Positions and Advocacy

The League of Women Voters first studies issues of local, state, and national concern and then develops positions on which its members come to consensus or concur, if the study has been done and a position formed by another League. Only once a position has been adopted does the League use it as the basis for action and advocacy with governments at all levels. In other words, the League takes action on an issue or advocates for a cause when there is an existing League position that supports the issue or speaks to the cause. 

Positions require and result from this process of study. Any given study, whether it be national, state, or local, is thorough in its pursuit of facts and details. As the study progresses, a continuing discussion of pros and cons occurs. Before the results of the study are presented to a League's general membership, study committee members fashion consensus questions that are then addressed by the League's members. 

Additional discussion, pro and con, takes place as members who were not part of the study committee learn about the study's scope, findings, and conclusions. After the members reach consensus, the League's Board of Directors forms a position based on that consensus. It is the consensus statement—the statement resulting from the consensus questions—that becomes a position. Firm action or advocacy can then take place on the particular issue addressed by the position. Without a position, the League cannot take action or engage in advocacy.

Within the League, program means the issues that members choose for concerted study, education, and action. Program can include both education and action. The issues you care about can have a voice through this work of the League of Women Voters. Program Planning is a thoughtful process that defines LWV as a grassroots organization with a focus on community and member concerns and issues. Every League member has the opportunity to influence the selection of issues where the local, state, and national League will focus their time, talent, and money.

Every two years, members of local Leagues engage in program planning to inform the work of the national LWV. Based on the results of these efforts, the LWV US Board of Directors makes recommendations about the program to be adopted for the coming two-year period to the delegates who attend its biennial convention from across the country. The next LWV US convention will be held this summer, June 25-28, 2026, in Columbus, Ohio.