That helps with the Presidential elections, there is still the House and local assembly. I live in Wi and hope that we can start having fair maps for our assembly. 40% of the vote shouldn’t result in 60%+ of the seats.

Edit: I do agree that 1 person 1 vote should be the norm, we just have other issues to worry about with gerrymandering and civic engagement.

They were arguing that teens would show up, because we don’t prevent them from attending the event. This would lead to awkward conversations that the MFL group members are not ready to have as parents.

I don’t know what universe they live in, it’s hard enough to get teens to attend programs that are focused towards them let alone something like this.

This is definitely part of it. Meetings are usually at 5pm but I have seen some start at 7pm and go on for hours, looking at you budget hearings. These are important; however, the information is usually in a giant PDF or print only. I think the other part of the equation is how the municipality communicates and engages with its population.

As a librarian, I want to help with organizing the information and make it available in different formats, but it takes a lot of buy in from elected officials and other departments. Not saying that’s how all local governments work, it’s just my experience with a couple.

On a side note, Data Governance and Analytics now falls under my department. This thread just gave a goal for next year, just got to figure out how to word it.

Reposting my comment from a while ago, with some edits:

The library I work at has had Moms for Liberty attend several meetings demanding we withdraw books that are against their beliefs, no specific titles, just a general demand. This would include anything on LGBTQ+, children’s books with rainbows, our Banned Books display, and anything promoting voting and civics education. More recently, they want us to stop holding some events, including adult focused events about race relations in the Midwest, and we should no longer host any programs funded by State and Federal grants. Lastly, they have said we need to stop allowing the staff from joining ALA or the state library association.

If any of these restrictions or censorship upsets you at all, please attend a library board meeting and voice your support for the library. Some even let you write in. Groups like MFL make it a point to attend a lot of the meetings in hopes to get their way, and it’s working.

DROP TABLE names;