Cameron Smith is a rising high school senior. I’ve not met him, but over the past couple of years I’ve heard a good deal about him. He’s a debater, and a good one. This summer he’s going to debate camp at Southwest Missouri State. He’s an honor student, and this summer he is also an intern with the Saint Louis League of Women Voters

While he works in the League office I will doubtless meet him, since I hang out there occasionally to watch my beloved work on the Voters’ Guide and other worthy projects. I’m a member of the League, a proud member you might say, and I have a big button to wear that reads: “LWV—Not for Women Only.” Maybe I’ll give Cameron my button when I meet him, unless he already has one. I don’t really need it any more since I am generally recognized as one of the League’s resident old farts.

I wrote about the League here in 2008; and I’m surprised to find that I haven’t written anything since. The Saint Louis League is becoming a model for other Leagues nationally. A couple of years ago my beloved and her now Co-President, Linda McDaniel, negotiated a deal with the St. Louis Post Dispatch to produce the St. Louis Voter’s Guide jointly. Since then our local League’s growth has accelerated. Always a force in the community, our St. Louis League is a primary venue for civic engagement here. As an index of that we will have run fifty plus candidate forums before the current election cycle is over.

Cameron Smith is writing a blog about his adventures working for the League this summer. You can find it here.