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Have you been looking for a way to contribute, but don’t have the capacity for a long-term volunteer project? Do you like to stay informed about local government and their decision-making processes? The Observer Corps may be the right fit for you.

For the past few months the forum steering team has been hard at work to arrange candidate forums for this fall. There will be five in-person forums: for County Executive on September 27, for Mayor and Council of Ferndale on September 28, for County Council on October 3, for Sheriff on October 4, and for Mayor and Council of Bellingham on October 17. All except the Ferndale forum will be carried live on BTV, but only people attending in person will be able to ask questions of the candidates. The times and locations of the forums are listed on our website https://lwvbellinghamwhatcom.org/election-forums.

As members may know if they have visited our webpage recently, the League is planning a number of candidate forums running from late September to mid-October, just before ballots reach voters in Whatcom County.

Applicants for United States citizenship must take an in-person civics test to demonstrate their knowledge of American history and government. During the interview, the immigration officer will ask the applicant 10 questions out of a list of 100, and the applicant must answer six correctly in order to pass the test. This is NOT a multiple choice test! YOU can take the test yourself; each repetition shows you different questions.

Reports of climate disruption impacts—here and now impacts and not only future worries—are becoming dismayingly frequent. Even those of us lucky enough to be thus far relatively untouched are starting to feel the need for some good news on the climate front to buoy us up.

This is a great opportunity for new members to meet others and to get their questions answered. But it’s also for all members to re-connect with old friends. We have no agenda at our monthly meet-ups but interesting conversations always happen here. Buy yourself a cup of coffee at the Shirlee Bird Café and then join us in the center of the Sycamore Building. Next month we’ll meet after work for happy hour.

Do you know the No. 1 reason that people become active in the League of Women Voters? Because a person they like asked them to participate! Inviting others is a small thing that every LWV member can do to strengthen our democracy, our community and our organization. To help you, each month, the LWVBWC will suggest one “come and bring a friend” event, and we hope you’ll take up that invitation.

A police raid on the office of the local newspaper in Marion County, Kansas, in early August has underscored why community news matters — and drawn comment from League of Women Voters leaders. Washington President Mary Coltrane, and Local News Committee Chair Dee Anne Finken, in comments published in the Salish Current, called the event a reminder “of the critical service local newspapers provide their communities.”