For more info and to pre-register, please contact by phone, text or email:Deanna – 201-965-1533 or deanna223albert@gmail.comSylvia – 857-222-1785 or sylmax99@yahoo.com
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By Rich Bartholomew, Advocacy Chair This article offers some tips for effectively interacting with elected officials and their staff. It recommends a three-step process: Prepare, Choose your Methods, and Follow Up. PREPARE Do your homework. In the LWV, we study before we advocate. Review our League Directory of Elected Officials to learn who represents you. Find it on our website, here: And check the Palm Beach County website at: Discover.PBCgov.org Get and analyze a copy of any bill/proposal you want to consider as well as any explanatory materials. This can usually be done on official websites, such as MyFloridaHouse.gov, where you can research bills before the Legislature. Contact the staff of the proposing official. Effective contact starts with the staff. These individuals set the officials’ schedule; review proposals/legislation; or perform “constituent service.” Develop staff relationships. Track any relevant media reports. “Google” the issue. Learn background information, such as biographies found on
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by Rich Bartholomew As residents and stakeholders within Palm Beach County, your ideas and input on the direction are critical to the progress of the county. The Board of County Commissioners and County Administration are committed to improving and moving the county in the right direction. Your input and feedback are valuable. Currently, a 10-minute, countywide policy and performance survey is available to the people of Palm Beach County. The survey is in English, Spanish, and Creole, and will be open through December 1, 2023. The data collected will offer valuable feedback to ensure the objectives and processes are in alignment with what is important to our residents. To participate in the survey, click on this link: https://arcg.is/0XfnaS1
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Registering voters has become more difficult and much more expensive This ANOTHER VIEWPOINT opinion by LWVFL Co-Presidents Cecile M. Scoon and Debbie Chandler was published Sept. 19 in the Sun-Sentinel. People and organizations across the country and of all political persuasions work to extend the fundamental right to vote to all lawful citizens. Many of these organizations are making special plans to push for potential voters to get registered on National Voter Registration Day, Sept. 19. Unfortunately, even as these organizations try to expand the franchise, there are a number of states making it harder for citizens to vote and adding difficulty to registering voters, including Florida. In a 2022 ruling, Chief U.S. District Judge Mark E. Walker found that Florida officials have spent the last 20 years intentionally making registering voters and voting more difficult by creating a variety of prohibitions erroneously. Since Walker’s order, the Florida Legislature has
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Autumn is here and we have a lot of volunteer opportunities to help with petitions and voter information resources. Your civic engagement, volunteerism and support is greatly appreciated. Please let us know if you can help with any of the events below. SIERRA CLUB MEET ’N’ GREET (Loxahatchee Group) Saturday, Oct. 21 Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge 10216 Lee Road, Boynton Beach 9:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. To volunteer, contact Pam Maldonado at MaldonadoPBC@gmail.com or Nancy Gau at JesseStar2@icloud.com FLORIDA EAST COAST BAPTIST ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE Saturday, Oct. 21, through Wednesday, Oct. 25 Different events, at several locations. To volunteer, contact Nancy Gau at JessieStar2@icloud.com BREAST CANCER BLOCK PARTY Saturday, Oct. 28 Friendship Missionary Baptist Church 718 Third St., West Palm Beach 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. To volunteer, contact Pam Maldonado at MaldonadoPBC@gmail.com or Nancy Gau at JessieStar2@icloud.com NAMI WALK Saturday, Nov. 4 John Prince Park, Eric Call
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By Rich Bartholomew, Advocacy Committee Chair What do you think should be the top policy priorities for local officials from Palm Beach County? Housing? Transportation? Crime? Taxes? Environment? Something else? How do you feel about the quality of life where we live? The network of local officials from all around our County, who comprise the Transportation Planning Agency, wants you to express your opinion about these and topics that are, or are not, related to transportation. You can do this by taking a very brief survey at: https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/834b7f353c294cf3831ae66e904b88e2 Assuming the TPA will not receive hundreds of thousands of inputs, League members who are interested in government policies can have an outsized impact on the responses they receive. Do you have 5 minutes to let them know what your informed opinions are? Take the survey today.
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PBC VOTING RIGHTS COALITION AND FLORIDA ELECTION PROTECTION COALITION ANNOUNCE FLORIDA VOTING & ELECTIONS MIS/DISINFORMATION WEEK FRIDAY 9/19 – FRIDAY 10/13 JOIN US IN HELPING SPREAD THE WORD 1- DO NOT AMPLIFY MIS/DISINFO BY RESPONDING 2- REPORT ANY MIS/DISINFO YOU SEE TO: https://reportdisinfo.org/
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By Rich Bartholomew, Advocacy Chair The Advocacy Committee is working to facilitate a “Thank You” press conference for our bipartisan Tallahassee Legislative Delegation, to be held Sept. 13 at the Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach. In spite of all the partisan divisions facing Florida, they worked together to produce an extraordinary number of grants and other benefits during the 2023 session. Their successes are recorded in their Annual Report. Access it here: Participants will include the Southeast Florida Behavioral Health Network, the Alpert Center, the Els Center and Boca Raton.
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In July, the Florida Board of Education passed African American History standards for grades K-12. These standards aim to teach the rich and complicated history of African Americans. This approval is just the start of a work in progress. The FLBOE has its next meeting on Aug. 23, and Families for Strong Public Schools is requesting the following be changed and/or added to the current standards: 1. Change the language of standards to address that enslaved people did not benefit from being enslaved. 2. Create and include standards that teach the history of the African diaspora to properly reflect the history of African peoples. 3. Create and include standards that teach about the African American experience post-1965 to the modern day. 4. Create and include standards for K-4 that exceed rote memorization and require students to analyze and assess the history of African Americans in grades 3 and 4. 5.
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