New Haven Independent

Such was an inside joke shared by Pua Ford and Nancy Ciarleglio (on the right), stalwarts of the New Haven-West Haven chapter of the league. They were at a membership-raising luncheon that attracted about 15 people to the Graduate Club Tuesday afternoon.

The league’s speaker for the every-other-month program was talking about global warming. Meanwhile, Ford, Ciarleglio, and the chapter’s co-chair, Tina Doyle, were focused on luring women, preferably younger ones, warm up to the idea of volunteering on behalf of the league.

The League of Women Voters formed in 1920, the year the Nineteenth Amendment capped the campaign for women’s suffrage. They are the hard-working, level-headed women who monitor elections at all levels, including, for example, housing authority tenant councils; verify results; referee political debates; and annually put out pamphlets listing elected officials’ telephone numbers.

“In our activities, said Tina Doyle (pictured on the right with co-chair Maria Lamberto), “other people, like candidates, often get the attention. That’s why our visibility and membership are not what they should.”

Currently the local League chapter has about 60 members. “But in terms of our work,” added Doyle, “we’re down to a core of people.”

If these strong women were alarmists, which they’re notf, they’d say membership is dwindling. “Actually the issue,” said Doyle, “is that there are so many service opportunities in New Haven, it’s so hard to get busy younger women to get involved. And to come to a meeting at night? Forget it!”

Ford and Ciarleglio originally were active in their parent teacher organizations, the former on an issue of school construction for her kids’ school, the latter on school lunches.

“From involvement with the PTO, then on to the League,” said Ciarleglio, the chapter’s treasurer. “That’s a natural development. You learn about how, for example, the ultimate decision about your issue, say, with school lunch or a vending machine in school is going to be made at the state and even national level. So you get involved in the League, which also does important lobbying. Then once you learn the politics involved, it’s like a tzi tzi fly; you keep itching to learn and do more.”

The League is proudly non-partisan and politically neutral. Nationally takes stands on issues like the death penalty (against it) and affordable child care (for it). For a full list of the positions, check out the League’s home page.

Women with kids, ironically, don’t appear to get involved until the kids are older or even out of the house, said Doyle. In addition to the League she helms the Morris Cove Garden Club, East Shore Management Team, chairs the Tweed Airport liaison committee, serves on the boards of Ft. Nathan Hale Restoration Committee and Pardee Greenhouse.

Today’s families have new patterns, such as two parents working, and sometimes more than one job.

“People are stretched and stressed,” she said. “So we’ve really given up on attracting women in their 30s, 40s, and we’re hoping,” said Doyle, “to get those in their 50s. Those at least don’t have to make lunches anymore.”

Doyle said this membership problem facing the New Haven and Connecticut chapters is fairly typical of what the League confronts nationally.

To counter that, at Tuesday’s meeting, Ciarleglio distributed a brochure promoting a new weapon in the formidable quiver of these suffragists’ daughters: A “Friends of the League” mode of affiliation. For 25 bucks, a new member can support all the League’s work, it says, but “no meetings to attend, no minutes to read, no motions, or votes, projects to prepare, no ….”

The goal is to appeal to busy younger people eager to support the grassroots democracy that the League represents. “Yes,” said Ciarleglio, “so please take two or three brochures. And if you have a sister-in-law you particularly don’t like, be sure to give one to her!”

The League’s next event, also at the Graduate Club, is scheduled for Tuesday, March 24, at noon, on the issue of health care reform. To sign up, call 795-3151.