• Bay Area League Biennial Convention will be held this year on Saturday, June 4. This event is held every two years (in the alternate years, there is a “Council”). This year, the Convention will occur via Zoom, virtually. One of the main purposes of the Convention is to elect the Bay Area League officers and Board of Directors for the program years 2022-2024. The Nominating Committee is interested in hearing from League members who would like to be considered for these positions. Ann Draper, the Committee’s chair, would be delighted to hear of such interest as the Committee wraps up its proposed slate, and she can be contacted at adtp@comcast.net
In the business portion of the Convention, the delegates will be asked to approve the Budget for 2022-24, and to consider changes to the Bay Area League Bylaws.
The Convention will also feature a presentation on issues of regional interest.

• An upcoming Community Conversation will be offered in May as a “lunch hour” event and will focus on voter service, with an emphasis on registering and engaging young voters.
Suggestions are welcome for future Community Conversations. They can be sent to lwvbayarea@gmail.com.

• The CalTrans feasibility study of the proposed expansion of the SMART Train will be presented to the public in May. The Bay Area League is coordinating with the California League to follow this, to determine the appropriate level of League for observing and commenting on this issue.

• The Bay Area League Board meeting took place on Monday, April 18, 2022 at 5:00 pm. The meetings continue to happen virtually. The link for all the Board meetings: http://tiny.cc/LWVBAmonthlymeeting Leslie Steward, BAL Treasurer and a member of the Diablo Valley League, asks you to share this with your members. Please note the special request for volunteer facilitators for this event, and the link to volunteer:

HEALING OUR DEMOCRACY IN A DIGITAL WORLD
On April 20, 2022, 7:30-9:00 pm, St. Mary’s College of California will host an online, non-partisan town hall to discuss how social media affects our polarized democracy. Progressive Joan Blades, co-founder of Living Room Conversations and conservative John Gable, co-founder of AllSides will engage in a discussion about this topic. Click here to register.
This event is organized by Professor Stephen Woolpert, Professor Emeritus of Politics, who is committed to strengthening nonpartisan democratic values by promoting democratic learning practices through compelling public events. This non-partisan event is an opportunity for the League to partner and support civil dialogue about how much social media affects our polarized democracy, for better or for worse.