 another episode of In the Studio. I'm your host, Lynn Weaver. Well, something very exciting is happening in Davis these days. The Davis chapter of the League of Women Voters is back. After five years of declining membership, which prompted its disband, a number of very concerned and dedicated citizens of Davis decided to bring it back. As many of you may know, it was founded in 1920 to support mainly the suffrage of women rights. And the interesting fact is that this 1920, the founding of this league was just six months before the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution gave women the right to vote. Now, in 1973, the charter of the National League of Women Voter was modified to include men. And one of the things that is very important to be said is that officially the National League of Women Voters is a non-partisan organization. And which means that it neither supports nor opposes any candidate or any party in this country. Well, I have here today three wonderful guests. I have Mary Jo Bryan, the new Davis League acting president or director, president. Bob Funk, the acting vice president of the league and Georgina Valencia, the acting secretary. Welcome all. And thank you for being here. Now I'm going to start with a couple of questions. The obvious one is, and Mary Jo, if you could answer that, what is the principal goal of this revival? And why do you think it's very necessary to have a Davis chapter of the league? Well, thank you very much for doing this because I think that all of us feel the importance and what we've discovered is that there's a great feeling of importance throughout this community to restore the legal invoters back to Davis. And just to give a little bit of further history too, the league had been started back in 1959 as sort of the beginning of the onslaught of the city of Davis and what it was becoming in a university town and was very active in planning and voter education, all kinds of things, very strong and very strong and was like that for many years. So when 2014 came along, we had that leadership had really had, they could not find new leadership to take it over and so they did disband on that. But sometimes in having ideas like that, people see the importance of something and bring it back on a different level. Absolutely true. And I think this is what we're doing. Last year when I was running for city council, I realized how difficult it was to get information out to the general public with declining readership of papers and other restricted sources and Civ and Energy did a great job of trying to do that but name recognition wasn't there. The legal invoters has a great name recognition for voter service, non-partisanship, study, research, taking positions on various issues that they have decided to take a position on. And with all that in mind, when I started talking to people, I can't believe that the cadre of people that I have working with me is incredible. So I'm willing to take this on and I'm so thrilled that we are doing this and that we're doing it with men are in. Yes. And we have. And it's a wonderful organization. I've belonged to it since 1960. Yes. I was also a member. 1969. I was also a member for many years back in Massachusetts and I always valued the incredible service that I do and their presence is essential, not to mention in this particular political climate now with the new election coming next year. We have very strong positions on a variety of issues on both the national, the state and the local issues. So when you become a member of the league, you become a member of all three. Yes. And you can play a vital part in regards to that on your local level, on your state level and with the national league. Well, it's very good to know. And Georgina reminded me a little while ago that they still, you don't, you will soon have a website because you are still in the process of being registered. Isn't that right? That's absolutely right. Yes. We actually had our first meeting on May 29th, which is not that long ago. No. And our second meeting on June 25th and I'm happy to say both meetings, they were organizational meetings and that's how you start this process. They have 15 steps that you take off the website from the California State League. And we've made it to step seven and that's where you put a package together of your governing documents and applications that have come in and create those documents and send it into the league itself, the state league which we did that on July 10th and they'll be reviewing it before the board on August 3rd and we hope at our August 7th meeting to announce that we have their record. Official. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Well, that's wonderful. But in the meantime, you can go to another website and I'll come to Bob. Who is the founder of Civ Energy. Right. And can you, Bob, can you explain a little bit how your organization integrates or fits in with the League of Women Voters? Sure, sure. And of course you are the vice president. Right. Yes. So, Civ Energy, I founded it in about 2014 and there was an election, a city council election and I worked with the league before they disbanded in order to take the forum, the city council forum that they did and to put it on the internet so that people didn't have to be at the forum. They could watch bits of the forum remotely. That's wonderful. And that was my plan all along to work with the League of Women Voters that the league would do in-person forums and the Civ Energy would do the online discussions continue discussions before and after the forum. And your technical background certainly is very handy for the league and for everybody actually. Yes, it's true. So, after the league disbanded, Civ Energy not only did the online discussions but we have been putting on forums. We put on a forum when Mary Jo was running for city council in 2018 and it was very successful forum, we had over around 300 people at the Davis Community Church there. And so I would, connecting Civ Energy with the League of Women Voters is sort of putting the online discussion together with the traditional in-person forums and the other things that the league does, voter registration, analysis of issues, all those are, we'll be working together with. That sounds wonderful. So you're outing a new 21st century dimension to the league, which is in somewhat a bit of a goal of Mary Jo and all of you, the leaderships to bring this chapter to the 21st century, as I said. Well, the website of Civ Energy is very, very easy and it will display on our screen. It's www.CivEnergy.org. Right, that's right. And you can be reached, I imagine, at your website for any questions. And then of course you will probably announce when the league website will come into being, right? That's right, yes. Well, this is wonderful. I wanted to, I wanted to talk about to ask Georgina how your work, you are a member or the chair, I believe, of the city social services commission. I am. And so of course it seems obvious to me, but maybe not to everybody, how does your work for the city, for the commission, fits in with the work you are planning to do? Yeah. I think it's really trying to understand what the issues are in the community, what the public concern is. For instance, there was a survey done recently that the city asked a consultant to do. And one of the top issues of that was housing affordability. And that is one of the mission statements, if you will, for the social services commission. So we meet on that and we talk on that. We had a very robust meeting on this last Monday evening in regards to housing and our housing policies here in the community. So that's one of the pieces, if you will, that fits really well. And so it just seems that I'm on the social services commission and it just makes sense for me to be a part of the League of Women Voters. But I'd like to add one thing too. And that's really to command Mary Jo because she's the person that really kind of connected us all together. And honestly, if I hadn't run into her on the street and she looked me right in the eye and said, I want to start the League of Women Voters. And I said, I can't believe there isn't one in Davis. Because it's such a Davis thing. It's a Davis ethos to really be involved. And so she's really the firebrand behind it all. Mary Jo has a long, long history of volunteering in Davis and doing fantastic things for the community. So thank you. And this is just a very creative idea that other people should have thought of. But nobody did. Democracy is a part of the participatory sport. And we have to get people involved. And when that survey came out, we saw that from people. But there were things in it that people need to learn about, the process, how it happens, how to participate. And that's what the League can do. And with the help of Civ Energy, we've got a much, much broader way of contacting people. And I think that's so important. I think you're absolutely right. And it always amazes me how little people, especially young people, now how little they know about the process of voting and participating in political discourse. And all these things that are essential and they're not really taught in school. And even at university, unless you are in political science or something, they're not. And it's a must for our democracy. But I wanted to ask, and this time I'm going to ask each of you, so you can choose who's going to start, what are the challenges of currently faces, the League, in our region, and perhaps nationally as well? And choose one or two. I mean, there are many challenges. I can start. OK, good. So in our first meeting, Gloria Partida, Mayor Pro Tem came to the meeting. And she came up to the front to give a little discussion point. And her discussion point was on the fact that she thought that the League in Davis and in the state and nationally needed to be much more diverse. So if you look at the population, the League needs more men. And it needs more younger people. Yes. It needs more people of color. And we encourage everybody to come to our meetings and to participate. Yes. Well, who's next? Yeah, I think there's some goals that I'll say are not maybe at a higher level. But for us, because we're at such early stages, one of our biggest goals is really membership. Yes. And diversity is obviously very important, but we also need to get members and our outreach for those members. We're doing it in various ways. I mean, this is a great format. And we really appreciate your interviewing us today, because I believe that helps us, too. But we've been working with the Davis Enterprise, Davis Vanguard, in any way that we can to let the community know that we're here and we're coming back. And we need their support. It's essential. And I was going to ask you that in my next question. Yes, I also am planning to have you back in a few months so we can mark the progress. And outreach is so difficult, because everybody's saturated with things. Mary Jo. Well, I'll take a little different things. Yes. I mean, it's basically understanding the League process in this non-partisanship. Yes. I mean, it takes positions on issues. So we have a housing issue, an air quality issue. And so we will lobby for those. We will never take a position, as we mentioned, on a candidate or a party. And that's very important. But in that process, you have to do some research and study. Yes. And sometimes people feel that we are too slow to act. But I can tell you, I have been in the League since, like I said, 1969, 1970. And I reviewed our local positions from that were put together back in 1995 and updated. And they are relevant today, very, very much so. They need to be tweaked. They need to be active. They may be needed to be rounded out into. But they are right on course. And I just think it's important that you have the background of knowledge and research behind you before you go forward, because I think we've all learned how complicated situations are, funding, all these kinds of things. Well, and of course, you have to prioritize. But I'm so happy you mentioned that the issues and not the people, especially nowadays, it's all about personalities and people. And the issues are all that matters whether you are a Republican, Democrat, I don't know, Mr. Smith of Mrs. Goodie, it doesn't matter. And I think that young people need to understand that in this culture of memes and icons. There is one last question because I'm afraid we're running out of time. It's amazing how 15 minutes go very fast when things are very important. I wanted to ask you, basically you've already answered all that, but Georgina mentioned outreach. Obviously, you want to expand participation and include young people, minorities and men and so on. Do you have, are you working on a strategy to do that? Well, I'm hesitant to say too much right at this point. We are, so the answer is yes, we are. And one of the things that we're doing that's a little bit different from the original Davis chapter is it was really about Davis. And what we're looking at is Yolo County. And we believe that that will help bring us more diversity too. I agree. So that's one of our strategies. But there's others, I'll just, we'll wait. Yes, absolutely, I'm glad that you're thinking of this. And I noticed that there is a Woodland chapter. There is a Woodland chapter. And I was wondering whether you could combine your strengths in some. We've actually talked about that and met with them and gone to their annual meeting. And they're very receptive. Good, and perhaps there's one in Sacramento, who knows? But I'm, there is, yes. But not West Sacramento and not Dixon. I mean, not Winters, not Esparto and not, you know. So there's definitely places that could use the outreach and what we do for them. And sort of help one another. I'm afraid our time is up. It's terrible. So thank you so much. My heartfelt thank you and appreciation for what you do for the community. Bob Fung, the vice president of the Davis chapter of the women, the League of Women Voters. Thank you very much. Georgina, the secretary of the acting secretary, no longer acting in a few weeks, I'm sure, of the League and Mary Jo, the acting president. Thank you so much. And again, go to Civ Energy website to find out more about what Bob and his organization do. And for, thank you all of you for watching. If you enjoyed this episode, you can always watch it again by streaming it at dctv.davismedia.org. And while you're there, you can look at some of the other shows that we have. We have incredible guests and very interesting topics. So once again, thank you for watching and see you next time.