ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, March 18, 1996 TAG: 9603180084
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
The Roanoke Valley's chapter of the League of Women Voters is struggling to stay alive.
Its fund-raising efforts have come up almost empty. Its membership is dropping, and it has fewer and fewer people who can serve on its board and in other time-demanding positions. Attracting new, younger members has become difficult.
"We lose board members, and we have no one to take their place," board chairwoman Phyllis Bailey said. "With few exceptions, most of use are in our 60s, some over 70, and one over 80. So when you lose people and can't replace them, that's kind of the handwriting on the wall."
The league is at a crossroads in the Roanoke Valley.
Its board has voted to ask the membership whether to disband the Roanoke Valley chapter.
Members will meet April 16 to debate this question.
The League of Women Voters was started nationally in 1920 to help women exercise their newly won right to vote. It has since expanded its mission to include a number of issues, including fighting for gun control, early intervention for at-risk children and better health care.
Roanoke's chapter, formed in 1953, has been a high-profile organization, holding candidate debates and distributing voter guides throughout the Roanoke Valley.
The group, called the League of Women Voters of the Roanoke Area, has about 45 members. That's half the number it had 15 years ago.
The drop in membership mirrors nationwide trends. Citizens have become too turned off by politics - or are too busy trying to make ends meet - to get involved, according to Tracy Warren, a spokeswoman with the League of Women Voter's national headquarters in Washington.
It used to be different. The league's national membership reached its height at 156,000 in 1969, thanks to growing political participation by women sparked by the civil rights, peace and women's movements.
"People were pulled in, and they participated," said Bailey, who joined in the early 1970s. "There were still a lot of stay-at-home moms at the time who joined these organizations to enlighten themselves."
Membership declined dramatically in the 1980s. National membership is about 90,000.
Bailey said people seem to be less interested in making the time to take part in public life. "They've got TVs, VCRs, computers. They can socialize on the Internet. It's not a good trend for society, period. Getting out at night, and going to meetings, they're just not doing it."
The Roanoke Valley chapter has eight to 10 members who do most of the work and fill the leadership slots, she said. "Everyone is doing double and triple duty. It's just too much."
If the chapter disbands, members would have the option of becoming members-at-large of the Virginia league. If members decide to keep going, the board said in a letter last week, the board would have to get more help from the general membership.
Bailey said the organization is worth saving. Before joining the league, "I had difficulty picking out the issues and deciding what was going on," she said.
She said the league helps people learn the skills and develop the confidence they need to take control of their government - by "teaching people that they don't have to know how to make rockets to decide whether or not we need more rockets."
There are hopeful trends nationally. The membership drop leveled off over the last year. And some chapters are reinvigorating themselves. In Detroit, for example, the chapter has been resurrected after dying out a few years ago.
In the Roanoke Valley, Bailey said, "we could really make a difference if we had people willing to put in three or four hours a week. We're perfectly willing to keep on trying to keep things together."
The league will meet at 7:30 p.m. April 16 at the Raleigh Court branch of the Roanoke Public Library. Anyone who wants more information or is interested in joining the league can call 989-5998.
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Chart by staff: League of Women Voters. color.by CNB