Our local league History
In the spring of 2006, thirty women gathered at the Bear Lake Manor in Bear Lake to discuss forming a Manistee County League of Women Voters (LWV). Since that first year, we have held informational programs for our members and the public on issues such as Health Care, the Michigan Prison System, Asian Carp, Re-districting, Wind Energy, Elections, and Global Climate Change. We have held Candidates' Forums where citizens have had the opportunity to hear and to ask questions of people running for public office.
A joint 88th LWV birthday celebration and fund-raiser was hosted with the Grand Traverse Area League for a free public showing of "Iron-Jawed Angels" at the State Theatre in Traverse City. We have also conducted sessions on "How to Run for Public Office," and we invited all of the elected officials and civic leaders in Manistee County to the League's 90th Anniversary Party not only to help us celebrate but also to thank them for their service.
We will continue our efforts to educate and inform citizens about issues of concern so that they may more fully participate in their government.
Our Vision, Beliefs, and Intentions guide our activities.
Other League Organizations
Other area Leagues: Leelanau County, Grand Traverse Area
Our members are also members of:
Our History
The League of Women Voters was founded by Carrie Chapman Catt in 1920 during the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. The convention was held just six months before the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, giving women the right to vote after a 72-year struggle.
The League began as a "mighty political experiment" designed to help 20 million women carry out their new responsibilities as voters. It encouraged them to use their new power to participate in shaping public policy. From the beginning, the League has been an activist, grassroots organization whose leaders believed that citizens should play a critical role in advocacy. It was then, and is now, a nonpartisan organization. League founders believed that maintaining a nonpartisan stance would protect the fledgling organization from becoming mired in the party politics of the day. However, League members were encouraged to be political themselves, by educating citizens about, and lobbying for, government and social reform legislation.
This holds true today. The League is proud to be nonpartisan, neither supporting nor opposing candidates or political parties at any level of government, but always working on vital issues of concern to members and the public.
The League has a long, rich history,that continues with each passing year. Join us today, and you can be part of that history too!