Home - League of Women Voters - Grand Traverse Area

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AnnualMeeting2025

The 2025 LWVGTA Annual Meeting

On Wednesday May 28 the League of Women Voters Grand Traverse Area held their annual meeting. Fifty-six of 156 members registered to attend the annual meeting at the Hagerty Center. A delicious Mexican inspired buffet breakfast including fruit, build your own scrambled egg tortillas, sweet potato hash and churros was served.

Our featured speaker, Judy Karandjeff, LWVMI Vice President for Advocacy, informed us of how the League has identified and is addressing the many issues introduced by the current administration at both the National and State levels.

Our many board members, past presidents, election heroes and volunteers were recognized for their contributions and service. This year the Making Democracy Work Awardee was The Crawford County Avalanche and the Houghton Lake Resorter for their steadfast commitment to community journalism and civic engagement. Reporter, Cheryl Holladay was in attendance to accept the award. The Outstanding Service Award was presented to League Secretary and Communications Chair, Karen Baker.

The 2025-2026 Slate of Officers

Officers

Co-Presidents – Charlotte Nisbet (term ends 2027), Charlene Krygier (term ends 2026)
Secretary – Jill Sterling (term ends 2027)
Treasurer - Ingrid Brophy (term ends 2026)

Board of Directors (elected)

Advocacy Co-Chairs – Margaret Goeman (term ends 2026), Valerie Kirn-Duensing (term ends 2027)
At Large Director – Marcia Koppa (term ends 2026)
Membership Chair - Laura Otwell (term ends 2026)
Natural Resource & Environment Chair - Ann Swaney (term ends 2026)
Observer Corps Chair - Reba Leiding (term ends 2026)
Voter Service Co-Chairs – Misty Sheehan (term ends 2027), Alice Schuman (term ends 2026)
Communications Chair – Karen Baker (term ends 2027)
Program Facilitation Committee – Eunice Crockett (term ends 2027)

Appointed Directors (non-voting board member, one-year term, appointed by the Board): Consultants: Mary Grover, Jane Watts, Jan Warren, Barb Berry, Donna Moore, Peg Townsend

Crawford County Unit Leader (board member, voting) – Christina Schlitt, appointed per LWVMI guidelines

Nominating Committee (elected for one-year term, not on the board of directors): Linda Mueller (co-chair,) Nancy Nordfjord (co-chair), Ginny Coulter, Robbin Stott.

Joining the League of Women Voters is a great way to get involved in your community and play an active role in our democracy.

Join and be active in an organization that has power in numbers to:

Empower millions of voters to exercise their right to vote.
Protect your right to vote and ensuring every vote is counted by fighting for free, fair, and accessible voting systems.
Advocate for positive change at the local, state and national level.
Foster civil dialogue about important community issues.

Membership in the League of Women Voters is easy with the new on-line League Portal.

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LWV LAKE MICHIGAN REGION ILO CONFERENCE 2024

The Lake Michigan Region of the LWV held a conference in Manistee October 25-26, 2024. The Lake Michigan Region is an Inter league Organization of four member states (Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin) and over 60 local leagues, including Grand Traverse Area League. The Lake Michigan Region focuses on the health and well-being of citizens residing in Lake Michigan watershed states as well as the vitality of their respective economies which are directly connected to the health and vitality of Lake Michigan. Christina Schlitt, Ann Swaney, Ingrid Brophy and Carrie Olmsted were in attendance from our League. Carrie Olmsted was the LWVGTA official voting delegate. Tricia Denton from Leelanau was elected the new President and Christina Schlitt was elected as a Nominating Committee Member.

The keynote speaker at dinner was J. Carl Ganter, Co-Founder and Director of Circle of Blue, offering solutions for systems change at local-to-global levels for the world’s freshwater challenges. A presentation on the Enbridge Line 5 Pipeline, which crosses the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac, was provided by Skip Pruss, Senior Legal Advisor of For the Love of Water (FLOW). Mr. Pruss discussed Line 5 history and litigation, including FLOW’s involvement, emphasizing the existential threat a release from the pipeline poses. There was also a presentation by Alexis DeGabriele, an aquatic biologist from the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians (LRBOI), Natural Resources Department, about the project to protect, preserve and restore manoomin in Michigan to enhance ecosystem health and benefit present and future generations. Manoomin, Michigan's wild rice, has been designated the state’s official native grain.

Early attendees at the conference, plus some members who drove down from TC specifically for it, were wowed by a tour of the Arcadia Marsh Nature Preserve. Knowledgeable tour guides were supplied by the Grand Traverse Regional Nature Conservancy. What a beautiful and special place.

In the News!

A recent article in the Northern Express interviewed the local League presidents from four chapters: our own Grand Traverse Area, plus Petoskey, Leelanau and Manistee. It recaps the national League history and shares the beginnings of each of the local league chapters.

"BEYOND THE BALLOT MEET THE LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS CHAPTERS OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN

BY KIERSTIN GUNSBERG | MARCH 16, 2024

It was the spring of 1919, and president of the National Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) Carrie Chapman Catt was chomping at the bit. Even as the organization was celebrating its 50th anniversary, it still hadn’t completed its mission of equal voting rights for women. NAWSA had made headway, sure, having already won the right to vote in a handful of states, but the endgame was a constitutional amendment guaranteeing all women across the country that right."

Youth Voting Round table

The LWVGTA had the privilege of attending a Youth Voting Round table following the Defending Democracy Town Hall in September. A group of Traverse City HS students and AP Government Teacher, Paige Paul, were part of the discussion. These Round table discussions were held throughout the state with SOS Benson and Deputy SOS, Aghogho Edevbie to engage and empower the your voters in Michigan.

MovieTime

Some of our Past Programs

The First Amendment and the Supreme Court with Eleanor Lynn, May 16, 2023
Watch on YouTube HERE

Local Women Making History, March 21, 2023
The program recording can be viewed at the TADL YouTube page.

A Day in the Life of a Legislator, January 15, 2024
Watch at Traverse Are Community Media TACM YouTube

From Publication to the Public: A Library Book’s Path to the Reader, Tuesday March 19, 2024
Watch on LWVGTA YouTube Channel

Candidate Forum - Michigan, 1st Congressional District, Sept. 12, 2024
Watch on LWVGTA YouTube Channel

Microplastics in the Environment

Michigan elections are secure, accurate, and fair.

Our elections are secure, accurate and fair. Thousands of Republican, Democratic and independent election clerks, staff and volunteers make sure this is true every election. Here is what you need to know about the canvass and certification process and how it helps ensure secure and accurate elections.

The State of Michigan provides a dashboard that gives a snapshot of aggregated Michigan voting data and lets you explore the details of your community, updated daily during active elections.

LWV Research Leads to Michigan Women's Hall of Fame

It began as an effort to salute hard work by the LWV-Grand Traverse Area encouraging a successful YES Vote to fund a new library in the mid-1990s. Award-winning author Heather Shumaker wove this story into her 2022 book, Beyond Books: Stories of Traverse Area Libraries 1960-2020, which included another story of dedicated women who left their mark on the Traverse City landscape.

The Traverse City Ladies’ Library Association (LLA) started in 1869 when Traverse Township was just a "scruffy little logging community". These ladies provided library services and a large public meeting hall to the community for more than 30 years. For this effort, the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame, which “honors distinguished women, both historical and contemporary” with Michigan connections, is awarding them this ultimate recognition.

Now the Traverse City LLA ranks up there with Mary Free Bed Guild, Aretha Franklin, Helen Milliken, Jennifer Granholm, Sojourner Truth, Betty Ford, Judith Karandjeff, Rosa Parks, and other luminaries.

Using research developed for Beyond Books, GTA League members Anne Magoun and Ann Swaney submitted the nomination for the LLA. As one of the LLA founders said: “Our aim is not a selfish one. All the toil and endeavor of these years has not been for our own aggrandizement or pleasure, but to accomplish a good work for our community …” (Martha E. Cram Bates, Grand Traverse Herald, 12/12/1878).

They would have been good LWV members, right?

--from LWVMI League Links, November 23, 2023