by Dawn Smith, President Welcome to General election season, friends! This time of year, especially on even-numbered years, is always super busy, and I’m getting slammed at work, so I’m working hard to find balance in my life. As someone who raised two girls while working full time, I’ve spent the last 28 years trying to find balance between my family, my job, and those things that were important to me. You’d think by now I’d be better at it, but I’m still learning. So if you

Dawn Smith, President It’s almost fall, friends (although it’s 80 degrees outside as I type this), and that means General Election season is right around the corner. I like to encourage our committees to take it a little bit easy over summer. We spend all winter inside; summer is a time to get outside and spend time with your families. And, while many of our committees took a break from meeting over the summer, this is the busiest summer for the League I can remember. Our p

Dawn Smith, President Happy August, League Friends. I hope you’re all surviving the wacky summer weather we’re having this year. This morning Chad and I had to have someone come and take down one of our huge trees in the back yard that was damaged in a storm last month. The tree guy estimates that tree was 120 years old. Full disclosure – I did cry a little bit as they cut it down. We’ve lived in our house for 26 years, and that tree has been a part of the landscape. My back

Dawn Smith, President Greetings, League Friends! It’s been a week! We live on the west side and got nailed with the weather last week. We have two large Catalpa trees in our backyard, and the one closest to our house split in half. It fell in my neighbor’s driveway, missing their car by a foot. It’s a miracle it didn’t cause any damage, and my amazing neighbors showed up and helped us clean up the mess, but now Chad and I are going through the process of finding a tree se

Dawn Smith, President Hello, my League friends. It’s May 31, and I’m writing this two days late, having missed the deadline on Friday, with all the excitement of the State Annual Meeting, which I attended in Wausau this weekend, along with Lynn Meshke, Denise Gaumer Hutchison and Terri Gulyas. But my excitement is no excuse for missing the deadline, and I’d like to express my apology and gratitude to Lynn Gerlach for her patience and flexibility with me, and for the amazi

Dawn Smith, President Happy Spring League Members! I write this on the cusp of May (although we did have to turn the heat on when I got home from work today because it was freezing in my house). Spring is my favorite time of year, even with the wishy-washy weather, so I’m really looking forward to May. I’m also a huge Star Wars fan, so “May the 4th” is an important holiday for Chad and me. Last weekend I had an opportunity to attend the Empower the Vote event that th

Dawn Smith, President I’m writing this on one of those March days that’s somewhere between winter and spring – and this year it feels like winter has lasted forever. But April is less than a week away, and that means our spring elections will be coming up shortly. If you haven’t already voted absentee, I’d like to encourage you to go to our YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/@leagueofwomenvotersgreater1967, and see if any of the candidates in your district chose to

Dawn Smith, President Hello League Friends! I’m in the middle of corresponding with over 50 candidates to whom Voter Services has sent invites, asking them to submit a 10-minute video for us to share on our YouTube channel; it’s taking WAY more time than I thought it would, so I need to get back to it. But there’s a lot going on right now that I want to share. We’ve completed one of the four elections in 2026 – it was the smallest election. Only one race was on the ballot in

Dawn Smith, President It’s cold, friends. If you read my update last month, you might remember I was looking forward to 2026 after last year, which was a tough one. 2026 had to be better, right? Well, we’re a month in, and I’m already exhausted. I’m watching the situation unfold in Minnesota, like many of you, and I feel a bit like I’m living in a dystopian novel. Minnesota is right next door, and I’ve seen videos of two people being killed by federal agents, and a five-ye

(Dawn Smith, President) I’m writing this on December 30, so I’m still recovering from the holidays and gearing up to go back to work on January 2 after a nice break. As I’ve said before, 2025 was a tough year for a lot of people, and I, for one, am looking forward to flipping the page on the calendar and starting fresh with a brand-new year. I would like to give a huge thank you to everyone who was able to attend our Holiday Brunch on December 6. Around 20 members joined us,

(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 m

(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 bit

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