June 2007

KEEPING UP

League of Women Voters, New Britain Area Bulletin

June 2007

Editor: Ada Seaman 224-1858

Visit our Website: http://www.lwvct.org/lwvnba E-mail: lwvnba@lwvct.org

Strawberry Social

Monday, June 18, 2007

7 p.m.

Please join us for strawberry shortcake & beverages at:

Joe & Linda Cimadon’s

115 Woods Edge Court

Berlin, CT

Free

Hear the state convention reports by Helen Lech, Marianna Koziol Dube and Helen Z. Pearl

Learn more about the League – Friends Welcome!

RSVP

Ada Seaman, 224-1858

Or Joe Cimadon, 828-1015

Directions to the Cimadon’s: From Corbin Ave. in New Britain

or Route 72-372 take Route 71A South, also known as High Road. Road name will change to Chamberlain Highway. Pass Mobil Station & Gnazzo’s Marketplace on the left. After those businesses, take the 4^th right on to West Lane (only about ¼ mile). Take first left on to Woods Edge Ct. The Cimadon’s home is the last house on left side of street in the cul-de-sac.

Annual Meeting

The 34^th annual meeting of the League of Women Voters was held on May 21, 2007 at Angelico’s Restaurant in New Britain. The sumptious dinner was followed by a wonderful speech given by Hartford Courant reporter Joann Klimkiewicz after which Co-President Helen Z. Pearl convened the business meeting.

At the brief business meeting the new slate of officers was presented and accepted as well as the proposed 2007-2008 budget. A brief bylaws report was made. Local programs for New Britain and Berlin were accepted with no changes from the previous year.

Ms. Klimkiewicz began with quotes from the New York Times about the dress of U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi. She then read descriptions of male and female TV reporters from other media sources; the dress of the female reporters was described in great detail whereas the men were given brief description if any.

The descriptions of dress appearing in the media undermine the seriousness of women’s work. It underscores for girls that they need to be concerned about their looks before anything else.

Ms. Klimkiewicz continued saying that her concern is not so much with the corporate media, but with what we as women are doing about this situation. Ms. Klimkiewicz raised examples of pop culture stars who are dressing in ways that make women objects. She raised the question of whether celebrity women are encouraging these images by cooperating, posing for media and/or wearing clothing which is sexually blatant?

Raunch culture supporters feel they are choosing their style and participating in a world which has been limited to men in the past. The speaker believes that these women have been duped by advertising and cultural pressures. Teen magazines pressure young women to be concerned with a materialistic approach to life and with being most concerned with their image. Ms. Klimkiewicz voiced concerns that today’s young women are too busy with their image to discover who they are and to understand and develop their own power.

She recommends that we call the media on it. We also should look out for specific young women in our lives. We need to debunk the media messages which are influencing their lives. We need to comment less on looks and on more on what we can do developing our minds and hearts. Ms. Klimkiewicz ended with a quote from Mahatma Gandhi: “Be the change you wish to see in the world. Be the change.”

On May 22, 2007 a voter registration session was held at the E.C. Goodwin Technical School in New Britain by the local registrars of voters. Gladys Feigenbaum assisted with information for students. 67 new voters were made, in sharp contrast to the 30 new voters made at the New Britain High School in March. Over 3000 students attend the High School and approximately 450 students at the technical school. Gladys Feigenbaum, our voter registration coordinator, believes the League should make some move to influence the school administration to become involved and promote more participation of their students. We would welcome any ideas in this regard for next year’s mandated high school registration sessions.

The New Britain Chamber of Commerce’s Interservice Club Luncheon was held on May 31, 2007 at Zabbara’s restaurant. We, as well as four other clubs, were represented. Each organization nominated an outstanding member.These names were shown in the event’s program book. Our nomination was co-treasurer Joe Cimadon.

Member Arnold Schwartz, again was pictured in a news article in the Herald’s June 2 edition. In a plea from New Britain’s Mayor Timothy Stewart calling on private citizens or businesses to do what government can’t - provide funding to an effort to feed the homeless, Arnold was included in the newspaper interview. As co-chairman of the New Britain Salvation Army advisory board, he has been working for a long time to get action in providing suitable storage space for a food pantry on the Salvation Army premises. Some block grant funding is now available but more financial aid is needed. Arnie tells us that even when this facility is built it will not replace the smaller local church food banks. They really have no real data on how big the hunger problem is in New Britain. He feels that a central base (the Salvation Army premise) for control would be very efficient.

Stop, Look and Listen is the name of a new endeavour of the League of Women Voters of CT Education Fund. A detailed introduction of this plan was presented on the evening of May 30, 2007 in Hartford city hall’s Function Room. Yvette Ghannam and Ada Seaman were in attendance.

The program is being endorsed by the Registrars of Voters Association of CT (ROVAC) and the Secretary of the State of CT. Local Leagues are being asked to conduct demonstrations of the new voting technology in the next few months to build confidence in voters before the 2007 November elections.

Sessions will be held in venues with public access and handicapped accessibility, such as public libraries, senior centers, schools, and town halls and will be open to the public.

An integral part of this program is the opportunity for participants to mark sample ballots.

League volunteers will work in concert with local Registrars of Voters who will be encouraged to bring a privacy booth and optical scanner so that participants can scan their sample ballots.

The program in Hartford was conducted by Karen Rosen, LWVCT’s Vice President, Voters Service and included the participation of George Cody, Pres., Registrars of Voters Assoc. of CT. as well as Hartford’s Democratic Registrar of Voters Shirley Surgeon. Together they gave an excellent workshop on Preparing a Voter Outreach Plan.

Those in attendance were very fortunate in getting the many details and aspects of the new technology. Also much time was spent answering questions and practicing the actual marking of ballots.

The month of May and even into June. brought many calls for action on proposed legislation during the General Assembly’s session. An Act Concerning Lost or Stolen Firearms, a bill requiring random, post-election manual audits, a proposal to increase affordable housing in more communities, a proposal to expand the Bottle Bill to include noncarbonated beverage containers and finally a request to encourage a budget compromise that included two full years of funding for the phase-in of an updated ECS formula. Alice Hinchcliffe, Action Chair was notified and made some of the responses.

New Britain celebrated the holiday on May 30 with a downtown parade. Although League participation was smaller than usual, our banner was proudly carried by Ann Speyer and Marianna Koziol Dube followed by Cheryl Becker leading her beautiful dog.

We will be meeting on June 18 at 6:30 p.m. for our yearly calendar planning meeting at Weber & Carrier law offices on 24 Cedar St., N.B. Most of our general meetings are regular League obligations. In addition there are three or four meetings than can address any subject approved by the Board of Directors. We are open to suggestions. Please call any board member listed in your annual meeting booklet or email aseaman1@juno.com

Annual Meeting

League of Women Voters

Calendar of Events

Calendar of Events