In a league of their own

Earlier this decade, the League of Women Voters of Long Beach had a number of committees and study groups working simultaneously on a range of issues affecting the city. But this summer, there was serious talk about disbanding the graying organization.

Determined to avoid that fate, members Veronica Gilligan and Veronica Rose became co-presidents, with the determination not only to strengthen the existing membership, but also to tackle the seemingly perennial goal of increasing it — and recruiting younger members. “It was a sort of last-ditch: Hey, maybe we can do it,” Gilligan said about reviving the weakening group, a nonpartisan organization that works to encourage the informed participation of citizens in government.

Gilligan and Rose are presidents at a time when the polity nationwide is immersed in such issues as government stimulus, bailouts, health care reform and tea parties, all while the economy continues to struggle and the nation’s first black president molds a new era. “People are saying that people have a lot more questions this year,” Rose said. “My children are even asking questions this time: we have a black president, spending and tax issues, health care.”

While the League promotes citizen participation at all levels of government, its main focus this year is local, as six candidates vie for three open seats on the Long Beach City Council in November (see accompanying story). Among the issues the candidates and voters are discussing are taxes, parking, improving the beach and the proposed liquid natural gas terminal 13 miles offshore.

“The people we’re electing here for City Council and the judges aren’t passing legislation on health care or abortion that some people have very strong feelings about,” Gilligan said. “What these guys do is get your streets repaved and look at your taxes and keep the beaches accessible. That’s what this particular election is about.”

Both Gilligan and Rose say they got involved in the league to help people make more informed, independent decisions about the matters facing them. “I think some people decide they are a Democrat or Republican and vote a line, instead of voting in an informed way about what you think and what you care about different issues,” Gilligan said.

At the League’s Sept. 23 meeting at the Long Beach Library, a dozen members discussed everything from strategies for promoting the organization to hosting a candidates forum on Oct. 28.

While the League has about 85 dues-paying members, three of them men, the group at last week’s meeting represented its dedicated core. The organization’s primary administrative task now is to boost membership.

“How do we get the younger people?” Gilligan asked her fellow members. The women thought of using an annual scholarship the League gives to a local high school student to help them update their long-dormant Web site and connect to Facebook and Twitter. In addition to the scholarship money, recipients would get a free membership and a notch on their resume.

“We have to find a way to generate younger people, because they will do it,” said Secretary Janet Slavin.

The head of voters services, Eileen Lily, the district clerk for the Long Beach School District, suggested that PTAs are perfect sources for recruiting members.

As the group considered how best to distribute 500 copies of the Nassau County Voters Guide, stuffed with literature about the League, they talked about diversifying their membership by looking to the Martin Luther King Jr. Center, Latino organizations, the city’s Historical Society and the many houses of worship around town.

Past President Barbara Bernardino stressed that when handing out the guide, it is best to talk with people about the League first. “If you don’t have something for membership sticking out of it, I don’t think people are going to make the connection,” Bernardino said. “We need someone to talk about the League and then hand them out.”

Gilligan and Rose said that their best shot to recruit new members is at the candidates forum. They discussed the event’s logistics, knowing they need a timekeeper as well as collectors and selectors of written questions submitted by the audience for the candidates. “I’d like to see other members get involved in this,” Bernardino said.

She also suggested that they ask longtime members to guide newer members, and she offered to host a brunch at her house sometime after the Nov. 3 election. Almost all of the members agreed that was a great idea.

Bernardino has been involved in the organization since the 1980s, serving as president and co-president as well as president of the Nassau chapter. Asked why the Long Beach chapter has been in decline in recent years, she mentioned a few possible reasons. She noted that while many volunteer organizations today suffer from declining memberships, Leagues throughout the county have been consolidating, and she speculated that part of the problem may be a lack of leadership.

“When you take the leadership position of a volunteer organization, I think it has to be broad-based,” Bernardino said. “Women join for different reasons, and a good leader has to give everybody something that they came for, and include everyone, independent of their personal views and personalities.”

She also surmised that students, locally and nationwide, may lack the civic education that she received during her high school years. “We left with a very clear responsibility as private citizens of making this whole thing work,” said Bernardino, who graduated from Long Beach High School in 1963. “Our system cannot work without an active, informed participation of it citizens. I’ve been like that ever since.”

Comments about this story? JKellard@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 213.