LWV UMRR plans meetings and events for 2021

​LWV Upper Mississippi River Region, or UMRR (pronounced “Ummer”), is an interleague organization focused on water quality.  UMRR is made up of 60 local Leagues in the states of Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.  Our geographic area is the Upper Mississippi River basin – that part of the Upper Mississippi basin upstream of the river’s confluence with the Ohio at the south edge of Illinois.  Here’s a link to an UMRR blog post  to learn more about what an ILO is and how it fits into the LWV national structure, and to learn more about how our structure strengthens our work, allowing the amplification of the voice of League throughout the watershed.  

Established in 2015, UMRR’s Board has strong representation from each of our four member states.  Our Board members are listed on our Contact Us page– you may know some of us!   The Board meets six times a year on the first Monday of even numbered months.  In the pre-Covid days, we traveled around the basin for these meetings, which was a great way to get to know our members and the water issues in their communities.  Now, everything is on the same schedule, but virtual.  For each Board meeting, we also hold an educational session that focuses on a specific topic of concern.   These educational sessions are open to the public and recorded videos are shared and posted.

​Upcoming educational sessions are planned on

• the impacts of highways on water resources (April 5),
• efforts a city can undertake to protect and improve water quality (August 2),
• PFAS (fire-suppression chemicals found contaminating water (October 4), and
• the impact of electric cars can have in combating climate warming (December 6).

UMRR’s annual meetings are larger events, built around topics of current concern.  Our May 22, 2021, Annual Meeting will focus on using carbon capture to combat climate change, highlighting the role of agricultural lands in this effort.  All these meetings will be described on our Blog and advertised through the UMRR newsletter, direct emails to member Leagues and through state communications like this All Member News.  We look forward to working with you!

LWV UMRR Board members Mary and Steve Ploesser at the Headwaters, June 2019

How to connect with LWV UMRR:
 
LWV UMRR’s website has lots of information.  Our Blog features 2-3 posts per month on topics that UMRR is working on.  One recent post includes a link to video from our Feb 1 meeting, where we learned about watershed-scale work to reach people and promote soil health and water quality.  Our “Upcoming Events” page includes posts for our upcoming meetings and maintains Board meeting information from past events.  Here, those who are interested can see our Board agendas, meeting minutes, Treasurer reports, and Action Committee reports as well as see the topics that were included in the educational sessions. 
 
Almost every month, LWV UMRR puts out a newsletter that includes links to our Blog posts and other items of interest.  You can sign up to receive the newsletter by submitting the info through our Contact Us page, or by emailing us at lwvumrr@lwvmn.org.   Leagues that are not already members can join UMRR through our Membership page, and anyone interested in making a donation can do so on our Donate page.

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