Notes from LWVSC Council
The League of Women Voters of South Carolina held its annual Council event on May 4, at Midlands Technical College in Columbia. The Topic was: Building Our Power. Betty Haynes was one of seven members of our League attending. Here’s her report on the program.
By Betty Haynes
The day-long program, sponsored by the state League, touched on critical aspects important to the growth and success of our Leagues, including sharing experiences and expertise, the effectiveness of building League power through collaborative partnerships, connecting with like-minded policy groups, working together, and supporting citizens/voters.
After the welcome from the state president, Nancy Williams, we entered the “Power” sessions. The initial session on AI, Technology, Elections, and Democracy covered, in lay terms, the various uses, for good or ill, of artificial intelligence and social media technology on elections and, ultimately, on democracy as we know it. The lawyer on the panel provided the legal side of the impact of mis- and disinformation in social media and how AI can amplify both.
The second session was most interesting as it covered the foundation of our power: Building Our Power by Growing and Diversifying Membership. We cannot accomplish the League’s objectives, missions, or goals without our members. We must grow by bringing many perspectives and individual life experiences to the league to effect the changes we need to defend democracy and ensure all voters and citizens have factual, accurate information to support democracy.
Also included in this session was a first look at the planned new membership management system set to come online in 2025. The national League has identified and selected a management system to better serve all state and local league members by taking over myriad administrative and financial functions. This system will give local volunteer managers more time to work on other critical league functions. More information will be coming out so the local league can inform all members, show how member dues payments will be handled, and work through any hiccups as the system starts.
Session three on Building Our Power by Increasing Civic Engagement gave a hands-on download and activation of the League In Action (LIA) app. For those members who are computer-hesitant or tech-averse, more time will be needed to work with the app. This key communications instrument will effectively get information out swiftly and directly to members and others. We needed more time to work through the application during the session.
Session four on Building Our Power through Collaborative Partnerships, with our League president Susan Bell on the panel, highlighted the need for the League to build connections. The adage of strength in numbers has never been more true for the league than now. We must reach out to organizations with whom we share a commonality of objective and purpose to build a force of knowledge and action.
Spaces between sessions was great for meeting and talking to other League members about their activities and relationship building.