2025 Biennial Convention

Saturday, May 31, 2025

10:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Convention brings the League together to chart its future, celebrate its successes, and recommit to our mission of empowering voters and defending democracy. Our theme this year is "Sustaining Collective Power" — how do we approach the current moment with grit and tenacity and sustain a hopeful future? We’ve lined up terrific speakers to inform and inspire us.

We’ve also planned workshops and other activities to help us get to know each other, build our skills and knowledge, and strengthen our local chapters. We’ll set the course for the next two years by electing our officers and board members and by voting on our budget and program. 

💻 🙋 This is a hybrid event. Attend Convention in-person or virtually via Zoom. Click the links below to register.

In-person: Register Here Zoom: Register Here

The deadline to register for Convention is Thursday, May 22.

See the workbook here. Everyone who registers will receive their own copy!

 

What's the cost of admission?

The cost to attend in-person is $50, and this covers materials for the day, plus lunch and snacks. The cost to attend remotely via Zoom is $25. We do not want the cost to be a barrier to participation. You can also pay what you can when you register.

Click here to register!

 

Where is it hosted?

We'll be in the Randall Student Center at the University of Maine Augusta Campus (46 University Dr).

 

What's the agenda?

Convention brings the League together to chart its future, celebrate its successes, and recommit to our mission of empowering voters and defending democracy. We’ve lined up terrific speakers to inform and inspire us. We’ve planned workshops and other activities to help us get to know each other, build our skills and knowledge, and strengthen our local chapters. We’ll set the course for the next two years by electing our officers and board members and by voting on our budget and program.

See our full agenda for the day here!

 

What will we vote on?

Every two years, we host a Convention in which League members elect officers and directors, adopt programs, make bylaws changes, and adopt a budget. It's a formality common to every State League, but it's also an exciting opportunity to network and engage on relevant issues with fellow League members and with national and state experts.

Membership will vote on the following issues:

  • Board Members
  • Budget for 2025-27
  • Program and Mission
  • Amended Bylaws

 

WORKSHOPS

Vote16 and Intergenerational Organizing

With LaJuan Allen, Executive Director of Vote16USA | How can empowering young people strengthen democracy for all? This workshop explores the Vote16 movement to lower the voting age for local elections and how it intersects with powerful intergenerational organizing strategies. Join us for a dynamic conversation on building inclusive civic engagement, fostering youth leadership, and working across age lines to create lasting change.

Relational Organizing and Voting Rights

With Evan Murray, LWVME Civic Engagement Director | We hear “talk to your friends and family” a lot — this workshop will help you create a plan for how to do this effectively and efficiently. In this time, you’ll create your own scripts, decide who you should reach out to, and set yourself goals for the number of people you’ll contact. Relational organizing is really a word for drawing on the strength of our personal networks to get information out and bring people in, and this year we need to draw on this strength to defeat voter suppression at the ballot.

Local Government 101

With Deb Paredes, LWVME Organizer | The League has prepared a nonpartisan guide to working with Local Government. This educational session will first review the very basics of how Maine communities govern themselves. Participants will gain a better understanding of chartered versus unchartered communities, how cities and counties are governed, how statewide representation is set up, and more. After that, the details of how you can participate will be addressed: as a community volunteer, as a learner, and as a leader.

Anatomy of an Advocacy Campaign

With Al Cleveland, LWVME Advocacy Director, and Youth Council fellows | This workshop will focus on the nuts and bolts of issue advocacy campaigns. We will learn how to run a legislative or electoral campaign through big idea visioning to policy enactment. This workshop will include all the visible and invisible steps in a campaign, including research, power mapping, coalition building, and more.
 

 

Introducing our Keynote Speaker

Shay Stewart-Bouley

Shay Stewart-Bouley

Shay Stewart-Bouley is the executive director of Community Change Inc., a Boston-based anti-racism organization that also works in Maine. Shay is also the creator of the award-winning site, Black Girl in Maine Media, where she blogs on matters of race and aging. Over the years, Shay’s work has been featured in a number of national publications and anthologies, including Yes Magazine and The Huffington Post. She also wrote for many years for the now-defunct Portland Phoenix as the “Diverse City” columnist. Shay is a former TedX speaker and former Portland Charter Commissioner. A Chicago native, Shay has called Maine home since 2002, and holds degrees from DePaul University and Antioch University New England.

 

Vote16 Workshop Leader

LaJuan Allen

LaJuan Allen

LaJuan Allen is the Executive Director of Vote16USA and a nationally recognized leader in youth civic engagement and expanding youth voting rights. With a deep commitment to empowering young people in democracy, he has been at the forefront of efforts to lower the voting age and ensure youth voices are heard in the political process.