Dear Members:

Helping citizens become more informed is the core mission of our League.  And yes, to that  end groups invite us to set up voter registration tables at their events and expect us to put together voter guides before elections.  However of late, we have been a bit weak on civic education.

One effort towards education planned for 2017 is our more active sponsorship of a Great Decisions group.  For the past several years we’ve held our Great Decisions foreign policy programs at John Wesley United Methodist Church, but in the fall of 2016 we moved GD to the Fletcher Library branch in downtown Hagerstown and picked up 3 new participants right away! (Visit our Great Decisions page on our website to look at the 2017 program and consider joining us by clicking here.)

Foreign policy matters help us choose our federal elected officials, but doesn’t often shed so much light on State and local races.  So your board is kicking around ideas for stimulating conversation on things like the US citizenship test, American history, geography, matters relating to how state and local governments work.  Our ideas range from hosting panels in a “Wait, wait, don’t tell me” format or a college bowl to getting our community engaged in mutual improvement using online tests from our website.  We get all excited about whether Hagerstown is the Obesity capital of the United States - what if we could get equally excited about passing the League’s latest civics IQ test?!!

If you’d like to help, we’d love to hear from you!  Click on the pencil to send me your thoughts.

Richard Willson, President

League of Women Voters of Washington County