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Newsletter - April 14, 2022

LWVIN | Published on 4/14/2022


YOUR VOICE MATTERS!

LWVIN 2022 STATE COUNCIL -- Saturday, May 14

Westfield Washington Public Library (just north of Carmel)
Noon to 4 pm ET (11 am to 3 pm CT)
Zoom will start at 11:50 am ET

This will be a hybrid event that you can attend in person or via Zoom. For more details and to register go to https://lwvin.org/council

(All times ET)
11 am Registration in person
11:30 am Lunch in person
Noon Call to Order/Business Meeting

1 pm Presentations
State Senator Fady Qaddoura
Legislative Updates by Advocates
LWV Structure Taskforce -- Taylor Flanery
Education -- Jennifer McCormick
4:30 pm Adjourn

The Redistricting Quilt-in-process and the new redistricting maps will be on display. Please bring your squares or strips to contribute to the quilt top.
Local Leagues are urged to bring andshare brochuresand other written materials -- either hard copy or digitally.

Any League member can attend Council. Only delegates can vote on the slate and budget. Each local needs to select their delegates -- "delegates to the Council shall be the president of each recognized local League or an alternate, 2 additional delegates chosen by each local League, and the members of the state board."

Please view the slate and budget before Council HERE on the LWVIN website. If you have any comments or questions, please submit them under QUESTIONS on the website.

State Senator Fady Qaddourahas represented Indiana’s Senate District 30 since November, 2020. Fady is also civically active in Indianapolis’ not-for-profit community and has served on numerous boards, most notably the Marion County Criminal Justice Planning Council, the Early Prevention and Intervention Council, City Market, City-County Audit committee and the City-County Investment and IT boards. In 2022 Senator Qaddoura proposed a Senate Joint Resolution for a constitutional amendment to remove mapping responsibility from the legislature and introduced an amendment to HB 1285 to create a summer study committee on redistricting. Unfortunately, the election committee chose not to hear the resolution, and the majority caucus attorney ruled the amendment “non-germane” to HB1285. Sen. Qaddoura also offered a resolution--that the Senate passed--recognizing the work of the Indiana Citizens Redistricting Commission in 2021, thanking them for modeling a transparent, open process accessible to all Hoosiers.

Jennifer McCormick, an educator and our last elected IN State Superintendent of Public Instruction, was previously Superintendent of Yorktown Public Schools. She began her career as a special education teacher, then taught middle school language arts before moving into administration. Her education includes degrees from Purdue, Ball State, and IU. She has made the point to League members--and others--that redistricting decisions are crucial to the future of public education. She currently serves on the board of the Indiana Coalition for Public Education.


Taylor Flanery, LWV of Greater Lafayette, has been serving on the LWVUS StructureTask Force during the last year as they seek ways to implement the next stages in the LWVUS Transportation Road Map. She will give us an update on their progress and heads up about proposals that will come to a vote at Conventionin June. Links to the Transformation Roadmap and a progress update are under State Board Resources on the LWVIN website.

VOTE411 PROGRESS IN INDIANA

The local League VOTE411 teams (22) around the state are beginning to publish their VOTE411 Voter Guides.
It has not been an altogether smooth transition into the new software on the administrative side of VOTE411, but the candidates and voters as before should have a smooth interface with VOTE411. We can all be very proud of our local teams as they learn and share new information and respond to each other with support and guidance. We are fortunate to have access to a VOTE411 admin listserv so that we hear and learn from VOTE411 teams from across the nation. In the true spirit of the League, we are learning and leading together.

The National staff needs to be given credit for the tremendous amount of support they share with not only Indiana but the whole country. They are gracious, patient, and provide needed information in a timely and professional manner with limited staff and only 24 hours in the day. VOTE411 is truly a team effort.

Go to www.VOTE411.org and insert your address to see if your ballot information is available. If not, it will be soon. If you see an error, let your local team know. Our teams are great problem solvers and will get right on it.

At present there are two candidates for the Indiana U.S. Senate seat. Todd Young is running for reelection and Tom McDermott (current mayor for Hammond) is running on the opposite ticket. There are no primary challengers for either of them. Both campaigns have agreed to participate in VOTE411 and hopefully they will do so soon.

Let’s all make an effort to Get Out the Vote!

Joanne Evers, LWVIN Vote411 Coordinator


DEBATE/CANDIDATE FORUM WORKSHOP
Thursday, March 24,6pm CT/ 7pm ET
Dr. Elizabeth Bennion
Click HERE to watch the video!

WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE LEADER LUCIA EAMES BLOUNT (1841-1925)

A Women’s Suffrage Trail Marker honoring Lucia E. Blount will be installed on May 10 at EVPL Central Library, downtown Evansville. The unveiling event at1:00 pm that day is sponsored by LWVSWIN and the Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library (EVPL). Following this public event, there will be a reception in the library lobby for all attendees.

The new Central Library is believed to have been the approximate location of the Blount home (no longer in existence) in the late 1800s. It was in that home in May 1886, that Lucia Blount hosted Indiana women’s suffrage leader May Wright Sewell, who spoke to a group of women at a parlor meeting to encourage the local suffrage movement. A few days later, the Equal Suffrage Society of the first Congressional District of Indiana was formed with over 150 members.

Evansville suffragists took the lead as district organizers, helping form suffrage groups in the district’s smaller communities. On November 4 and 5, 1887, Evansville hosted a district convention of the Indiana National Woman’s Suffrage Association, at which the keynote speaker was Susan B. Anthony. Though Blount had left Evansville before 1887, she had raised awareness of women’s suffrage and had drawn to southwestern Indiana the attention of national and state organizers, including Anthony, Helen M. Gougar, and Ida Husted Harper, who co-edited The History of Woman Suffrage with Susan B. Anthony.

LWVSWIN members Roberta Heiman and Lezlie Simmons did the research and writing to obtain the marker grant on behalf of LWVSWIN. The marker honoring Blount is one stop along theWomen’s Suffrage Trail sponsored by the National Collaboration for Women’s History Sites. For a list and map of locations of other markers, see the NCWHS website at https://ncwhs.org/.
This marker was provided through a grant from the William G. Pomeroy FoundationGet a preview of the Blount marker – still in its shipping box – in the photo above.

CLICK HERE TO ATTEND THE CLIMATE CHANGE FORUM IN PERSON ($25)
CLICK HERE TO ATTEND THE CLIMATE CHANGE FORUM VIRTUALLY ($15)