Help plan our future.

Here is your chance to help the League determine its priorities in the midst of this constitutional crisis. It’s time for the LWVGE’s annual planning workshop, to be held Feb 7th from 9am -12 at the Hadley Junior High library. Program planning is a grassroots process where members review current positions and propose, discuss, and select governmental issues for local, state, and national education and advocacy. The results help shape the national convention, as well as what LWVGE will focus on for the upcoming 26-27 season.  We hope to see you there!

MEMBERS ONLY

AGENDA

RESOURCES 

Review the glossary of commonly used terms in Program Planning and Convention debate. The goal of the glossary is to help ensure that all Leagues and Convention delegates are grounded in a clear understanding of terms associated with Convention and League Program.

Impact on Issues – all LWVUS positions 

Concurrence items

Recommended 2026 Program: Women Defend Democracy: Democracy Under Siege (from LWVUS)

On April 17, 2025, LWVUS declared that the United States was entering a constitutional crisis. As such, the LWVUS Board affirmed that the foundational principles that have sustained our democracy — checks and balances, the rule of law, free and fair elections — were facing direct and sustained threats. The League called on all Americans to stand with us in this extraordinary moment to Unite and Rise to save our democracy. 

Through the 2025 inauguration of President Trump, the League advanced our Campaign for Making Democracy Work®. Now, as we enter the 2026–2028 biennium, our democracy is under coordinated attack from multiple fronts—and the League of Women Voters is uniquely positioned to fight back by engaging and mobilizing voters nationwide. For more than a century, the League has shone as the “mighty political experiment” that our founding mothers intended. Our mission has never been so important as it is today as we work to engage and mobilize voters to protect our democracy, which George Washington, in his first inaugural address, called an “experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.”  

To that end, the LWVUS board recommends adoption by the 2026 Convention of a campaign, Women Defend Democracy: Democracy Under Siege, to empower the organization to act decisively to protect and defend our democracy. The campaign will focus on Voting Rights, Election Protection, Redistricting, Individual Liberties, Immigration, and The Presidency. 

The League has already embarked on a Women Defend Democracy campaign to continue our work to protect and expand voting rights and hold accountable those who seek to undermine democratic principles and processes. In the next biennium, it is even more important for us to join together to engage and mobilize voters across the country to oppose attacks that strike at the very core of our democracy and democratic institutions. By building on Women Defend Democracy and our decade of accomplishments under the Campaign for Making Democracy Work, we will be well positioned to take action in these exceptionally challenging times. 

The six prongs of the plan include:

  • Voting Rights

  • Election Protection

  • Redistricting

  • Immigration 

  • Individual Liberties 

  • The Presidency

2026 and Beyond

As we look to the future, the League’s programmatic work is more critical than ever. Our democracy faces deepening hyper-partisanship in Congress, a surge in anti-voter legislation and policies nationwide, heightened instances of executive overreach and constitutional violations, and a growing set of international conflicts that directly influence domestic issues.  

As we confront these challenges, the League remains steadfast. Local and state Leagues and LWVUS continue to work in concert to advance our priorities and defend the integrity of our democratic system.