( Dawn Smith, President) Greetings, League Members, and happy holidays!   I spent last weekend making Christmas cards with girlfriends, which has become a tradition for us. Last year I was in a bit of a funk over the holidays, and the cards I made never got sent out, so this year I’m going to do better. I’ve started writing out a couple cards a day to get through my stack. While I know no one thinks less of me for not sending out cards (I didn’t send out cards for years when

( Denise Gaumer Hutchison, WPEN and LWVGGB) On Thursday, November 20, more than seven respected civic organizations came together for an interactive, community-focused exploration of the Wisconsin Constitution. They included: The League of Women Voters of Wisconsin (LWVWI) Law Forward All Voting is Local Wisconsin Public Education Network Wisconsin Democracy Campaign Wisconsin Interfaith Voter Engagement Campaign Joshua and others   Debra Cronmiller, LWVWI Executive Director,

( Denise Gaumer Hutchison, Chair) The Education Committee did not meet in November.    It is important to be aware of the school board elections throughout the LWVGGB area. School board trustees will be up for reelection throughout the entire membership area. The League is working to develop candidate forums to make sure all voters can make informed decisions in the April elections. In addition, a number of school district referendum efforts throughout Northeast Wisconsin wil

( Jean Marsch, Chair) Mark your calendar:   On December 17, 10:30 am, the Healthcare and Environment Committee will meet via Zoom and host  guest speaker,  Selina Darrow, Founder, Interim President, and Executive Director of Rooted In, Inc., located in Green Bay.  All are welcome to join us and learn more about this non-profit organization working to improve the health of the Green Bay community through increasing access to nutritious food. Here is the   Selina has shared som

( Terri Gulyas, DEI Committee Chair) During our last DEI webinar, we briefly discussed 287g agreements. Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act allows state and local law enforcement agencies to partner with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). These partnerships come in two primary forms: Jail Enforcement Model (JEM) agreements and Warrant Service Officer (WSO) agreements. Under the Jail Enforcement Model, certain local officers receive ICE training

(Lynn Meshke, Vice President)   At the end of October, the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin hosted a powerful three-part webinar series, “Issues Briefing 2025: Understanding and Surviving Our Constitutional Crisis.” The series explored the depth and urgency of our nation’s current constitutional crisis – what’s at stake for our democracy and how circumstances in each of the three branches of government have contributed to this unprecedented breakdown. Most importantly, the

(Christine Lemerande, Co-Chair) The Voter Services committee met at the Brown County Central Library on Thursday, October 2, with seven members in attendance. We discussed several initiatives and heard a fun and educational presentation by Lynn Gerlach on civics curriculum options in the Green Bay Area Public Schools.   We attended to the following business: Dawn Smith wrote an apartment complex welcome letter from our League that gives new residents information on how to reg

(Jean Marsch, Chair) The Healthcare and Environment Committee meeting will be Wednesday, November 12 , at 10:30 am, via Zoom. All are welcome. Please contact Jean Marsch at jean.marsch@gmail.com or 920-336-6834 for a Zoom link.   Special event – mark your calendar: On December 17, 10:30 am, the Healthcare and Environment Committee will meet via Zoom and host  guest speaker,  Selina Darrow, Founder, Interim President and Executive Director of Rooted In, Inc., located in Gree

(Dawn Smith, Chair) Greetings League Members, I’m just back from a trip to Universal Studios with my book club girlfriends, and I’m trying to get back into the swing of things, so forgive me if my update seems a bit wonky.   October has been quite a month. We started the month with 90-degree days and, as I write this, I’m looking at a low of 37 tonight. But we were blessed with beautiful weather on October 18 – the day of the No Kings rally.   I do want to speak a little bi

(Denise Gaumer Hutchison, Chair) The Education Committee met on October 23, 2025, via Zoom. We discussed the Green Bay Area Public Schools' search for a new superintendent. Community members will be able to participate in the conversation about the new superintendent search on several occasions in early November. Note the details in this (November) LWVGGB newsletter.   Our discussion also covered all the following important information about local education:   Howard Suamico

(Terri Gulyas, Chair) Our next meeting will be Tuesday, November 18, 6:30 PM via Zoom. This will be Session #2 of our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion series . Kole Torres, the LWVWI DEI Manager, will present Charting Our Course: Aligning DEI with Values, Goals, and Actions. If you weren’t able to make it to our first session, that’s okay. My favorite part was at the end of the presentation when Kole gave us “calls to action” and talked about work that other Leagues are doing

Submitted by Dawn Smith and Christine Lemerande, Co-Chairs of Voters Services Committee Voter Services met in September after taking the summer off. We spent some time talking about our plans for the upcoming general election year. A couple things we’re looking at: • Putting together content for our YouTube channel around the new property tax bills in Green Bay and school funding in the state. The Education Committee has expressed an interest in partnering with us on this. •

Submitted by Dawn Smith, League of Women Voters of Greater Green Bay President Happy Fall, my League Friends! I’m just back from a weekend in Door County with Chad, celebrating our twenty-eighth wedding anniversary. The weather was fantastic, and we went to a drive-in and saw E.T. and Jaws – both of which are still as entertaining as the first time I saw them. It was a good reminder for me of how lucky I am to live in Wisconsin. Things here at the League are starting to pick

Submitted by Jill Fermanich, NPVIC Chairperson National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC): What is it? The National Popular Vote bill will guarantee the presidency to the candidate who wins the most popular votes in the entire nation. It is an interstate compact, which is an agreement between two or more states, and it works like this: Each state that votes to join the compact agrees to pass state laws that will instruct that state’s electors to vote for the presidentia

Submitted by Jean Marsch, Health & Environment Chairperson Our committee will meet on Wednesday, October 8 at 10:30 am at the home of Sue Whittemore and via Zoom. All are invited to attend, so please contact Jean Marsch at jean.marsch@gmail.com and she will provide directions or will send a Zoom link if you prefer to join virtually. Here are some of the articles we’ve been exploring: How services at rural hospitals change when taken over by large health care organizations.

Submitted by Terri Gulyas, DEI Chairperson Many thanks to those who attended our September kick-off event discussing diversity, equity, and inclusion in our communities. We viewed The DEI Journey with Local Leagues webinar and enjoyed an engaging discussion facilitated by Kole Torres, the LWVWI Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Manager. For those who missed this event, the slides can be viewed at The DEI Journey with Local Leagues slides . Here’s a link to the webinar: The DE

Urgent Update: Wisconsin FoodShare (SNAP) Funding at Risk Due to Federal Shutdown – October 23, 2025 Our Wisconsin FoodShare Program will run out of funding on October 31. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) has announced that FoodShare benefits might not be available in November if the federal government shutdown continues. FoodShare — which provides monthly assistance for groceries to nearly 700,000 Wisconsin residents — is funded only by the federal governm

Submitted by Terri Gulyas, DEI Committee Chairperson DEI Committee Launches 2025–26 Workshop Series! We’re excited to announce a series of engaging workshops for the 2025–26 program year. The series will kick off on Saturday, September 20, at 11:00 a.m. (location to be determined). Follow-up sessions will be held via Zoom in the evenings of October, November, February, and March. To get the most out of the workshop series, participants are asked to view a short webinar from