The mission of The League is to empower our generation to positively change their community. If they're not cool with what's going on, we want to help them to make their voice heard. We're a national progressive movement, not affiliated with any major party that hopes to make democracy more accessible by engaging young people (ages 17-35) in the political process. Most importantly, it is our goal to revitalize the way young people think about voting; we are working to build a progressive majority in our lifetime.

We are the future and we have to take a stand.

To accomplish our goals, we help to people to register to vote and educate themselves about candidates and ballot issues. Each year, we create a voter guide based on research and candidate questionaires. We also strongly feel that it is important to host awareness-raising events about what's going on in our city, our state, and our nation so that decisions that govern our future aren't made without us.

We meet nearly every Thursday night at 8 pm in the Mary Low Lounge. All are welcome. Contact us if you need directions.

This semester, the Waterville League is focusing tons of energy on America's most pressing issue: Iraq. We believe that escalation of this war is the wrong answer. In March we twice hosted the film The Ground Truth in an effort to raise awareness of PTSD, and other challenges that troops face when they return home from Iraq

On March 17th a handful of our members joined in a demonstration to end the war in Iraq in Bangor Maine. 100 demonstrations were going on around the state that day, and Bangor had one of the largest rallies, drawing well over 200 people! We also got interviewed by the local media and appeared on the nightly news, saying "Young people want change!"

April 15th, the League will be helping set up an Iraq Film Festival at Railroad Square Cinema here in Waterville. There will be food, artwork, music, and of course, films dealing with the conflict in Iraq. We hope many students and community members will attend! More info coming soon.

Last semester the League was very involved in collecting signatures for the Opportunity Maine campaign. This ballot initiative sought to expand educational opportunity and combat the brain drain in Maine so that it will remain the way life should be. In March we learned that young people around the state succeeded in collecting enough signatures to place the initiative on the 2008 ballot! Way to go League!

    Our goal this semester is institutionalize voter registration at Colby College. Currently, it is unknown how many students actually register and vote each year. The League hopes to work with the College administration to draw up a plan to find out how many students are registered, and to eventually increase that number as much as possible. In the short term we'd like to see 100% of the incoming class registered to vote during the first days of their orientation. 

    The first step will be getting our message to the administration. We hope to meet with one or our college committees in early April, and let students and administrators know we are serious about voter registration changes. Stay tuned for more details. 

Right now, we have a few projects in the works (Check out our Current Campaigns!). Our primary goal is making a difference and educating our peers while having a good time!

This election season we worked hard to fight TABOR and Waterville smacked down this economically paralyzing law by 65%!

All election season, we worked hard to get out the vote and
PUT THE PARTY BACK IN POLITICS!

We hope to continue our "Shop Main Street" campaign by encouraging students to avoid shopping at Wal-Mart and instead, support local businesses instead.

We're always thinking of new ides and we always welcome new members who are excited about making a difference as we are!

Email flteach@colby.edu in order to join our mailing list, friend us on myspace and if you go to Colby, friend us on facebook to keep up with all of our fantastic events!

What did we do last year?