Each month, Thurston Community Media (TCMedia)’s Mission Nonprofit connects with local organizations and agencies that positively impact our communities. In October 2024, Mission Nonprofit host Deborah Vinsel sat down with the League of Women Voters of Thurston County leadership team, Annie Cubberly, Susan Fiksdal, Carol Gross and Nathaniel Jones, as well as Nicole Miller, who is liaison to DEI.
Since 1961, the League of Women Voters of Thurston County has been a nonpartisan organization encouraging informed voter participation in government. The nonprofit works to increase public understanding of policies and issues with forums, videos and other community outreach. They also influence public policy.
TCMedia has partnered with the League of Women Voters for over 30 years to create videos on candidate and issue forums to share with Thurston County voters to help them be educated come voting day, shares Vinsel.
“The Leadership Team takes the place of the President and Vice President of the League,” explains Fiksdal, “But we do more than that because we kept our jobs. So, in my case, I’m the chair of the Voter Services Committee. I am also working on the Communications Committee, as is the rest of the Leadership Team.”
Informing Thurston County Voters
Members can support any candidate, faction or political party. The don’t support an individual or a party, but focus on the policies and what they believe in and the issues they study, shares Cubberly. Cubberly works on the fiscal side of the League. While the League does not endorse candidates, they do take positions on ballot issues. “From the very beginning, the League has done studies in order to develop positions and our studies have been – are held up – as being very thorough and fair-minded in their development. That study report than results in the development of positions and then we fiercely pursue those positions on public policy.”
Jones contributes to the communications of the League, including their website, YouTube and Facebook page. “We are trying to make those as fresh and accessible to people as we can,” he shares. This includes the candidate forums they do during election years, that allow the public to get to know the candidates and where they stand on issues to make more informed voting choices.
The public are also invited to events they do throughout the year, where experts speak on issues that are important to the community.
Miller, who is not part of the Leadership Team, has a different role. She helps make sure the League is looking through a DEI lens in everything they do, she explains. “So really looking at everything that we’re doing from an equity perspective and considering you know who is impacted by the policies that we’re creating or the issues that we’re supporting.”
While the name harkens back to 1920, when women got the vote and the nationwide League of Women Voters was formed, the organization welcomes all genders, ethnicities, backgrounds and political views.
For more information, watch the full video above or visit the League of Women Voters of Thurston County website.
You can watch Mission Nonprofit on channel 22 on Sundays at 3:30 p.m., Tuesdays at 1:30 p.m., Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., and Saturdays at 10 a.m. You can also watch on TCMedia website, Video On-Demand or our Roku channel. To learn more about what TCMedia does, visit the Thurston Community Media YouTube channel or the TC Media website and follow them on Facebook and Twitter.
