At our Annual Meeting, we voted to maintain our Non-Partisanship Policy as is, and approved the 2022-2023 Budget as proposed. As our fiscal year is the calendar year (since June 2021), the Budget is approved in June for the coming year, despite not having completed the current year. Consequently, the proposed budget that was approved reflected anticipated income and expenses for the remainder of 2022, and a proposed budget for 2023.

September/October/November 2022: We were able to maintain a booth at the Victorian Fair for the first time in a few years, and it was a pleasure to be back in the community again after the pandemic.

The annual Candlelight Vigil and Walk for Melrose Alliance Against Violence was a rainy one this year, but we sponsored a team and continued our tradition of supporting the organization.

January/February/March 2023: Several members volunteered to monitor School Committee meetings and keep members abreast of the school deparment budget shortfall.

The archive project was completed and given to the Library to maintain the history and records of the League of Women Voters of Melrose. Many thanks to Susan Baron, Joyce Zeiner, Maureen Elia and June Cuttino for all their work on this project.

We held a voter registration drive at Melrose High School in March, and only registered a few students, but the interest and discussion generated was heartening and it was good for our visibility in the community. Many students had already registered to vote through the Registry of Motor Vehicles or online.

April 2023: Susan Baron hosted a members brunch on April 16. It was a pleasure to visit with everyone and we had a good discussion of League business and local issues. The recipient of the Joan Moore Scholarship was announced and approved by vote of the members. This year’s recipient was Mary-Catherine Mahoney. She is in her third year of a 5-year program at the University of Pittsburgh, where she is working to get her bachelor’s and master’s degrees, as well as a double teaching certification in Education.
There was a lot of interest in hosting candidate forums for the local elections in the fall of 2023 and discussion will be continued at Annual Meeting in June and during the summer at planning meetings.

The Mayor was unable to join us as planned at the brunch, but we scheduled him for Annual Meeting instead.