LWVNM Board Minutes, July 19 2025

LWVNM Board Minutes

July 19, 2025

11:00-3:00 p.m.

Albuquerque and via Zoom

BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT

Hannah Burling, President

Barbara Calef, Second Vice President

Kathy Brook, Treasurer/LWVSNM Liaison

Judy Williams, Program

Janet Blair, Communications

Jody Larson, Archives

Akkana Peck, Website

Meredith Machen, Special Projects, Women’s Issues, Immigration, Education

Karen Douglas, Nuclear Issues

Starlyn Brown, LWVCNM President

Debbie Helper, LWVSFC Liaison

Edwina Jaramillo, Secretary

CALL TO ORDER AND INTRODUCTIONS

The meeting was convened by Hannah Burling at 11:01 a.m.

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA AND MINUTES

Agenda: Kathy Brook moved to approve the agenda as amended. The motion was seconded by Karen Douglas and approved unanimously. The amendments add “Conflict of Interest” under Governance, and “Immigration” and “Education” are added under Action.

Minutes: The minutes of the meeting of April 27, 2025 were approved as presented on a motion from Barbara Calef, seconded by Kathy Brook.

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

Hannah reported that she attended the LWVUS Council in Leesburg, Virginia at the end of June. Topics and suggestions discussed include:

1) a suggestion to update our websites with a new, more prominent calendar. Akkana has placed a new calendar on our website. It will be useful to members but also drive traffic to the website and as links to our partners on the various observance and awareness months are added. It will also strengthen those relationships. Currently, the calendar has the anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention and we plan to put a link on our website to Disability NM.

2) Local Leagues are asked to ensure they are in compliance with the IRS, the Attorney General, the Secretary of State, and their own bylaws, etc. to mitigate any possible political attacks. Hannah encouraged the local Leagues to purchase Directors and Officers Insurance.

3) The LWVUS can provide sensitivity training as we collaborate with other groups whose demographic does not match ours.

4) Involvement with 4H and the FFA could be helpful.

Action Item: Hannah will look at how 4H and the FFA can overlap with LWV.

5) Go to other group’s events. She noted that Minnesota’s ED meets with members via Zoom on Fridays, called Fired Up Fridays. Hannah thinks this is a great idea and would like to implement it for NM.

6) Exit interviews for members and board members who leave.

7) Launching of the LWVUS Unite and Rise campaign, a work and suggestions playbook for the next three months.

Hannah also met with Utah and Arizona state Leagues to discuss ways that we could support each other in getting out the vote, especially with the VOTE411, the Native American voter guide, and PSAs for the Navajo nation. Along with Colorado, the three states plan a statement on public lands to go out in September. Hannah plans to meet with the DC League to discuss the quilt redistricting project. Additionally, she met with Conservation Voters NM, who are willing to do DEI training with us.

Hannah asked the Board whether we should put our logo on the Conservation Voters’ website. It was noted that Conservation Voters NM endorses candidates. Kathy noted that there is a distinction between providing voter information (e.g., on the votes of legislators) vs information on candidates running for office. If we're in partnership with someone, we should be able to articulate what that means to us and we should also inquire of them what they think it means, she stated. The topic on logos was tabled to the next Executive Board meeting.

Action Items: Hannah will contact LWVUS for advice on logos on partner websites and a clear statement on partnerships. The Executive Board will review the LWVNM’s Coalition and Collaboration Policy. Jody will send the LWVUS guidance on nonpartisanship and partnerships to the Board.

TREASURER’S REPORT

Kathy noted the report shows details of spending and deposits from May 1st to the end of June, 2025. Additionally, the report showed some outstanding checks that have now been cashed, and we've received some additional deposits related to dues payments. $1,800 for dues was received through bill.com. So, the current balance is slightly higher than what is on the report. As of July 18, 2025, the balance was $21,531.38. Action Item: Kathy will send a revised report.

Kathy also noted we may not be in compliance with our own bylaws. Our bylaws indicate that we will do a financial review annually, whereas our policy statement says we will do it after each biennial. It is a best practice to do reviews. She has gone through the last fiscal year and made sure all the documentation is included. The same should be done for the preceding fiscal year. She recommended at least two members look at our bank statements to do a sampling of our transactions. Jeanne Logsdon, Adair Wallenburg, and Ellen Stelling were recommended.

Action Item: Kathy will contact the recommended individuals.

A motion, made by Meredith and seconded by Akkana, to pay the registration fees for local presidents or liaisons to attend state convention or council, passed unanimously. Barbara noted that for convention and council purposes, the president or liaison of the local league do not count as a state board member, but count as a representative of their League.

Kathy also reviewed the summary narrative of income and expenses for FY2024-2025, and a breakdown of the Making Democracy Work Award grant and the Making Democracy Award luncheon from last November, showing revenues and expenses. She reviewed the budget report for FY2024-25, which shows what was budgeted for 2024-2025, what the actual income and expenses were, and the difference between the budgeted amount and the actual amount. She also noted that we have not paid Coalition to Stop Violence Against Women fees for over a year.

Additionally, the Diversified Membership Fund balance of $740 is to support attracting a more diverse membership with a budgeted amount of $200 per year. We may want to use those funds more now that student membership fees are not waived, and to recruit rising leaders. The money for alcohol harms alleviation is a fund we were asked to hold for a lobbyist and the Alcohol Harms group. Action Item: Hannah will contact the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Women about payment, putting our logo on their website, and what level of involvement they want from LWVNM.

ACTION

Redistricting Update: Hannah reported that the 2025 Redistricting Task Force has been redesigned. There are now eight legislators - four from each chamber and four from each party. The chairs are Judge Roderick Kennedy and Judge Linda Vanzi, both retired appellate court judges. Kathleen Burke and Hannah handle the administrative work and Dick Mason is one of the members. The Task Force will meet at least three times this year, and the legislation is being drafted for the next legislative session. Leonard Gorman, Executive Director of the Navajo Nation's Human Rights Commission, has endorsed, on behalf of the Navajo Nation, our independent, redistricting Commission legislation.  If the legislation doesn't go through now, we still have 2026, 2027 and 2028 to get it through.

Education: Meredith reported that New Mexico schools are going to be hit hard as a result of the education funding cuts in the reconciliation bill, which complicates the court orders with the Yazzie-Martinez lawsuit. The judge has ordered NM to spend whatever it takes to fulfill its constitutional obligation to provide all public school students with a sufficient and equitable education, particularly those who are Native American, English learners, students with disabilities, and those from low-income families. The Public Education Department must develop a remedial action plan by November 1 with broad community input and assistance from the Legislative Education Study Committee. Additionally, she noted the Trump Executive Order eliminates funding for ESL (English as a Second Language) and literacy classes for students and adults as well as citizenship classes. Without adult literacy, you don't have family literacy, and the latter feeds into performance in schools. The LESC has legislative documents that Meredith can forward to the Board, if interested. NM is fortunate to have funds to cover some of the shortfalls due to the reconciliation n bill and the 2026 budget. NM is among the 22 states that successfully sued the Trump administration to recover funds that Congress had appropriated but which Trump tried to take back through rescissions. The NM Land Grant Permanent Fund is valued at about $32B, and more can be distributed to cover the shortfall caused by the federal tax cuts. However, the legislature would have to pass a Constitutional Amendment resolution in the 2026 session to increase the percentage that can go to the designated beneficiaries, and that would have to be approved by voters in the 2026 general election. Congress would also have to approve the increased distribution percentage before it could be used.

Karen Douglas reported that former Senator Dede Feldman will provide her with documents that include statistics and the impacts of Federal funding cuts to both health care and education. However, the Senator stated the most relevant thing the League could do is to collect personal stories from those impacted by both the Medicaid and education cuts.

Action Item:

Immigration: Meredith reported that she will meet this coming week with Claire Dudley Chavez, the liaison to the Speaker of the House, about several different things, including several bills in Congress aimed at preventing Medicaid from going to qualified undocumented residents in New Mexico. She also noted privacy concerns for the undocumented immigrants who file their taxes, often using Individual Tax Identification Numbers (ITINs). The fear is that the IRS databases will be used to identify non-citizens.

COMMUNICATIONS

Intern Update: Janet reported that the Communications Committee has completed interviews with two highly qualified people one of whom is a young League member and the Committee will be making a selection this week. The social media intern or assistant will post on various different social media platforms twice a week, to include Facebook, Instagram, X, possibly Tik-Tok, and YouTube with graphics, animations, video, etc. The posts will address things like voter registration, due process of habeas corpus, and VOTE411, etc. We'll be paying her $20 an hour for 2-3 hours a week.

The Board also asked the Communications Committee to post LWVUS press releases, relevant Op-Eds and LTEs (found on the LWVUS website, or from Rebecca Courtney’s posts on the LWVSNM website).  Hannah’s approval is needed for each posting on the LWVNM’s website. Action Item: Janet will follow-up with Hannah to decide how to do this.

Website: Akkana discovered that some of the software our web-hosting provider (Apache) uses is out of date. To get a newer version, we have to rename every file on the website, which may mean breaking links. She is working to rename the files and will set up forwarding. However, links to specific pages may break and will need to be re-established. She also recommends changing our bookmarks. She plans to go live this week and the update will occur then as well.

Email-Services: Akkana reported the LWVUS asked local Leagues to set up mailboxes so that officers can send emails from addresses like “president@lwvnm.org” and would allow receiving mail at those addresses. It will look more professional if we have “LWV” in our emails. She researched email providers for prices and features for their basic plan and provided them to the Board. She recommends purelymail.com for basic services at present.

Action Item: Akkana and Hannah will create free accounts to test purelymail.com. Other testers welcome; let Hannah know.

PROGRAM

Judiciary Study: Judy reported the judiciary study has resulted in a position that she provided to the Board.

Concurrence Proposal: The LWV Colorado has asked state Leagues to “approve” or concur with their position on the separation of church and state. Their goal is to go to the LWVUS Convention next year to ask for their concurrence with a show of support from other Leagues. Action Item: Judy will provide links to the Colorado study on separation of church and state.

Barbara moved, and Akkana seconded, to concur with the position of the League of Women Voters of Colorado on separation of church and state. The discussion included that the separation of church and state isn't just a national issue, but that it can come up in State legislation as well, e.g., religious charter schools, rules having to do with abortion or women's healthcare that's informed by religious views, or the right to die, etc. The motion was withdrawn by Barbara to allow members to read the study. The issue will be revisited at the September Board meeting.

LUNCH AND MDW AWARD

At lunch Dick Mason was presented with the 2025 Making Democracy Work Award.

GOVERNANCE

Conflict of Interest (COI) Forms: All Board members are asked to complete the COI form. The COI form is on the LWVNM website.

Action Item: Edwina will complete the COI form and send to Hannah.

Policies To Review: Barbara reviewed proposed revisions to a section of the Member-at-Large Unit Policy entitled, “On Becoming a Local League in New Mexico” that includes guidance on creating member-at-large units. A motion, made by Kathy and seconded by Starlyn, to approve the revisions passed unanimously.

Board Handbook: Barbara also reviewed proposed changes to the Board Handbook. Several additional revisions were recommended.

Action Item: Barbara will revise and bring to the next Board meeting.

VOTER SERVICES

Edwina provided a brief update of the VOTE411 activities of the Voter Services Committee that is proceeding without a state-wide Voter Services Director. The local Leagues have each agreed to chair one monthly meeting prior to the November election. Several local Leagues have also agreed to add additional counties to the list of counties they are responsible for in VOTE411.

Review and Approval of Voter Guide Questions: Edwina provided a list of proposed candidate questions to the Board for approval. She noted that additional races and, therefore, additional questions, may be needed once the Secretary posts the Proclamation of Races. A motion, made by Judy and seconded by Akkana, to approve the proposed candidate questions engendered much discussion over candidate question #5 for Public/Municipal/Independent/Consolidated School Board Members. Judy did not accept a change to the question, but accepted its removal and revised her motion, with Akkana seconding, to approve the proposed candidate questions except question #5 under the Public/Municipal/Independent/Consolidated School Board Members. The motion carried unanimously.

Hannah reminded the Board that Leon Howard, Executive Director, ACLU of NM offered to have his lawyers write questions for municipal judges. If the ACLU comes up with different questions for municipal judges, we will consider them and will ask the Executive Committee for an electronic vote.  Action Item: Hannah will contact Leon Howard for candidate questions within the next week.

ED FUND REPORT

Election of Ed Fund Board Candidates: The Ed Fund bylaws (article IV. section 3), state, “At the first board meeting of the LWVNM after the Biennial Convention, the Board will elect Directors” (of the Ed Fund). Hannah presented the slate of candidates for consideration: President, Hannah Burling; Secretary, Felicia Orth; Treasurer, Jeanne Logsdon; Directors - Jody Larson, Meredith Machen, Karen Wentworth. Hannah noted someone from LWVSNM is needed. A motion, made by Barbara and seconded by Janet, to approve the slate of candidates for the LWVNM Ed Fund Board, was approved unanimously.

Ed Fund Draft Strategic Plan: Hannah provided a draft Ed Fund Strategic Plan that has three priorities (and several goals under each priority):

1) to educate and engage voters during elections,

2) to advance democracy through civic engagement.

3) to support local Leagues and members-at-large in New Mexico.

Strategic plans are needed to be considered for large grants by large foundations, e.g., Thornburg Foundation.

Recent Invoices: Hannah provided the Board a list of invoices submitted by Kathleen Burke to the LWVNM/Fair Districts for March and April 2025.

JEDI

Land Acknowledgment: Hannah provided the Board a copy of the LWVUS general guidance on land acknowledgements and how to use them.

LWVNM Land Acknowledgment Statement (adopted November 19, 2022): Several suggestions were made to modify the LWVNM Acknowledgement Statement but, after much discussion, it was left as is and Hannah suggested we could find a way to occasionally highlight various nations in communications and outreach. A motion, made by Jody and seconded by Meredith, to include the Land Acknowledgement Statement on the agendas of state League Board meetings, including Convention and Council, and in appropriate place(s) on our website, passed unanimously. Action Item: Akkana will place the Statement on the Documents page on our website to start.

Reviving the Committee: Hannah reported she is reviving the JEDI Committee.

Training for Members: Hannah noted that we need diversity training for members and reminded the board that Conservation Voters NM offered to work with us on training.

Action Item: Jody will see if there is someone in the League who can do the training.

NUCLEAR ISSUES

Karen submitted a detailed report on nuclear issues. No discussion and no action required.

MEMBERSHIP

New Member Welcome: Hannah proposed a welcome message (created in CANVA) that would be sent automatically to new members, including those not affiliated with a local League. Hannah stated it is important for LWVNM to reach out and welcome new members and ask them what they want, and show them where our resources are. The state League has a much broader program than the local Leagues, covers more issues and areas of interest for members and potential new members interested in advocacy and lobbying. The Board agreed a welcome statement from LWVNM could be included with local League welcome packages.

Action Item: Hannah will continue work on the welcome statement with Akkana assisting with graphics.

Recruitment for Committee Chairs and Others: There are several vacant positions which need to be filled: Membership Chair, JEDI Committee and Chair, Voter Services Chair, Action Coordinator, and League-in-Action Coordinator. The Roster Manager is under the Membership Chair. League-in Action (formerly Outreach Circle) is useful to quickly reach hundreds of people at once, e.g., for lobbying. There is a texting option in Constant Contact that can be explored.

Action Items: 1) The Board is asked to provide names (and email addresses) to Hannah of people who might be interested in the vacant positions at our next meeting that she can contact. 2) Hannah will place want ads in La Palabra for the vacant positions. 3) Hannah will investigate the cost of signing up for League-in-Action.

Membership Activation Issues: The LWVNM will link the membership rosters to Constant Contact. Members not wishing to get Constant Contact messages may opt out.

LOCAL LEAGUE REPORTS

Central New Mexico: written report in meeting packet; no discussion. Of note is the link to all of CNM’s Zoom recordings of their monthly education meetings at: Zoom Meeting Recordings.

Santa Fe County: written report in meeting packet. Debbie reported that for the LWVNM Convention, the LWVSFC overspent their budget by $800 because $1,600 was spent on the website for the Convention information page and registration page. $200 was brought in as additional revenue, $600 was absorbed by LWVSFC, leaving $800 overspent.  The website could be adapted for future use without much additional cost, Debbie stated. She also recommends that all four local Leagues participate in the planning of future convention and council meetings.

Action Item: Debbie will send a revised LWVSFC report to the Board.

Debbie also reported that when candidate forums are broadcast, you must register with the FCC. She brought up several questions: who does the registering if, e.g., we partner with the New Mexican, radio station, or other? Do we have to register for live streaming on other platforms or is it just TV and radio?  Meredith recommended contacting Henry Rivera, an FCC Retired commissioner and judge attorney for guidance.

Action Item: Meredith will provide Henry Rivera’s contact information to Debbie for follow-up.

Los Alamos: report in packet; no discussion.

Southern New Mexico: report in packet; no discussion

ANNOUNCEMENTS, NEW BUSINESS AND NEXT MEETING

Announcements:

Action Item: Meredith will send a write-up on habeus corpus to Janet to be included in La Palabra.

Next Board Meeting: September 20, 2025 from 11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.; place TBD.

Action Item: Debbie will check if St. John’s church in Santa Fe is available for the meeting.

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was adjourned at 2:57 p.m.