Newsletter - October 17, 2024 - League of Women Voters of Indiana

PRESIDENTS DAY 2024 RECAP

The League of Women Voters of Johnson County hosted President’s Day on Saturday, October 5, 2024 at Heritage Hall on the Johnson County Fairgrounds, Franklin, IN.

Approximately 40 league members from across the state participated in the event. Local league presidents/spokespersons spoke to their local league’s successes, failures and lessons learned over the past year.Lunch was catered by McAlister’s Deli in Franklin.

Two workshops were presented to members:

The Indiana Supreme Court:Sonia Leerkamp, LWV of Brown County informed members of the history, landmark decisions, and the appointment/retention of Supreme Court judges.

GOTV: Barb Tully, LWV of Indianapolis, spoke to members about the program that was developed by LWV of Indianapolis to facilitate voter registration for high school seniors. Shaina Miller, LWV Muncie-Delaware County, spoke about Voter Activation on the Ball State Campus through a program for which the League is a supportive partner.

President’s Day recognizes the service of past presidents of LWVIN. Past presidents in attendance were Ginny Webb, LWV of Greater Lafayette, Paulette Vandegriff, LWV of Hancock County, and Linda Hanson, LWV of Muncie-Delaware County.

To see more photos from the event go HERE.

Special Events Committee members Paulette Vandegriff (chair), Linda Hanson, Meg Connolly, Pam Locker, Tom Gardiner, and Linda Dunn -- and Karen Lunsford from the Johnson County League – planned this event.

IDOE HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA REVAMP INFORMATION

The Indiana Department of Education’s (IDOE) effort to redesign our high school diplomas has reached the second draft stage: the proposal has been published. The overall second draft is unchanged, including the base diploma, the six optional “readiness seals,” and the work-based learning requirements. The quick timeline is unchanged, and the new diplomas must be approved by December 31, 2024. Indiana’s current 8th graders, the Class of 2029, would be the first to use these diplomas.

Significant questions remain about academic rigor, cost, staff, and implementation of work-based learning. Click HERE to see a summary comparison with the existing Core40 Diploma.For an article on the second draft, go HERE.

Click HERE to submit comments.

Linda Hanson, LWVIN President

IMPORTANT DATES

November 8, 10 am ET

Public Comment Hearing on Diploma Proposal
Indiana Government Center South, 302 West Washington Street, Conference Room B, Indianapolis

November 12, 10 am ET

State Board of Education Meeting

REGIONAL ZOOM MEETING OCTOBER 24

Regional Zoom meetings are providing a rich opportunity for sharing information and strategies as we try to get voters to the polls. The third regional meeting will be October 24, 6 PM EDT—for Central Indiana Leagues (Indianapolis, Muncie/Delaware County, Anderson/Madison County, Henry County, Hancock County, Hamilton County, Howard County, Montgomery County, Greencastle, Johnson County). League leaders will receive the zoom link invitation next week. We’ll hold the meeting to an hour so we can all watch the gubernatorial debate hosted by The Indiana Debate Commission from 7-8 PM EDT.

Please volunteer!

The Voter Services Committee is looking for volunteers to support the collection, analysis, and the writing of a statewide election report following the 2024 election. The skills and responsibilities necessary to produce our report are spelled out HERE. Email: voterservicelwvin@gmail.com.

CITIZENS' HANDBOOK

The latest event promoting our Citizens’ Handbook was held on Facebook! The Q&A with authors Darren & Stacy Wheeler was recorded and you can watch it HERE.

As she’d done for women’s suffrage in three states, Jeannette passed out fliers during her run for Congress.

FORGOTTEN FOREMOTHERS
Profiles of lesser-known heroines in the fight for women's rights

Jeannette Rankin

While Jeannette had always been an advocate for women’s rights, her move to Seattle in 1910 brought her to a significant juncture in history. As Mary Barmeyer O’Brien wrote in the novel Jeannette Rankin: Bright Star in the Big Sky, “The people of Washington were preparing to vote on women suffrage. ... [Jeannette] began traveling up and down the sidewalks of Seattle for the cause, pasting up posters and organizing suffrage meetings,” even bravely traveling into neighborhoods known to be particularly opposed to suffrage. In November 1910, Washington became the fifth state in the country to extend voting rights to women.

This success sparked a fire in Jeannette. She returned to New York and helped organize the New York Women Suffrage Party and worked with the National American Women Suffrage Association, pushing for women’s suffrage in New York and advocating in Washington, D.C. While visiting home for the holidays that year, she considered how she could support women’s suffrage in Montana as well. She helped found the Equal Franchise Society and wrote to the Montana legislature to ask for an opportunity to speak on the subject. This opportunity was granted, “but it wouldn’t be an easy job,” Mary said. “For eight years the all-male Montana legislature had been discussing suffrage, often joking and laughing about it.”

Activists had been pursuing women’s suffrage in Montana even during its days as a territory, starting, much like in Indiana and other states, with the efforts of Women’s Christian Temperance Union. Through the 1890s, the NAWSA held events and hosted speakers, including the League’s own Carrie Chapman Catt. When 30-year-old Jeannette spoke to the legislators in February 1911—the first woman in Montana to ever do so—she stood upon ground carved out by those suffragists before her and she came with the new generation of suffragists, including her younger sisters, beside her.

Jeannette herself knew this history well. In a speech in 1918, she said, “Every great woman who stands out in our history—Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Clara Barton, Mary Livermore, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Frances Willard, Lucy Stone, Jane Addams, Ella Flagg Young, Alice Stone Blackwell, Anna Howard Shaw, Mrs. Catt—all have asked the Government to permit women to serve more effectively the national welfare. All have felt that the energy, the thought, and the suffering that was spent in trying to obtain permission to serve directly should as quickly as possible be turned to the actual service. And in the meantime they did all they could indirectly.”

You can read this entire article HERE.

Kathryn S Gardiner

The Representative from Montana: Jeannette Rankin in 1916.

Newspapers across the nation, including the the Indianapolis Sunday Star, shared the story of “The Lady from Montana” becoming the nation’s first “lady congressman.”

Pam Locker, Editor, LWVIN Voter

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Newsletter - October 17, 2024