Welcoming Remarks of LWVOR President Lisa Bentson

Lisa Bentson was elected to the office of LWVOR President by delegates from around the state on May 19, 2024, at the biennial LWVOR Council. Below are Lisa's first remarks as President.

May 19, 2024

By LWVOR President Lisa Bentson

As President, my main goal is to support the amazing work you all do and further our purpose of “Empowering Voters and Defending Democracy.” 

“Communications” is the theme of my term. It is at the core of our purpose, and I look forward to enhancing what we are already doing. I’m happy to report that in the past few years as we’ve emerged from Covid, LWVOR has initiated, on Becky’s encouragement, a number of Lateral groups statewide. We recently started a Communications lateral group that has met monthly with good attendance. Our office staff are the lead for these meetings, planning and agendas. One of the first things we’d like to have is a “Communications Chair.” With Sarah and Abby handling logistics, this position is not onerous. We’re looking for an enthusiastic person to work with our staff and complimentary lateral groups for the good of all. If I was not President this term, I would happily take that Chair as it is critical for the success of our organization. Please let me know of your interest. 

In addition, we have created a League Leader Google group that is active as well as our online Forums. Not surprisingly, the Communication Forum is one of our most popular according to Sarah. 

As I hope you agree, our focus between now and November must be communicating our core values anywhere and everywhere we can. Just this past week, our staff person Sarah and I met and have initiated a Marketing Plan. This will guide us in our outreach to reach as many Oregonians as possible for the General election. We have added some new tools to our toolkit, so please be on the lookout for more on this soon. 

“As I hope you agree, our focus between now and November must be communicating our core values anywhere and everywhere we can.”

I joke that everyday I am working on League tasks I learn something new. It is my intention to continue doing so. One way will be to communicate with our Local Leagues in a variety of ways. This helped me so much when I started as Membership Chair with LWVOR when I had recently become an Oregonian. My goal was to visit every League and I got close. It was during Covid, so some of those meetings were virtual, but some were in-person. Thank goodness we’re back to face-to-face meetings that include our virtual participants. 

I grew up in a very politically active family in the 60’s. The family mantra was: “If you don’t vote, you don’t get to complain.” My father ran for State Assembly one year and for Halloween I wore his sandwich board signs saying “Elect Jim Bentson for State Assembly” as my costume. My mother attended the National Presidential Conventions every 4 years including Chicago in 1968. I rarely saw my father worried, but he was during that Convention. She made it home just fine. 

Thank you for allowing me to serve our League as President. A big thank you to Becky Gladstone, your outgoing President and Co-President, for her hours of mentoring. We have met weekly since last fall and I truly and greatly appreciate her support. 

Thank you to each of you for your dedication to our purpose and all of the hard work you do.

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