A community meeting was called last evening at the Culver City Presbyterian Church ostensibly to explore the early-November School Board election. Chatter, however, was dominated by the ailing condition of the hosting League of Women Voters.
The venerable (and loosely named) League is in typical condition for a 95-year-old – creaky, steadily losing ground.
Call the morticians. Prepare a gravesite. Maybe.
Michelle Dennis is a board member from the Los Angeles unit of the League of Women (and Men) Voters. She calculated that unless promptly suffused with oxygen, the League – perilously low on funds and spunky members able to stand up without aid – can survive no more than three years.
Young people with at least curious wallets and purses are desperately needed – this week, preferably.
The League has $450,000 in the bank, but is losing at the breakneck rate of $100,000 a year.
That leaves a three-year window, the 73-year-old Ms. Dennis told the sparse turnout. The ending balance would be needed to cover the costs of shutting down operations.
At the outset of the evening, the mistress of ceremonies, the equally venerable Frances Talbott-White asked participants seated around a table at the rear of the church whether they wanted to talk first about the Culver City unit of the League or the election.
Since virtually all but perhaps one person belonged to the League, the sentiment was clear. If anyone under 50 was present – the crowd included City Council candidate Marcus Tiggs — he or she must have been masked.
Members urgently concluded the League faces three requirements to live another day:
- Stimulate the minds of prospective payimg members under 50 years old. Men are as eligible as women, it was emphasized.
- Explain the mission of the League that was birthed during the Woodrow Wilson administration – to register voters and encourage participation in the voting process.
- To publicize League activities more aggressively.
Hometown voter participation is sinking faster than League funds are shrinking.
When she was recruited by the League in the mid-‘90s, said Ms. Talbott-White, an unacceptably light turnout of 44 percent of registered voters cast ballots.
Today, 44 would be cause to jubilate.
This month, the number feebly broke into double figures for the School Board election.
