League of Women Voters of Northeast Westchester to disband

WESTCHESTER, N.Y. - It’s the end of an era.

After nearly six decades of educating, informing, and registering voters -- as well as welcoming new citizens -- the League of Women Voters of Northeast Westchester has packed it in.

The decision to disband “was not made lightly,” according to LWVNEW President Lisa Pizzurro who explained that for several years, the local chapter had been “punching above its weight.”

It will officially cease operations on Monday, June 30.

The LWVNEW had served North Salem, Bedford, Lewisboro, Mount Kisco, Pound Ridge, and Somers (on school board issues).

Like many civic groups, it had been struggling to find enough volunteers to carry on at past levels.

Despite that, Pizzurro said, the LWVNEW has provided “extensive” local voter services such as the Somers Board of Education candidate forum that was held in conjunction with the Somers PTA Council in May.

This spring it held student-voter registration drives at both John Jay High School in Lewisboro and Fox Lane High School in Bedford and also sent a local high school junior to the “Students Inside Albany” conference, an annual initiative that provides students with the unique opportunity to learn firsthand about state government.

In June, the LWVNEW embraced new citizens at a naturalization ceremony in White Plains.

“It’s been hard, but we managed,” Pizzurro said.

Several members of the LWVNEW’s board of directors were moving on.

“No one is resigning or quitting, but several of us decided not to serve again when our terms expire at the end of June,” she said.

Bylaws require that it have a full slate of candidates at least 30 days before the LWV’s annual meeting.

(Members are elected, but they also can be appointed.)

The deadline for stepping up was extended several times but the LWVNEW couldn’t get the bodies that were needed in time, Pizzurro explained.

“You can’t run an organization without enough officers,” noted LWVNEW board member Gail Pantezzi of North Salem, who said she’d opposed the decision but was “out voted.”

“I regret that this group is disbanding,” she said, adding: “It’s not a good thing when an organization that’s been around since the 1960s finds itself in a position where they can’t find enough officers.”

Pantezzi was recently named by U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler as a Woman of Distinction/Changemaker for her contributions to the community through her leadership on the LWVNEW as well as the North Salem Improvement Society, the local historical society, and the Lions Club.

When she received her award in May, Pantezzi spoke about being a volunteer “and how much fun it is … mostly.”

All the effort she’s put in over 40 years is well worth it.

“I feel so much better for having done these things,” said Pantezzi, who intends to continue participating in the LWV on the county level and thinks it will be interesting to “get a little bit beyond North Salem.”

Not that being active on the local level isn’t just as important because that’s where you can have the most direct impact.

“It’s important because you can reach people who are making decisions and help people who are having problems,” she said.

“It’s a shame it had to come to this. The nominating committee had worked very hard to replace the outgoing board with new officers and found them. For whatever reason, they chose to disband anyway,” North Salem’s Nzingha Milanes, chair of the LWVNEW’s nominating committee, told Halston Media on Thursday, June 19.

Milanes has been named a "Woman of Distinction" by state Assemblyman Chris Burdick. The award ceremony was held in Chappaqua on Monday, June 23.

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

Although the LWVNEW will cease to exist as a local chapter on July 1, its folks could join either the New Castle LWV or the LWV of Northwest Westchester, which covers Yorktown, Cortlandt, Peekskill, Buchanan, Briarcliff, and Ossining.

According to Pizzurro, both have “expressed a willingness to take on members who need a place to go.”

They could also become members-at-large for the New York State LWV.

“It remains to be seen if the communities currently served by LWVNEW will be covered by other League entities,” she said. “We cover a large part of the county and it’s a tall order to expect other leagues to fill all the voter service gaps left in our wake.”

“This is part of what makes our decision so difficult,” Pizzurro added.

WHAT IS THE LWV?

The League of Women Voters has local, county, state, and national levels. At all of those it says it’s a “nonpartisan, multi-issue, grassroots organization that encourages informed, active participation of citizens in government.”

Furthermore, the LWV’s mission statement says, it’s “unique among such organizations in its strict nonpartisanship” and “it supports and opposes issues but not particular candidates or political parties.”

The latter means that it does use its position to “advocate for or against particular policies in the public interest.”

Anyone age 16 and older – “regardless of gender or political affiliation” – is welcome to join, it says.

There are over 700 state and local leagues across the United States.

They are present in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Hong Kong.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Saying she was “proud” of the chapter, Pizzurro said it had “accomplished a lot” and had “kept its focus very local.”

“It was always important to us that we concentrate(d) on informing and educating the voters in the towns we cover and I think we were pretty successful at that,” she said.

There were too many folks to thank individually but Pizzurro gave a shoutout to fellow board and nominating committee members “for their hard work.”

“We are grateful to all our members, past and present, for their contributions. Everyone who is, or was, a member has helped make a difference in the communities we serve. Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she said in the LWVNEW’s June 12 statement.

In New York state, disbanded local league funds go to LWVNYS.

The LWVNEW has requested that its remaining money be allocated to to the LWVW, LWVNC, and LWVNWW since, it said, “these entities will try to cover some of the voter service gaps created by the absence of our league.”

“I cannot adequately express the sadness many of us are feeling,” Pizzurro said. “This group has been around in one form or another since 1966 and this marks the end of an era. Our members were notified at the end of April. Now that our spring voter service activities have concluded, we are notifying the community. If this comes as a surprise, that’s a credit to our organization and its volunteers.”

GOOD TO KNOW

LWVNEW’s social media accounts will soon become inactive but the group’s website, www.LWVNEW.org, should remain live for the “foreseeable future” and will pointing visitors toward “available voter services.”

To contact the New Castle LWV, email LWVNewCastle@gmail.com.

For the LWV of Northwest Westchester, email LWVNWW@gmail.com