by Eve Webster
The Board of the Directors of the League of Women Voters Northfield-Cannon Falls (LWVNCF) meets at 6:30-9 p.m. on the first Tuesday of each month in the Just Foods meeting room, 516 Water Street South. Members are welcome.
The best financial news from the Sept 2nd board meeting is that LWVNCF has been awarded two large voter education grants. Through the efforts of Anne Ness (N) and Katie Hall (CF), we received a Martin & Brown grant to fund our candidate forums and other voter education projects this fall. Our second award, a State of Democracy grant submitted by Eve Webster, will support a major LWVNCF effort to engage Carleton and St. Olaf students in grassroots shaping of public policy. They will be invited to our September 27th Kickoff on judicial independence which will be held on the St. Olaf campus. Carleton students will be bussed to St. Olaf.
Our hard-working Voter Education team chaired by Ann Ness and Marcia Walters has several candidate forums planned. Its next event, a “Walkabout” for school board candidates at the Middle School, will be on Oct 21st. (Special thanks to Marcia for stepping in when Cindy Berquist resigned because of time conflicts.) The Cannon Falls branch of LWVNCF, which originated the idea of a candidate walkabout, will have their multi-race event on Oct 11th. Northfield’s Primary Election forum for Mayor and Councilor Candidates is our very first video webcast on lwvnorthfieldmn.org! A click on “Blog” at top-right of our website home page will take you to a replay of the forum, which is also being re-run on NTV.
The webcast is thanks to LWVNCF’s webmaster, Catherine Christian, and her technical assistant, Sean Hayford O’Leary, a Northfielder who has entered St. Olaf this fall. They have worked all summer making our website more attractive and user-friendly. For information about our Kickoff and other September events, check out the new calendar Catherine and Sean added to our website. To reach the calendar, click on “Upcoming Events” at the top right of the Homepage. To get the correct month, move the horizontal arrows next to “Today” in the top left corner of the calendar page. To get a chronological listing of events, click on “agenda” at top right of the calendar page. If you want information about a specific event, return to the calendar and click on the date of that event.
The board spent much of its meeting discussing upcoming events including our first League Salon, Sept. 16th. The revival of the “unit” meeting format is Janet Petri’s brainchild. Our goal is to give members an opportunity to meet monthly, form friendships and enjoy spirited conversation about current public policy issues in an informal setting. On the 16th, we will watch a video of former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor speaking on judicial independence. (All League Salon meetings will be held at Friends Meetinghouse, 313 ½ Division Street, 7-9 p.m. on the second or third Tuesday of each month.)
Thanks to Clare Muffley, LWVNCF’s college student intern, LWVMN will offer moderator training at St. Olaf on Sept. 26th. Jessica and Eve, who attended forum and moderator training last month, both recommend the course which is taught by Geri Nelson.
On Sept. 13th, one board member, Kiffi Summa, will celebrate her 52nd anniversary and another, Jessica Peterson, will be married! Congratulations!
