{"id":39,"date":"2008-09-28T17:09:22","date_gmt":"2008-09-28T21:09:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.westford.com\/lwv\/wp_rebuild\/?page_id=39"},"modified":"2024-05-27T23:28:58","modified_gmt":"2024-05-28T03:28:58","slug":"about-us","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/lwv.westford.org\/?page_id=39","title":{"rendered":"About Us"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The League of Women Voters is a <a href=\"https:\/\/lwv.westford.org\/?page_id=1225\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">nonpartisan political organization <\/a>that encourages the informed and active participation of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy.<\/p>\n<p>The League is based on the belief that democratic government depends on the informed and active participation of its citizens, and the League&#8217;s goal is to empower citizens to shape better communities.<\/p>\n<p>A non-partisan organization, the League of Women Voters <strong>does not<\/strong> support candidates or political parties. \u00a0It <strong>does<\/strong> take positions on public policy issues, providing that the issue has been studied and agreement (consensus) has been reached on needed action. When the League adopts a position on an issue, it swings into action as a very effective lobbying organization.<\/p>\n<p>The League&#8217;s work is divide into two parts: \u00a0<strong>Voter Service<\/strong>, which includes the distribution of nonpartisan information on candidates and issues, campaigns to encourage registration and voting, and programs to educate voters about their government, and <strong>Issues and Action<\/strong>, which includes governmental issues selected by the members for study, decision, and action.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lwv.westford.org\/?page_id=1225\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">League Non-Partisanship and Conflict of Interest Policies<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/lwv.westford.org\/?page_id=35\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-wplink-url-error=\"true\">Membership<\/a> gives you\u00a0the opportunity to learn more about your community, take a continuing\u00a0and intensive course in government at all levels, and develop skills\u00a0of leadership. \u00a0Membership in the League is open to both women and men.<\/p>\n<p>The League functions on three levels: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lwv.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">national<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lwvma.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">state<\/a>,\u00a0and <a href=\"https:\/\/lwv.westford.org\/?page_id=47\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">local<\/a>. A member of a local League\u00a0automatically becomes a member of the state and national Leagues.<\/p>\n<p>The League of Women Voters has a <a title=\"Read about LWVUS history.\" href=\"https:\/\/lwv.westford.org\/?page_id=75\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">history<\/a> that dates back to 1920 and subscribes to a set of <a title=\"Read about LWVUS principals.\" href=\"https:\/\/lwv.westford.org\/?page_id=79\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">principles<\/a> that apply to the Westford League as well.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lwv.westford.org\/?page_id=1944\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bylaws for LWV Westford<\/a> can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/lwv.westford.org\/?page_id=1944\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan political organization that encourages the informed and active participation of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy. <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/lwv.westford.org\/?page_id=39\">&#8230; Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":6,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-39","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lwv.westford.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/39","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lwv.westford.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lwv.westford.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lwv.westford.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lwv.westford.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/lwv.westford.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/39\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4193,"href":"https:\/\/lwv.westford.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/39\/revisions\/4193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lwv.westford.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}