If you're considering volunteer work, you have to decide how much your time is worth, and what you'll get for it. In the case of the Municipal League, it's an opportunity to help make government better. It's a no less lofty goal than many other good ways to spend your spare time, but it has an advantage over many because you get to see the benefits of your labor right away. Maybe you won't see a marked improvement in government. But you'll get much smarter about government, and that goes a long way to making it better.

It can be discouraging to consider candidates for elections, especially on the national level, that depend on strident bases of support, and then raise a tidal wave of cash to wash them over the 50th voting percentile. It is a frequently accurate, if gloomy assessment of the current political state and the gloom can leave you feeling isolated. Political cynicism leads to paralysis, but one way to shake it off is by spending time with other people who feel the way you do. It's like group therapy for acute political anxiety. It's always easier to run with a buddy, and there are a lot more people preoccupied with political fitness than you might think.

The Municipal League has a candidate evaluation process that begins every summer. The process vets candidates for political office using criteria similar to traditional job interviews (give me three examples of accomplishments you are most proud of, etc.) and then publishes a grade for those candidates. In effect, a report card for voters to consider before ultimately deciding whom to hire for the position. Whether it's a municipal court judge, Seattle port commissioner or Bellevue city council member, the League ranks contenders from outstanding to not qualified but avoids partisan judgments to stay within the realm of the reasonably objective professional assessments, instead of the far fuzzier political ones.

That can't be a bad thing given the risk of voters going to the ballot without even knowing what's at stake with the votes they cast. Occasionally, this political ignorance leads to putting people in office who share names with TV celebrities or "voting in a woman" who is actually a man with a gender-neutral name.

If we hire incompetent leaders, they either depend too heavily on the advice of trusted advisors, making them unaccountable, or they must learn on the job, making them, depending on how long it takes them to get up to speed, ineffectual wastes of tax money. And even that might be an overly rosy scenario.

A worse case could be someone ill suited for a job making decisions that affect the future of our region for generations. The least we can ask for is competence, and the Municipal League tries to answer that question with comprehensive research and interviews, using only volunteers.

Beyond gaining experience with the political machine, volunteers gain or enhance their interviewing skills during the process. And whether you're hiring someone at work, trying to find the right baby sitter or just sizing up the prospect at the bar stool next to you, interviewing skills are useful for a lifetime. What better way is there to hone these skills than by practicing on that most cunning of interviewees; the politician.

But the most lasting benefit of a volunteer stint with the Municipal League might be coming away with a better understanding of politics. Ignorance is only bliss for those who can exploit it. If you can see through the confusing mist of verbiage weaved during the election cycle, then you get back some of the control at the voting booth.

And what could be more comforting for civically disillusioned souls than to meet a group of people who come together to make government better.

Despite occasionally presenting itself as a collection of carefully worded position statements, the Municipal League is actually a collection of people - many of them smart, all of them working towards something fundamentally altruistic - better government. That's becoming an uncommon goal in this era of laser-focused special interests. It's a very do-gooder-save-the-world kind of idea, and people who are passionate about it are appealing company if you like to do good and you feel like the world just might be in need of saving.

If you're looking to get smarter about government, and want to meet other people who are too, volunteer with the Municipal League's Candidate Evaluation Committee because elections are coming up once again and democracy is always unfinished business. Contact the Municipal League at www.munileague.org or call 206-622-8333

500 munileague.doc - 1 -