Our New Board: Preston Jordan, Secretary: Elise Mills, Bonnie Bain, Ruby MacDonald; not shown Ken Bukowski
President: Adena Ishii, Moana Newman, and Treasurer: Emily Beckhusen.

May 19, 2018, the LWVBAE held its Annual Meeting at the pleasant Ed Roberts Campus. The Membership concurred with the Nominating Committee and the Board on all nominations for the 2018-2019 Board.  Those elected were Adena Ishii, President, Elise Mills, Secretary, and Emily Beckhusen, Treasurer. The coming year’s Directors will be Ken Bukowski, Preston Jordan, Ruby MacDonald, Moana Newman, and Bonnie Bain. In addition, nominations were accepted from the floor for next year’s Nominating Committee: Chair: Jinky Gardener, Nick Pilch, Albany City Council Member, and Ken Bukowski, former Mayor of Emeryville.  Perhaps the decorum displayed at this fine community gathering can be attributed to having Chris Peeples volunteer to be Parliamentarian.

A program presentation following the meeting began with President Adena Ishii reminding the LWVBAE of its vision to fight to make democracy work.  She quickly added that to be more timely we should say, to fight to defend democracy.

Preston Jordan, Action Director, got everyone moving during his presentation of the concept of proportional election methods.   Tables of members rose up or sat down numerous times to reflect the data on his slides about how voting behaviors affect an election.  To get more information, email action@lwvbae.org.

Podcasts are in the future for LWVBAE.  And we have our first Podcast up on our website! Organized by Garrett Bowers-Dodd and Garrick Smalley, the goal is to bring League activities and supported legislation to the public.  If interested in joining this at its inception, email baecast@lwvbae.org.

Students given the Spirit of the League awards: Katusch Strich, Ruby Wilks, Olivia Fechner-Lewis, Hannah Goldberg, Sarah Weaver, Simelia Rogers, and Kyla Dangerfield.

Berkeley High School’s Vote16 team received the Spirit of the League Award for 2018.  This group worked successfully to pass Measure Y1 at the November 2016 election. This measure allows 16 – 17 year olds to vote for the School Board. Besides planning for support to hold such an election in 2018, they wish to continue to carry this idea to all California high schools.  Adena Ishii, President, who worked with this group since 2017, presented the awards. More information about Vote16 at http://vote16usa.org  and  https://youtu.be/9NVYJuvUIbM .

In addition, a delicious lunch was catered by LWVBAE members Sherry Smith, Cynthia Chen, Angharad Jones, Rainey Sykes, Adena Ishii, Pat Day, and Suzanne Chun.  The Spring Celebration and Annual Meeting of 2018 showcased the spirit of community exemplified by the LWVBAE as it moves into the ’18-’19 election year.

–Christine Wenrich