Lawrence-Douglas County LWV Annual Meeting

Our League held our annual meeting and brunch on Saturday, May 3, 2025 at Bishop Seabury Academy.  A quorum was present. We learned from KU Professor Amii Castle’s very current talk “What is due process and why is it a big deal?”

In the business meeting, the financial report, audit report, and next year’s budget were approved.  President Sonja Czarnecki reported on League activities in the last year.  We heard from the Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Study Group on their progress.  The nominating committee presented a slate of nominees for officer and board member positions and members voted to elect the nominees. A full list of the Board of Directors and Officers is printed in this newsletter.

The annual meeting concluded with directions to the Board from members and a thank you to Sonja Czarnecki for her leadership as president. 

Thanks to all who prepared food for and attended the annual meeting.

An Educational Forum: Constitution at a Crossroads with Leading Kansas

This is a public forum hosted by Leading Kansas centering on issues of constitutional and immigration law, Constitution at a Crossroads, and will be held on June 28th from 2-4pm at Woodruff Auditorium on KU’s campus.  You can read speaker bios and learn more about the event at: https://leadingkansas.org/constitutionatacrossroads/ 

From Katy Tyndell, co-president: “Leading Kansas is a nonpartisan organization in Wichita launched back in March with the sole mission of holding our leaders accountable to the people.  The hope was (and still is) that in this crazy time, we can all unite under an umbrella org that stands for four primary tenets: defending freedoms, protecting institutions, securing Kansas, and championing the truth.  Basically, we have to protect our democracy—which is a decidedly nonpartisan venture—in order to fight the political and issue-specific battles of tomorrow.  Here’s a recent opinion piece that ran in the Kansas City Star Journal that gives a little bit of an overview of the organization, in case you’re interested: https://www.kansascity.com/opinion/readers-opinion/guest-commentary/article307701845.html  If you run into trouble accessing the full article without a subscription, try this link instead: https://archive.is/fZFYZ”

“Since the bulk of Leading Kansas’ current membership is in the Wichita area, we could really use help from folks on the ground in your area to spread the word about the forum and help us boost attendance.  Our goal is to fill every single one of those 499 seats to send a signal to our lawmakers that we are paying attention and—thanks to the legal experts who have agreed to speak—we are going to be armed with the truth about constitutional checks and balances and the limits of Executive power.”

See flyer below for more information about speakers. 

Harvard University is offering free public education in their series “We The People: Civic Engagement in a Constitutional Democracy.”  The goal of the series is for participants to “gain a foundational knowledge of America constitutional democracy while crafting your own civic voice and identity.”  You can learn more about this series and enroll in free courses at 

https://pll.harvard.edu/course/we-people-civic-engagement-constitutional-democracy

Thanks to Ruth Litchwardt for information about this free public education series. 

Representatives of 7 of the 8 Kansas local Leagues attended the convention.  Another keynote session was led by Mike Fonkert, Deputy Director Kansas Appleseed Center for Law and Justice Kansas,  “Appleseed's Legislative Advocacy 2025.”

The business session included the nominating committee report and election of board members and officers. Doris Ricks of Lawrence-Douglas County served on the nominating committee.

Officers, two-year term, 2025-2027: 

President(s): Marlene Merrill, Lawrence-Douglas County 

First Vice President: Teresa Briggs, Emporia 

Treasurer: Marie Hernandez, Johnson County 

Secretary: Linda Uthoff, Manhattan-Riley County 

Elected Directors, two-year term, 2025-2027 (Four): 

Director: Cille King, Lawrence-Douglas County (Advocacy) 

Director: Janice Walker, Great Bend (Intra-League Co-Coordinator) 

Director: Vicki Arnett, Topeka-Shawnee County (Intra-League Co-Coordinator)

Other business meeting actions included approval of the budget and these reports and actions: 

Approved Public School Funding Position Statement- Marlene Merrill and Jim Edwards 

Status Update on Climate Change Study - Vicki Arnett and Carol Williamson 

Status Update on Election Integrity and Misinformation Study - Harry Bognich

Update on the dedication of the Suffragist Memorial at the Kansas Capitol - Cille King

The convention ended with a heartfelt thank you to Martha Pint for her years of service as LWVK President.  

Ten members of our League visited Lawrence High, Free State High, Baldwin High and PeasleeTech in April and again in May to register new voters.  We had conversations with 46 students and registered 9 new voters.  We didn’t need to visit Eudora High because they make sure all seniors are registered to vote while in school.  We had good visibility in front of several hundred potential new voters.Through a grant, we purchased t-shirts to give to young voters who register to vote.  Pictured is a young voter with their new tshirt. The remainder of these tshirts are available to League members at our voter information tabling events for a suggested donation of $20. 

Marlaine Stoor and Charley Crabtree visited several dozen energetic young girls at the American Legion Auxillary Kansas Sunflower Girls State on Wednesday, June 4, 2025.  At the Burge Union on the KU campus we had conversations with 37 future voters and registered 14 new voters.  There were several younger girls there who were not eligible to register, but were very interested anyway.  We had good exposure in front of many potential new young voters!

Submitted by Charley Crabtree, Voter Services Co-Chair