Washington State VOTER

Fall 2001

4

CONVENTION

2001

Jane Shafer Receives Dorothy Roberts Award at Convention

Jane Shafer, Leaguer Extraordinarius, received the Dorothy Roberts award, given every two years by LWVWA, to a
worthy League member at the State Convention in June. Jane's League record is one to envy! She was very active in the
Renton LWV and when three Leagues combined to make King County South, she just kept on going!

In between two terms as president of LWV/King County South, she served a term as LWVWA Treasurer and a term as
LWVWA President! Somewhere in all this she was the LWVWA International Relations Chair and published a
newsletter.

Her computer skills are legendary. She was responsible for the first and second desktop publications of "The State We"re
In: Washington" and prepared the state's "Program In Action".

And how many times have we seen her serving as parliamentarian for LWV or moderating a meeting or candidate's
night?

Privately, she is active locally with the Council of Churches and Washington State Historical Society. She made the
mistake of taking a course on genealogy so now the tracking of her family consumes much of her time. (She claims she
hasn't found any horse thieves, yet - so she says!)

Jane continues to be a great sounding board for Leaguers, offering ideas to members as well as much needed advice on the
operation of computers.

Her long-time dedication to League is probably unmatched.

Dorothy Roberts

Dorothy joined the LWV/King County South in the 60's as a result of encouragement from this year's recipient, Jane
Shafer.

She was a member of the LWVWA Board from 1986-1993. She was a dedicated lobbyist as a tax specialist and also
followed school issues and public financing of state campaigns. She was the state League treasurer for one term and
worked on the Port Study, Education: Programs that Work Study, Action Committee, Speaker's Bureau and was the Tax
and Education Chair.

Dorothy received her R.N. Degree from and was trained as a public nurse at the University of Washington. She served as
a nurse in Appalachia. Dorothy was a night nurse at Enumclaw Memorial Hospital while raising a family of four
children.

She was a long-time member and served as officer of the Plateau Preservation Society (an environmental advocacy group
in Enumclaw), served as lobbyist for PTSA and was an active member of People for Fair Taxes.

A colleague, with whom she worked closely in schools said, "I don't think she had any non-friends."She was though of
as a warm, caring individual.

Washington State VOTER

Fall 2001

5

THANK YOU FOR THE DONATIONS

Capital Donors

Elisabeth Bondy
Lael Braymer
Rita & Harland Durand
Maxine Krull

Leslie Grace
Charmian Lander
LWV/King County South
Jocelyn Marchisio

Charlene McKenzie
Jo Munnich
Lois North

Peggy Tlapak
Washington Education
Association
Paul Wiseman
Dorothy Young Sale

Action Donors
Alexandra Pye

Robert J. Kamerling

Ruane Scott

Thank you for caring.

To The Capital Club and President’s Club Contributors,

A heartfelt Thank You for enabling us to replace our collapsing, drunken, mismatched, tin-pot
file cabinets with five lovely light gray stalwart specimens whose drawers open and close
without complaint, whose sturdy file-bearing sides are not dependent upon frequently collapsing
rail inserts, and whose presence now lighten the lives of those of us who frequent the back
room.

Also, for freeing us from the copy machine with the famously nasty, neurotic disposition that
made nearly every copying chore a pain. The new machine is a gem.

With these improvements, including the upgraded computer systems, the new State League
office is coming together into a wonderful workplace.

Sincerely,
Natalie Toevs, happy volunteer

Washington State VOTER

Fall 2001

6

TIMELINE FOR THE 2001-2002 LWVWA PROGRAM
By Peggy Saari, Program Chair

ELECTION METHODS CONTINUATION.A script, visual aids, an article you can adopt
for your own Voter, and potential meeting handouts, all designed to help members understand
better three alternative election systems and by inference the system we use now, will be
available in September. Janet Anderson, the committee chair (206 285-2460) introduced a
semi-final version at the Local League President's Retreat in Ellensburg on August 24th and she
found the attendees critique an aid for improving the proposed materials. The material can be
used for either a General Meeting or Unit Meetings, with time for questions and discussion,
sufficient for a meeting of 1-1/2 hours. The committee will budget travel funds so we can
participate in your meetings, upon request.

To demonstrate what multi-member legislative districts might look like, we have done a mock
redistricting of the state. We think you will be quite surprised with the "before" and "after"
maps and the potential ramifications of the results. We will also have ballots on which
members can vote for their favorite ice cream four different ways. It is suggested that each
League have three members prepared to participate in the program; one for each of the three
election methods we are examining:Choice Voting; Cumulative Voting and Instant Runoff
Voting. Recordings will be due by in the spring of 2002.

THE INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM PROCESS UPDATE.Jocelyn Marchisio is
forming a committee that will begin work on this update in January of 2002. However,
educational opportunities will begin this fall with a September 14th Seattle University Law
Review Symposium, The Pros and Cons of Citizen Initiatives in Washington Stateand an
October 8th City Club event, co-sponsored by LWVWA,The Initiative Process: Too Much
Democracy?. The LWVWA Education Fund Annual Luncheon event is Thursday, November
8th at the West Coast Grand Hotel in Seattle with Former Washington State Supreme Court
Justice Phil Talmadge speaking on Government by Initiative. Please call Jocelyn Marchisio at
(425) 746-3612 if you are willing to work on this committee.

WASHINGTON STATE'S TAX STRUCTURE UPDATE.Allison Feher of Seattle (206
322-5837, home; 206 727-6215, work) and Pam Behring of Spokane (509 534-2223) will co-
Chair the Tax Structure Update and will provide a timeline in the near future. The goal of the
study is to develop a public education campaign. Much good material has already been written
and simply needs to be updated to include recent changes. The bulk of the work will focus on
preparing education materials for the public and designing a campaign to disseminate the
information to the general public. A variety of methods and media will be used to allow local
Leagues to tailor the campaign to fit their resources and their communities.