Watercolor of old
LWVCT logo
2012 League of Women Voters of Weston Annual Meeting
& Betty Hill Forum
At the Red
Barn Restaurant, Westport
11 May 2012
Picture
story, Betty Hill Forum 2012:
Video of Patricia Russo's address,
q&a: http://www.lwvweston.org/LWVAnnualMtg5-11-12.wmv
The Annual
Meeting of the League of Women Voters of Weston was held from 10am
until 11:30am. In addition to the regular business at such a
meeting, we were fortunate to have in attendance Cheryl Dunson,
President of the League of Women Voters of Connecticut, who filled
us in on issues on the table with the LWVUS.
New ideas for the upcoming year regarding action on our local
positions (League always studies subjects rigorously before taking
"positions"): Concern for Weston groundwater supply and
quality. One general way to do this is to monitor the Saugatuck Reservoir and
how the drought looks there - as an indicator of what might be
happening re: rainfall. Last studied in 1987, the
position was amended in 2006 and has six major points but the one
for action suggested at the Annual Meeting was:
"Education of
local residents regarding their responsibility to safeguard
the quality and the quantity of Weston's water supply"
NOTE: Here is a link to a non-LWV webpage on this
subject (not a part of Annual Meeting itself, inserted here on
Wednesday, July 25, 2012).
After that, Leaguers adjourned to the Betty Hill Forum and lunch.
After lunch we heard from the President of the Women's Campaign
School at Yale, Patricia Russo. That organization, founded
by Westporter Andree Brooks, is soon to be celebrating 20 years of
producing women candidates and women campaign managers. It
is going strong!
Is this the year worldwide for women candidates?
Ms. Russo told a story about the students in the Yale School.
(Some seats are reserved for women from abroad.) Those who have
succeeded in running for office and winning in, for example,
Cameroon ("I had to look at the map to find it") face different
and additional barriers than we do in the U.S.A. One
Campaign School student called to say she would be coming late to
her five-day session because she had been kidnapped by the
opposition...
At lunch were two of the Women's Campaign School star pupils
lately and locally. Britta Lerner, Chairman of the Weston
Republican Town Committee and elected member of the Planning and
Zoning Commission, and First Selectman Gayle Weinstein of Weston
(in her second term) made a pitch for the Campaign School at
Yale.
---------------
NOTE: in the 1990's Diane
Farrell of Westport, another graduate of the Women's Campaign
School at Yale, shortly after she was elected to office as First
Selectwoman of Westport, had spoken to the LWV of Weston on the
subject..."What It Takes To Run, Win and Govern."
Before
we heard from Patricia Russo (l)...and before lunch, there was
a brief social half an hour...for remembering why Betty Hill
cared about the League and its issues as well as world affairs.
Leaguers are always engaged in
passionate discussions and most of the time these conversations
rekindle memories of why we all care so much about
non-partisanship.
People come from all
professions and many different special interests to find a
comfortable home at an event like the League's Betty Hill Forum
this year.
At the "head table (l)" speaker Patricia
Russo of the Women's Campaign School at Yale listens to First
Selectman Gayle Weinstein - next door (r) the talk was intense,
too!
Engaging a guest from Ridgefield
in conversation, we can bet that this was a lively
exchange! And it was good to see old friends again - and
new ones!
YOU CAN'T BE SHY - THE POINT OF
THE WHOLE EXERCISE
So what we figure was the best thing about this Betty Hill Forum
was a comment we'd heard before, but it resonates - and some in
the audience might have been upset to hear it - but Ms. Russo
made the observation that women, when pondering running for
office, first think, "Am I qualified? Do I know
enough? Can I do the job?" and hold back, while men
immediately go out campaigning! But you know, if you don't
get out there, you don't get to know your potential
constituents!
