Dawn Smith, Committee Co-chair   Voter Services holds its meetings the first Thursday of the month, which was January 1 this year, so we didn’t meet, but we have been busy. We’ve been working on collecting candidate data for many local races. We’ll be holding an in-person/live-stream GBAPS School Board forum at the Brown County Central Library on Wednesday, March 18, at 6:00 p.m. in the auditorium. It will be moderated by Jean Marsch. For our other local races, we’ll be sendi

Jean Marsch, Chair   The Healthcare and Environment Committee will meet on Wednesday, February 11 at 10:30 am via Zoom.  All are welcome.  Contact Jean Marsch at jean.marsch@gmail.com or 920-883-9394 for a link. In the meantime, here are some of the excellent resources we would like to share with you:   From The Wisconsin Examiner,  January 15, 2026 President Rolls Out Framework on Health Care Costs That’s Silent on ACA Tax Credits –            Read the story here.   From Ax

Terri Gulyas, DEI Committee Chair   With so much to learn about in our world, reading makes it possible to see the world through someone else’s eyes. Here is a great book that talks about implicit bias and microaggressions. It’s an excellent companion to the webinar coming up this month. We changed the day to Thursdays, hoping that will make it more convenient for others. Hope to see you there! ~ Terri   Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think,

(by Lynn Gerlach, Communications Committee member) We hear about “Unite and Rise” from our national League, and our local members struggle to understand exactly what this “project” or “movement” is. Then we see the number “8.5,” and we become really confused. So our Communications Committee did some digging; we determined to understand Unite & Rise 8.5 so we can meaningfully explain it to you. It turns out that we’re not being asked to do anything new or different – we’re si

(Terri Gulyas, Chair) News and Reviews   Here are two books that will support what we will discuss in our next two webinars. We’ll be changing the day of the week and/or the meeting time to hopefully draw others into the discussion. More details to come!   Three or More Is a Riot – Jelani Cobb In Three or More Is a Riot, Jelani Cobb brings together incisive essays that chronicle the political, cultural, and racial fault lines of the United States from roughly the early 2010s

(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, Co-Chair)   Voter Services met via Zoom in early December to start planning out the 2026 General Election year. With all the local races (City Council, County Board, Village Boards, etc.), and with the poor luck we’ve had getting all the candidates to participate in our forums, we’re taking a different approach this year. All candidates running for selected offices will be sent an invite to submit a 10-minute promotional video to the LWVGGB, which we will share o

(Jean Marsch, Chair)   The Healthcare and Environment Committee will meet on Wednesday, January 14, at 10:30 am via Zoom. All members are welcome. Contact Jean Marsch at 920-883-9394 and she will include you in the Zoom invitation.   ACA Subsidies The League of Women Voters of the United States (LWVUS) sent a memo dated December 11, 2025, to the United States Senate about the set-to-expire Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies, urging senators to make a good faith effort to pas

( 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