CALENDAR Ι NASHVILLE VOTER

The Nashville Voter

Volume 77, No 5

Welcome to this issue of the LWVN Voter. You'll notice that the Emma page design allows you to access the LWVN Calendar by pressing a button at the top of the page!

Please note, you can increase your screen size within your personal information manager (i.e., Microsoft Outlook). In the Microsoft Outlook Message Bar at the top of the e-mail page, choose "Other Actions'' and then in the dropdown menu choose "Zoom." The Zoom window allows you to increase the file size; try 140% for easier onscreen reading.

Also, please note that if you want to share/forward this newsletter to others, you MUST click on the envelope icon at the upper right side of this emailed version.

League Events

Saturday, June 1. League of Women Voters Nashville Annual Membership Drive. The Membership Committee is launching their Annual Membership Drive. If you are interested in helping grow our organization and promote voter participation and education, reach out to Reba Holmes at lwvnash@gmail.com.

Friday, June 7 at 12:00-1:00pm via Zoom. June Hot Topic: The Oasis Center. Located in Nashville, the Oasis Center is a nationally-recognized organization on a mission to help young people in Middle Tennessee move into a happy, healthy, and productive adulthood. Every year, they engage more then 3,500 youth and families across a broad spectrum of programs and services designed to help them reach their full potential. Join us next Friday at Noon via Zoom! Click here to register.

Sunday, June 23 at 2:30pm at the Green Hills Library. League of Women Voters of Nashville Annual Meeting. Mark your calendars for our Annual Meeting! Details below!

President's Message

We hope you will join us for the annual meeting on Sunday, June 23, at 2:30 p.m. at the Green Hills Library! You should have received an email invitation along with a link where you can download a packet of information about the meeting. I always look forward to the annual meeting because it is a great time to catch up and reflect on the year.

At this meeting we will go over some changes that are happening with membership, renewals, and dues collection. Starting in 2025, the US LWV will collect dues for the leagues and automate the renewal process. I am excited about this change because I think we will benefit from this updated process. This does mean that we will need to make some changes to our bylaws at the annual meeting in anticipation of this new process. The board would also like to propose that we raise membership dues to $75.00. The US LWV is setting the dues amount at $75.00, and there will also be a “pay what you can” structure to make sure that league membership is accessible to all. This new system will also impact our higher dollar memberships. In the past, many of you have joined the league at the higher-level memberships or added a donation on top of your dues. At the annual meeting, we will discuss how we will be doing our membership drive this year in anticipation of all these changes.

If you have any questions about these changes or the annual meeting, email me at lwebbteacher@gmail.com. I will continue to send out updates regarding these changes.

I’m looking forward to seeing you at the annual meeting!

Volunteer Opportunity Reminder: LWVN Focus Group for High Schoolers

The Voter Services Committee have put together a focus group of teens from several high schools. They met with them via Zoom to learn about the issues that matter most to them, how they use social media to get informed about these issues, and where our organization can meet with students to talk about voting in the summer.

If you know of any high schoolers interested in participating in our virtual focus groups, please encourage them to sign up here: bit.ly/LWVNFocusGroup. Students participating in the focus group will also receive one free year of membership with the League of Women Voters.

June's Hot Topic Guest Speaker Joseph Clark with the Oasis Center

Join us for the June Hot Topic as we hear from Joseph Clark of the Oasis Center on the state of Tennessee’s children and youth. The Oasis Center provides support and services to families and youth as they navigate the challenges of life in America. Joseph is the Director of the Just Us program at Oasis which is focused on LGBTQ+ youth support. See you at Noon via Zoom! Register here.

Healthcare/Public Health
By Constance Caldwell and Clare Sullivan

A Jewel in the Midst

Taking a break from legislative activity, members of the Health Care/Public Health Committee made a field trip to the new home of the Tennessee Justice Center at 155 Lafayette Street, 37210, the Napier Community. This is an impressive building with multiple advocacy programs being affected within it to improve lives statewide. TJC has built a team of volunteers and professionals working to improve access to health care, improving nutritional services to mothers and children, assisting individuals without lawyers to navigate the legal system in debt collection and eviction issues, and advocating for laws that correct the many disparities which affect successful living.

The building itself which displays art work on its exterior is worth seeing as you learn of the community's history. There are also interior displays of community and city history.

You can make appointments to tour the facility through Ms. Chanda Freeman, (615) 846-4717, x1302. This is a jewel which needs to be displayed.

Voter Services
By Kathryn Anderson and Kalen Russell

The Voter Services Committee participated in Spring Fest at Nashville State Community College. Anne Smith, Anne Lucas, Arleen Tuchman, and Kathy Anderson staffed our booth at the festival. They registered a few students during the visit as most of the students were already registered! Students were provided with information about the next elections.

LWVNashville Student Focus Groups: The committee set up two focus groups to talk to students. The first group was hosted by Carole Kenner at her home and consisted of 11 college students (Belmont, TSU, and UT- Chattanooga). Kathy Anderson and Carole Kenner ran the meeting, and had a long discussion with them about their interests (policy, government, activism) and how to better get out the message that young people should vote. They made very useful suggestions on the ways to interact with young voters outside of the classroom and on social media.

Our second focus group was virtual. Eight high school students from 5 different high schools in our county joined Kathy Anderson, Kalen Russell, Ophelia Doe, and Patricia Brock for a one-hour discussion. We got some great suggestions for revising our social media and developing a strategy to reach young voters. These new ideas included a blog, a mural, and catchy posters that some of the artists and writers in our group can help us develop. We also learned about their political concerns. Social justice in many dimensions is at the top of their list. We were impressed with their enthusiasm and creativity.

Our focus groups gave us new ideas on how to increase participation of young people in our local elections. We plan to hold groups like these next year. Our next step is to implement these ideas this summer. Our new staff member, Patsy Coleman, joins us this week. We look forward to working with Patsy to improve our marketing and voter registration efforts before the November election.

Membership
By Reba Holmes

Annual Membership Drive

It’s that time again… Our annual membership drive will begin June 1, 2024.

Membership allows you to share a year’s worth of experiences promoting democracy, educating others in the community, participating in political discourse, registering new voters, to name a few. Plus, the annual membership includes membership to the national, state, and local LWV organizations. Details regarding the various support levels may be found on our website. Details regarding the various support levels may be found on our website <http://lwvnashville.org/join/.

Welcome New and Returning Members

With great delight, we announce and welcome our new and returning members that joined the Nashville League of Women Voters. It is our privilege to welcome these individuals to the organization.

We are grateful to these members and all our members that support the League’s activities, programs, and underwriting.

We Are Looking for Volunteers

We are thrilled to announce that we are establishing a Membership Committee to provide guidance during the annual membership drive and develop other vital membership-related programs. We invite you to join the new committee to serve as membership communication lead, recruiting lead, social media lead, etc.

Committee Job Description:

The committee will provide a strategic vision to increase membership, focusing on effective, comprehensive growth, new member integration, and membership retention.
Develop a program designed to mentor new members, specifically young adult members.
Increase awareness regarding the League throughout our community by working with other portfolio managers to develop a communication and outreach program.
Develop annual renewal implementation procedures, timeline, communication, and follow-up.
Develop a strategy to recruit potential members across various demographics.
Work in partnership with other portfolio managers, e.g., Voter Services, Education, Metro Council, etc.

Meeting Schedule: The initial meeting will be held via Zoom. We will meet a minimum of once a month after the first meeting.

If you are interested in serving on the committee, please send an email expressing your interest to lwvnash@gmail.com

Share Your Comments

We want to hear from you. Share your comments regarding in the League of Women Voters, Protecting Voting Rights, Fairness in Voting, etc. Email your comments to lwvnash@gmail.com.

Environment
By Russanne Buchi-Fotre and Jack McFadden

Earth Day, held on Saturday, April 20 at Centennial Park was a tremendous success. It was a well-attended family fun event that brought the Nashville community together to celebrate and browse 75 booths set up by and for sustainable environmental enthusiasts. The day featured educational opportunities, gave away 750 trees, provided music, kids activities, an Electric Vehicle car show and Earth talk speakers.

May is Clean Air Month - it is an opportunity to celebrate the improvements in air quality since the passage of the Clean Air Act in 1970 and to build awareness of all that still needs to be done.

The Rally for Clean Energy scheduled on May 8th had to be postponed unfortunately due to severe weather conditions. Learn more by clicking here.

Stay tuned for updates!

Metro Council

By Pat McCauley and Karen Hernan

VOTING/ ELECTIONS

Mark your calendars! The Election Commission is now accepting absentee ballot requests for the August election. Here are other important voting dates:

7/2/24: Voter Registration Deadline
7/12/24 – 7/27/24: Early Voting
7/25/24: Absentee Ballot Request Deadline
8/1/24: Election Day

Ballot Signature Petition Challenges

Case 1: Laura Nelson, Republican, challenged Justin Jones, Democrat, ballot petition. Jones has submitted 26 signatures and the Election Commission disqualified 1 signature. They qualified his petition as acceptable for candidacy for State House District 52. Days later, with the assistance of Scott Golden, the Republican Party Chair, Nelson challenged 10 signatures. At the hearing, she changed it to challenging 3 signatures, which just happened to coincide with the 3 people who were not at hearing.

Jones had been given a second deadline to respond to challenge by the Election Commission as legislature was in session, and he had notification that his petition was valid. One evening from 7pm to 10pm he knocked on all 10 people’s challenged signatures with a notary and got 10 affidavits from challenged signatures with photos. Nelson objected to the extension and may use that to appeal. After a 3-hour hearing, EC voted to accept the petition. Vote was 3 yes, 1 no, and 1 abstention. Most of the controversy was over Jennifer who left one N out of her name.

Jennifer was called on Facetime and sworn in, and stated to the commission that was her signature. She said she goes by Jen and couldn’t really explain why she left out an N, but it was in fact, her signature.

Case 2: Bo Mitchell, Democrat, challenged Jennifer Frensley Webb, Republican, ballot petition. Webb had submitted 31 signatures. The Election Comission had disqualified 5 and qualified her petition as candidate for State House District 50. She is currently a council person in Metro Nashville. Mitchell challenged 6 signatures and brought a forensic document examiner to testify as an expert and a lawyer to serve as his representative. One of the signatures was a father signing for his son who is currently serving overseas in the military. Webb said she withdraws that signature, so now she is down to the minimum 25. The Election Commission struck one of Webb’s accepted signatures, but reinstated 2 of her rejected signatures, allowing her to stay on the ballot. Mitchell’s counsel asked that the father who signed for his son be submitted to DA for charges as signing for someone else is a Class D felony. The Election Comission did not state whether they would or would not do this as it was not on the agenda. This was also a 3-hour hearing.

PUBLIC SAFETY/ TRANSPORTATION/ TRAFFIC/ POLICE

Passed 2nd and 3rd reading was an ordinance to require reporting of use of force by the

Metropolitan Nashville Police Department. Requires a quarterly report to the metro council.

GENERAL

Resolution approving the move of TPAC to the East Bank was adopted.

Education

By Patricia Brock and Harper-Grace Niedermeyer

The Education Committee has been busy tracking the aftermath of Education bills this past session. Here's what we're tracking:

The Voucher School bill did not pass during the recent legislative session.
Guns in the classroom bill did pass, however, school districts have the authority to decide if they will allow teachers to bring firearms inside the buildings and/or classrooms.
There is discussion regarding rising 4th graders being tested again to ascertain if skills needed were attained in 3rd grade. The concern is that this group of children may be targeted
The MNPS board meeting of April 24 rejected five (5) charter school applications due to making a clear case for their proposals as it relates to improving student success.
MNPS/Vanderbilt collaboration for rising senior students receiving full ride scholarships is being discussed to begin in 2025.