc., we met students, shared voting information, and registered those eligible online on their phones.  In some schools, students partnered with us to mentor their peers. Over 100 students registered on the spot in schools, with many more finishing their applications outside of classrooms.

Sixteen senior living facilities invited us to assist their residents with the voter registration process. We also took part in community-sponsored gatherings where we distributed flyers and cards, as well as educated attendees about how to use reliable online voting information, available both at the State’s mnvotes.gov and the League’s own Vote411.org websites. In total we were present at more than twenty community events.

Not only was it a busy presidential election year, but many new election law changes adopted by the Minnesota legislature in 2023 came into effect this year. These changes included eligibility to vote for formerly incarcerated persons out on parole, as well as pre-registration for 16- and 17-year-olds (to activate voter registration on their 18^th birthday).

We have mapped out our books and their Book Club meeting dates for the first half of 2025! Morning Book Club meets at the Highland Park Library while evening Book Club meets via Zoom. Click on each book below for further details.

If you are interested in joining our book club, please contact Sharon Slettehaugh at s.slettehaugh@gmail.com or Heidi Kloempken at heidi.kloempken@gmail.com.

• January 8, 2025 – Morning Book Club: The Thirty-first of March: An Intimate Portrait of Lyndon Johnson by Horace Busby

• January 13, 2025 – Evening Book Club: A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purnell

• February 10, 2025 – Evening Book Club: The Hundred Years War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017 by Rashid Khalidi

• February 12, 2005 – Morning Book Club: Far Out Man: The Tales of Life in the Counterculture by Eric Utne

• March 10, 2025 – Evening Book Club: As Long as the Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice, from Colonization to Standing Rock by Dina Gilio-Whitaker

• March 12, 2025 – Morning Book Club: Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe

• April 9, 2025 – Morning Book Club: Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the Worldby Anne Applebaum

• April 14, 2025 – Evening Book Club: Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism by Rachel Maddow

• May 12, 2025 – Evening Book Club: The Rooster house: A Ukrainian Family Memoir by Victoria Belim

• May 14, 2025 – Morning Book Club: One Nation Under Guns: How Gun Culture Distorts Our History and Threatens Our Democracy by Dominic Erdozain

• June 9, 2025 – Evening Book Club: The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration by Jake Bittle

• June 11, 2025 – Morning Book Club: Believing: Our Thirty-Year Journey to End Gender Violence by Anita Hill

LWVSP is a member of CMAL (Council of Metropolitan Leagues of Women Voters) and LWV UMRR (Upper Mississippi River Region).

The Council of Metropolitan Area Leagues (CMAL) is an inter-League organization addressing governmental issues of concern to the entire Twin Cities Metro Area. All members of local LWVs in the seven-county metropolitan area are automatically members of CMAL. 

CMAL has issued its December 2024 Newsletter, which you can read here.

LWV Upper Mississippi River Region (UMRR) is an inter-League organization consisting of local Leagues in the states of Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin that are located within the Upper Mississippi River Region - a watershed region defined by the U.S. Geological Survey. UMRR’s work focuses on environmental and public health issues in the region.

UMRR’s December newsletter is available here.

At the 2024 National League of Women Voters Convention, state and local Leagues overwhelmingly agreed to conduct a new national study on the Federal Judiciary. The study seeks to address increasing concern about accountability, transparency, independence, and ethics in the federal court system, including at the Supreme Court level.

The study is set to be completed in a shortened time frame — conducted in just one year, with the final position set to be announced at LWVUS Council in June 2025.

Many state and local League chapters have convened their own study groups to drive adoption of the national resolution or to propose amendments. At our December Luncheon, we announced the convening of our own LWVSP study group. If you’d like to join, please send an email to lwvstpaul@lwvmn.org.

The LWVSP Morning Book Club discussed Dr. Anthony Fauci's memoire, On Call: A Doctor's Journey in Public Service, at its December 11 meeting. Notes on the discussion are below:

On Call by Dr. Fauci was generally viewed as an interesting book although some members felt he was too full of himself. The counter argument was he had to believe in himself to accomplish what he did.
 
He exhibited tenacity to continue his work despite all the attacks on it - for his AIDS work, for example, as well as COVID.
 
He had the opportunity to take high-level administrative jobs, but he wanted to keep his connection to patients and research. He was amazingly able to do and manage research, meet with patients and manage and set up programs as well as advise the president and play a role in the situation room. As a result he didn't spend much time with his family. He felt rewarded by his work and encouraged others to do public service. Although he felt badly that he couldn't cure AIDS patients.
 
Fauci talks of his many friends in all parties and positions. He was able to build relationships and never trashed anyone. He was always respectful and didn't take the attacks on him personally. He tried to be apolitical to get results and mastered the art of managing personal relationships which is unusual for a scientist, since they are usually not good with people.
 
He had to educate the president as well as the public but he was a cautious communicator not wanting the limelight.
 
Unfortunately, the preparation the Obama administration did to prepare for the next pandemic was ignored by Trump and likely will be again. So we will not be ready when the next one hits.
 
Doctors don't seem to know their power. They need to speak out as a group about our broken health care system but they are too tied to the systems.
 
Books and movies brought to mind by this book: How to Survive A Plague, Contagion, Outbreak, The Normal Heart and the Fifth Risk
 
The next book is The Thirty-First of March: An Intimate Portrait of Lyndon Johnson by Horace Busby. We will meet at the Highland Park Library, 1st floor, January 8th at 10:00 a.m.

Our two recorded Learn with the League programs from this fall are available on YouTube: 

"Use Your Indoor Voice!" Talking Points with Neighbors and Friends from October 22:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KZRrzF1nAQ

Youth Rule! Como High School Voting Project from November 19: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eDioLEztAQ

https://lwvstpaul-apparel.itemorder.com/shop/home/

We have partnered with Rebel Ink in Saint Paul to create an ordering website of LWV Saint Paul merchandise. The order window is now through November 17, for delivery by December 4 (estimated). Nona Beining, secretary, will distribute.

This is a limited selection, curated to fulfill our volunteers' needs. Please click on the link and order and pay for a hat and/or shirt that will help you represent LWV Saint Paul when you're out in public doing your important work!

THE BAG IS A FUNDRAISER! Show off your LWV pride with this lovely vintage-inspired bag. Buy one for a friend to make your holiday giving easy!

From your ChapterSpot navigator, Claudia Dieter

LWVUS is switching to a new member portal for all Leagues across the country. It’s called ChapterSpot. This new system will, among other things, change the way members join, pay their dues, and how the dues are allocated among the National, State, and Local Leagues.

There is no action that members need to take right now, but we want to provide you with an overview of what these changes mean for you. As of this writing, the new system is set to go into effect in early 2025.

Under the current system, members pay their dues to LWV Saint Paul. LWVSP then pays a fixed rate per member to LWV of Minnesota and to LWVUS. This is called “Per Member Payment (PMP)”. Under the new system, dues will be paid directly to LWVUS and who will allocate a percentage of the dues to State and Local Leagues.

When the system launches in January 2025, you will receive an email to log in to the ChapterSpot portal. Once you access the portal, you will be able to update your own information and sign up for auto-renewal, if you chose.

For those who join LWVSP after January 2025 their renewal date will be the date that they joined. If you are currently a member, your renewal date will continue to be August. 

When it comes time to renew, you will receive an email reminder. Dues will no longer be a fixed rate but will be a recommended rate of $75, with a minimum of $20. This is the same recommended rate for all members across the country, except for Honorary Life members.  A member is a member, regardless of the amount paid.

There will still be the option to renew by check for members who don't use the internet, but members who are able to access the portal and renew online are encouraged to do so.

This change will require LWVSP to review our bylaws and policies to ensure that they are compatible with the new system and processes. We will keep you informed as we have new and relevant information.