League of Women Voters of Napa County Annual Meeting
Saturday, June 7, 2025, from 10:00am – 12:00pm
Napa Senior Center, Oak Room
1500 Jefferson, Napa
On Saturday, June 7th, we held our in-person Annual Meeting for 2025 at the Napa Senior Center. As our president, Sheri Thomas, was unable to attend, the meeting was chaired by Bernie Brooks and Yolanda Schonbrun.
​
We were delighted to welcome two people from our community who play a big role in supporting our immigrant community: Esmeralda Gil, Interim Executive Director of Puertas Abiertas, and our guest speaker, attorney Laura Lopez Ledesma, DOJ Accredited Representative at Immigration Institute of the Bay Area (IIBA). Laura’s presentation helped us to understand the complexities that immigrants face when trying to legally stay in the U.S.
​​​The presentation highlighted the important role immigration lawyers play navigating this long process that is fraught with so many potholes.
Our League asked how we can help IIBA as they try, with limited resources, to help process as many immigration cases as possible. One area mentioned by Laura is to become Trusted Messengers and make presentations spreading the word on how to get assistance in Napa County. Our League will explore how best to do this in the coming weeks and work with both IIBA and Puertas Abiertas to be of assistance. Click here for Ms. Lopez Ledesma's presentation.
The meeting continued as we addressed required business topics for the new year, July 1, 2025 – June 30, 2026, with the quorum of members voting on the following:
-
Approval of the new budget
-
Establishing the three Issues for Emphasis that we plan to focus our resources on for this year:
-
Climate Change
-
Protecting Civil and Immigration Rights
-
Napa County’s General Plan
-
Changes to our bylaws mandated by LWUS, updated to reflect the new membership process.
-
New board members
-
Co-Presidents: Yolanda Schonbrun and Bernie Brooks for a term of two years, July 1, 2025 – June 30, 2027.
-
Secretary: Linda Dietiker-Yolo for a term of one year, July 1, 2025–June 30, 2026.
-
Treasurer: Kim Farmer, continuing a term of two years, July 1, 2024 – June 30, 2026.
-
At-Large Directors:
-
Sheri Thomas, for a term of one year, July 1, 2025-June 30, 2026
-
Nancy Moore, for a term of two years, July 1, 2025-June 30, 2027
-
Cindy Watter, for a term of two years, July, 2025-June 30, 2027
-
Iris Barrie, for a term of one year, July 1, 2025-June 30, 2026
-
-
Nominating Committee, serving for one year from July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026:
-
Brad Wagenknecht, Chair
-
Jan Darter, member at large
-
Board Member:to be appointed by the board at its first regular meeting.
-
-
In addition, we recognized one of our members, Joyce Kingery, with the second President’s Award. She has provided dedicated and continuing service to our League since she helped restart it in 2014.