Northfield League of Women Voters and Cannon Falls Business Meeting, 9:30-10:00 a.m., September 29, 2007, St. Johns Lutheran Church
Attendees: 47
Review of Topics for the Coming Year: Kathy Tezla (President 2007/08), reviewed the topics that were suggested by LWV members at the Spring Planning Meeting and some additional topics that have been brought to the league for action by the State LWV. Topics to be addressed in the coming year include:
- Voter Education for Fall 2008: The league will begin a local program of voter education and training in anticipation of the upcoming elections in 2008. Eve Webster made an appeal for volunteers to help with this important initiative.
- College Campus Outreach: The league will initiative a leadership training program for St. Olaf and Carleton campuses.
- Openness in Government Decision Making: Kathy Tezla reported on the meeting that she and Eve Webster had with Mayor Lee Lansing, City Administrator Al Roder and City Attorney Maren Swanson earlier in September (see NLWV for more details). The LWV will continue to play a “watchdog” role to foster right practices by the City regarding transparency and reliability/consistency in public processes.
- Need for Observers for City Council Meetings: Volunteers are urged to contact volunteer coordinator Hilary Ziols to offer to observe and report on Northfield’s City Council meetings. (see note below: Victor Summa stressed the importance of this function to ensuring the “transparency” of local government processes.)
- Upcoming Studies: Immigration Consensus Process – will get underway now until January. Kathy will lead this effort and asks for the help of 1-2 volunteers to help organize community discussion towards the development of a “grass roots agreement position” on the issue of immigration. Kathy has been in touch with the ACT office at Carleton College and anticipates that Carleton students will become involved in this project.
- Catalyst Editor Needed: A volunteer is needed to coordinate and edit the Catalyst. Eve Webster suggested that now that with the new web site in place – the Catalyst might be effectively “streamlined” to work in conjunction with the web page, and to be easier to produce and manage. An informal poll was taken to gauge interest in having Catalyst be: a. print only; b. print and online; or c. online only. The majority of those present favored an online only Catalyst, but noting the 4-5 hands in favor of a print only version, Nancy Cantwell suggested that the Catalyst be offered online and printed copies distributed to those members without online access. Kathy T said that this suggestion/solution would be taken under advisement.
- Issue of Judicial Selection – will be an ongoing topic of concern for the League this year (including our featured speaker for this meeting).
Solicitation of New Topic Suggestions from the Audience
Local Governance: Eve Webster encouraged the LWV to take an ongoing role in relation to the City’s recent internal political woes – and to ask what role we might play in mediating, presenting issues and information to the public.
Victor Summa responded that the aforementioned importance of both the Catalyst and the LWV Observers at City Council Meetings were of critical importance to fostering “transparency” and right and reliable practice on the part of the City’s processes.
Involvement in the Revision of the Northfield Comp Plan: Suzie Nakasian expressed the hope that the League’s involvement in local governance would include participation as monitors of Northfield’s Comp Plan and Ordinance revision process: to ensure that the impressive and well thought out “development principles” that the Northfield community has articulated in this process to date are adequately reflected in the revised Comp Plan and Land Use Ordinances which are now being re-written, and which will be reviewed and approved over the next eight weeks.
Book Discussion Groups: Jan Mitchell reminded the group that LWV’s book discussion group has been reinstituted after a two year hiatus. The main focus of the group this year is the environment. (Note to file: the League’s first joint book group with CRWP was held on 9/28 and was very successful.) A sign-up sheet was placed on the membership table at the entrance to the meeting room.
How the LWV Works – Coffee & Discussion Groups: Judy Covey introduced that she will resume the practice of hosting small informal coffee and discussion groups at her home which will discuss how the league works. Sign-up sheets were also provided.
Ongoing Web Development: Catherine Christian and Judy Covey were thanked (with warm applause) for their hard work revising the League’s web site and all were encouraged to go to the site and become familiar with it. The URL is http://lwvnorthfieldmn.org/
Introduction of the Featured Speaker, Professor Dale Carpenter - Janet Petri-Zorn
Respectfully submitted,
Suzie Nakasian, Secretary, September 30, 2007
