Recruiting Volunteers for New Facilitation Support Team

We are recruiting experienced volunteer facilitators, mediators and coaches for a new Facilitation Support Team. This team will support Sierra Club leaders and leadership teams with an emphasis on three key areas: facilitating or coaching others through large-scale or in-depth planning meetings and retreats; facilitating conflict resolution to help people find solutions and rebuild relationships that may have been damaged by the conflict; and coaching leaders through significant transitions of leadership to help leaders move through a process of change.  Express your interest or submit recommendations of others here. Questions? Greg Casini (greg.casini@sierraclub.org).

You can now Email your Reimbursement Requests!

Hi Everyone,

You can now submit your reimbursement requests via email to Chapter Funding!  In the past, we have only allowed requests to be submitted by regular mail.  This past fall we launched a test run with the assistance and feedback of a few chapters and groups and then streamlined a few procedures and are now ready to roll it out club-wide.  (Thank you, test group!)  This new procedure is optional and applies to all types of 501(c)(3) and Shared Project requests: reimbursements, direct payments, newsletters, events and fundraising.  We will continue to accept requests by mail if that is your preference.

Please review the following guidelines carefully and let us know if you have questions.

• You may scan and send your reimbursement and direct payment requests for 501(c)(3) and shared national project expenses to chapter.funding@sierraclub.org. 
  
  
• In doing so, chapter and group staff and volunteers will still be required to complete the appropriate request form as may be found on the Chapter Funding Forms and Instructions page here:http://clubhouse.sierraclub.org/administration/chapter-funding/forms/ (username: clubhouse | password: explore).
  
  
• In addition, all relevant paperwork documenting the expenses incurred or amount due must be scanned and attached &/or provided as a link within the body of your email. When accessing C3 funds held at the Sierra Club Foundation, your back-up must also illustrate the charitable &/or educational nature of your expense. 
  
  
• A complete email request will contain your treasurer’s approval, the appropriate request form and relevant back-up. 

In an attempt to avoid the pitfalls that may slow our ability to process your electronic requests we ask that you also please observe these guidelines:

• Please do not submit your request by email if it will require Chapter Funding to wait for additional items to arrive by mail or fax.    We cannot accept partial or mixed requests, i.e., part by email and part by fax or regular mail.   

• Please attach all supporting documentation, including the treasurer’s permission and the completed Reimbursement & Direct Payment Request form (or other form as appropriate).  We’d rather get one email that has everything we need to process it, as opposed to having to wait for a separate email from the treasurer granting approval.

• Please submit requests as new correspondence to chapter.funding@sierraclub.org, and not as a reply to a previous thread or email.

• If possible, it is helpful to consolidate multiple pages of a single request into a single file attachment.  Do this by creating a new folder with all the documents in it and then compressing it before emailing it.  More information on file compression here for Macs: http://www.macinstruct.com/node/159 and here for Windows: http://www.ehow.com/how_2093605_compress-files-before-sending-them.html.

• With the roll-out of this process we are expecting to experience a significant increase in the number of emails received. Note that we generally will not reply or confirm receipt of your request unless we have a question. If you want to be sure we received it, you can always ask. In turn, we appreciate your patience in awaiting our reply. 

We look forward to receiving your requests by email, if you choose to utilize this new option.  Please be sure to let us know any concerns or questions you have about this process.

thanks,

Chapter Funding Team

Feb. 4 Open House Call with Allison Chin on Obama Climate and Clean Energy Legacy Campaign

Dear Sierra Club Leaders:

I will be hosting an open house conference call to provide an overview of the Obama Climate and Clean Energy Legacy Campaign on Monday, February 4 at 8:00 PM EST / 7:00 PM CST / 6:00 PM MST / 5:00 PM PST. 

Phone-in number: 1-866-501-6174
Conference code: 455-0000-1892
 
Learn how YOU can be a part of this campaign. Please join us!

We will devote some time at the end of the call to the February 17 Forward on Climate Rally in Washington, D.C. New Club Deputy National Program Director Michael Bosse will give an update and answer questions.
 
Michael Brune has already hosted calls with many chapters east of the Mississippi, many of which are sending buses to D.C. for the rally, and more calls are coming up this week and next. Though the calls are targeted to specific chapters, all are welcome to join. See the schedule here.

-- Allison

P.S. This is the first in a revival of the first-Monday-of-the-month President's Open House Call!

Have you heard about new member benefits?

Explore and enjoy all the new perks which include members-only discounts on outdoor gear and apparel from Eastern Mountain Sports, energy efficient appliances from the Whirlpool outlet, even a discount when you pre-order a custom, Sierra Club bike by PUBLIC, and lots more. Please spread the word to your fellow members, or even when recruiting new folks. You’ll save some money and support the Club.

Log-in and view all your new benefits.

ACT: Apply Now to Attend Dismantling Racism Training October 5-7, 2012 in Bay Area

August 23, 2012

TO: Interested Parties

FR:  Dismantling Racism Training Project Team-Bob Bingaman, Jackie Carroll, Allison Chin, Becki Clayborn, Rita Harris, Liz Pallatto Bill Price, Julia Reitan

RE:  Dismantling Racism Training Training Application

The Dismantling Racism Project Team (see above) is pleased to be able to invite you to apply to attend a training this Fall.   

DETAILS OF THE TRAINING

DATE:             Friday, October 5 to Sunday, October 7.   

LOCATION:    Naturebridge Conference Center, Marin Headlands, Bay Area California                       http://www.naturebridge.org/conference-facilities-golden-gate

TRAVEL:        Plan to arrive at San Francisco airports by 2:30 PM on Friday and depart airports by 4:30 PM on Sunday (see other travel info below)

DEADLINE:   Please apply for this training by Wednesday, September 5, 2012.   

APPLY:      Click here to go to the application form.    

TRAINING OVERVIEW

The Sierra Club is making a comprehensive effort to address challenges related to our member, volunteer leader and staff diversity.   The Dismantling Racism training is one piece of this effort that focuses on giving participants the skills to analyze race in an individual, institutional and cultural context as well as build an understanding of power -- who has it, and how it gets used. The goal is to build a shared analysis of how racism is perpetuated by organizational structures, processes, norms and expectations (in addition to individual behavior and attitudes) and to identify ways to confront those problems within the Sierra Club, the larger environmental movement and in communities in which we work.   

Please review the attached goals and agenda to see if this training is a good fit for you.   

APPLICATION PROCESS

We would like to encourage individuals and groups of 1-5 people who work together to apply for this training.  We hope to have many applicants and yet have a limited number of spots for this training

Applications are due by Wednesday, September 5.  We will be reviewing applications on a rolling basis and get back to applicants by 9/7 or as soon as possible with instructions about how to book travel.   PLEASE DO NOT ASSUME YOU HAVE BEEN ACCEPTED until you receive a confirmation and this information. 

We hope to have many applicants AND have a limited number of spots for this training.    We will be reviewing the applications we receive and looking for people who fit the following criteria.   

PARTICIPANT SELECTION CRITERIA

(1)     Priority will be given to staff and volunteers who have not attended the previous two day Sierra Club Dismantling Racism training.

(2)    Priority will be given to staff and volunteers currently working, or planning to work, on a campaign involved with a racially diverse community.

(3)    Participants who have a leadership role, or potential leadership role, within the Sierra Club.

(4)    Demonstrated commitment to adjust their workplans and campaign efforts based on lessons learned at the training.

(5)    We will work to ensure a racially diverse participant pool to help foster a rich learning environment and experience.

(6)    Priority given to people who can identify as being part of a team of staff, volunteers, and community partners committed to incorporate learnings into their work.

(7)    Commitment to participate in activities following the training including 3 to 6 month check-ins.

(8)    Willingness to commit to being a change agent in networking within the Sierra Club and their community.

(9)    Demonstrated commitment to learning about dismantling racism over time through on-going training.

TRAVEL AND OTHER EXPENSES:            

IF ACCEPTED, volunteers and community partners expenses - travel, meals and lodging will be covered by this training.   

IF ACCEPTED, national staff should charge certain expenses to their program budgets (time and travel).   Meals and lodging will be provided.   Please speak to your managers about this before applying to get approval.   If you need assistance with travel expenses indicate that you will need assistance in the travel notes field in the application.

 IF ACCEPTED, chapter staff will be asked to pay for travel and time out of their chapter program budgets.   Please note that travel charges would then be handled on case by case basis as determined by chapter relationship with Beyond the Bay, our travel agent.   If any chapter staff find that cost is a barrier to their ability to attend, please indicate this in the notes field of your application and the team will consider travel assistance as an option.    .   

QUESTIONS?

If you have general questions regarding this training, please contact DR Project Team Co-Leads:

Bob Bingaman, bob.bingaman@sierraclub.org, 202-675-7904

Allison Chin, 4achin@gmail.com, 650-575-4591

For logistics questions about filling in the application form and other questions, contact Erin Turmelle, erin.turmelle@sierraclub.org, 202-675-2380

Dismantling Racism Training - Save the Date Announcement

July 9, 2012

TO: Interested Parties

FR:  Dismantling Racism Training Project Team-Bob Bingaman, Jackie Carroll, Allison Chin, Becki Clayborn, Rita Harris, Liz Pallatto Bill Price, Julia Reitan

RE:  Dismantling Racism Training - Save the Date Announcement - October 4-7^th, 2012

It’s our pleasure to inform you that the Dismantling Racism Project Team (see team members above) has been charged with designing, implementing and evaluating Sierra Club Dismantling Racism training.  Our Project Team has enthusiastically undertaken this charge for the last several months and we are excited to announce tentative training dates.  If you and/or your community partners are interested in attending, please save the dates of October 4-7, 2012.  These dates are tentative until we secure a training facility. Once we have finalized a training site, we will send out an announcement which outlines the application process.

Beyond Oil: Getting to Know the Campaign Webinar

Please join the Beyond Oil Campaign team on July 19th from 8:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m. ET (5:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m. PT) for the Beyond Oil: Getting to Know the Campaign Webinar! Some of you may be new to this campaign and issue; some of you may be long-time activists. We would like to share our team and plans with you, discuss opportunities to engage, and seek your input.

The Beyond Oil Campaign seeks a world where climate disruption is a fading threat, American soldiers are never again deployed to defend oil fields, and innovative green industries provide good jobs and supply 100% of our energy needs. Together, we'll fight in Washington and in local communities to create this world.

We will raise and defend strong fuel-efficiency and pollution standards, increase access to oil-free transportation choices, promote electric vehicles, move America's large fleets to fuel-efficient and electric vehicles, block tar sands and other dangerous oil projects, and revoke the oil industry's license to operate above the law and interfere with our transition to a clean energy future. Your involvement and leadership is critical. Please join this webinar to learn more and help plan this campaign's next steps.

Date: July 19, 2012

Time: 8pm ET / 5pm PT

RSVP here.

-- 

Webinar Agenda:

Beyond Oil Campaign Presentation: (20 min)

• Critical Reasons to move Beyond Oil
• Real Solutions
• Sierra Club’s Campaign

Discussion: (40 min)

• Opportunities to Engage with Beyond Oil
• Q&A
• Wrap up & Next Steps

Once you’ve emailed us with your information, we will provide an accompanying PowerPoint and call-in information. 

 

Best,

Michael Marx, Director, Beyond Oil Campaign

Darrell Clarke, Volunteer Co-Lead, Beyond Oil Campaign

 

Your Feedback Wanted by April 20 on Chapter-National Relations Task Force Draft Report and Recommendations

Dear Club leaders and staff,

In August 2011 the Board of Directors of the Sierra Club established a Chapter-National Relations Task Force to study the nature of the existing relationship and to make recommendations for how to build a stronger “mutually beneficial” relationship.

For the past seven months the task force has been conducting its review, including in depth interviews, conference calls, a survey and meetings with many of you. We have now prepared a draft report and recommendations that we want to share for your review and feedback. We will then review your
comments and prepare a final report and recommendations for Board consideration at its May 17 meeting.

The report includes an executive summary , and a longer full draft report. Both are attached as Word documents below. We urge all of you with an interest in this topic to read one or both documents and to send us your comments and suggestions at natchap.uservoice.com.

This comment site is set up so you can not only comment on the report’s content and recommendations, but can also comment on other reviewers’ comments. Please us this official comment site to make sure your comments are read and taken into consideration by the task force and the Board.

It's quite simple to use:

1. Go to http://natchap.uservoice.com
2. Enter your idea, or have a look around at existing ideas.
3. Once you enter an idea, you'll be asked to sign in -- you can do this with either an email address or using your Facebook or Google (Sierra Club addresses work) credentials as a single-sign-on solution. Your ideas won't appear on these social networks -- the buttons are only there to make login easier.
4. As a signed-in user, you can comment on existing ideas, or vote on them if you agree. This gives everyone a better idea of what the community feels is important.
5. You can have 10 votes or comments per month. This restriction will hopefully constrain ideas so that the best are elicited.
6. Note: This forum is 'open'. This is the only way we can accommodate the entire community.

Please email webmaster@sierraclub.org with concerns.

We will be holding two conference calls to allow leaders and staff to discuss the report and to ask questions. These calls are for discussion and clarification, and are not a forum for filing comments.

The calls will be held on the following conference call line:
1-866-501-6174, access code 70012341892#

If you reside in an Eastern or Central time zone we encourage you to attend the call on Monday April 16 at 6 PM Eastern Time (3 PM Pacific).

If you are in the Mountain or Pacific time zones or Alaska and Hawaii we urge you to attend the call on Tuesday April 17 at 5 PM Pacific Time (8 PM Eastern).

Either call is open to any participant regardless of your location if you cannot make the call assigned to you.

You can also email questions to bruce.hamilton@sierraclub.org and the task force will answer them. But if you want to file comments, please use the User Voice comment board mentioned above. The comment period is open until close of business April 20.

We look forward to hearing from you.

The Chapter-National Relations Task Force
Luther Dale and Bruce Hamilton, co-leads

CNRTF Draft report FINAL report 4-2-12

CNRTF Executive Summary draft report FINAL 4-2-12

Memo -- Building a stronger Beyond Coal Campaign

The following memo was sent December 5, 2011.

 

To: Sierra Club staff and volunteers

Fr: Mary Anne Hitt and Bruce Nilles, Beyond Coal Campaign

Re: Building a stronger Beyond Coal Campaign

 

Colleagues,

We are writing today to let you know about some adjustments we are making to the structure of the Beyond Coal Campaign. Since July, when we announced a major gift to the campaign from Michael Bloomberg, we have been working to ramp up so that we can reach our four-year goal of retiring 1/3 of US coal plants by 2020, and replacing that power with clean energy.

In the process, there have been learning experiences and growing pains, and so we are making some adjustments to our structure to build a stronger campaign. Here are the highlights of the changes we are making to our structure:

• Streamlining the number of regions, from 5 to 3. These regions will largely parallel the organizing department’s regional structure. Bill Corcoran will continue to lead the Western region. We are pleased to announce that Heather Cusick will become our new Central regional director, and Vanessa Pierce will become our new Eastern regional director. Mark Kresowik and Glen Hooks will serve in campaign roles in their respective regions (we will share more details about staffing within the regions in a future memo).

• Strengthening our clean energy work. One of our primary goals in making these changes is to take our clean energy work to the next level. Putting strong, experienced clean energy leaders at the helm in every region will be a tremendous boon to our clean energy efforts. Mary Anne will have clean energy staff working on national priorities, including offshore wind and federal incentives for clean energy.

• Clarifying lead staff roles. Mary Anne will be on point for the national components of the campaign, with national staff reporting to her. Bruce will be on point for our state-level work, and will supervise the three regional campaign directors. While there will be occasional overlap and we will continue to manage the overall campaign together, our intention is to formalize and clarify a division of labor that has been in place informally over the past few months. To reflect his role, Bruce will assume a new title – senior campaign director – alongside his current title of deputy conservation director. Mary Anne will continue to serve as campaign director, staff co-lead of the Beyond Coal Leadership Team, and primary campaign spokesperson. She will also serve as the key point of contact with capacities where Heather Cusick was formerly on point (organizing, partnerships, and chapters) as well as continuing to serve as liaison with the Digital Strategies and Communications Departments. Bruce will continue to be on point for the Environmental Law Program. We also hope staff will increasingly take regional and state concerns and opportunities directly to the three regional campaign directors.

In the coming weeks, we will tell you more about the new structure, including staffing within the regions, and we’ll send around a new organizational chart for campaign staff. In the meantime, we invite you to send us your questions, thoughts, and feedback.

We have built this strong, successful campaign thanks to your hard work and good ideas, and this amended structure is our latest effort to put that learning into practice. It comes amidst some incredible successes. We’ve locked in retirements of over 30,000 MW of coal (1/3 of our 2015 goal), clean energy is being deployed at a record pace, and the Obama Administration is poised to issue the first-ever mercury standards for coal plants. We’re positioned to take advantage of that momentum thanks to the ramp up, which is well underway – we’ve added 30 talented new staff across the Sierra Club, we’re providing resources and capacity to some states for the first time, and we’re engaging in smart and sophisticated state planning in a dozen states that will take our work to the next level.

The coming year is going to be our biggest yet, and we are confident this improved structure will set us up for some epic, unforgettable victories in 2012. We look forward to working with you to refine and improve this new structure – and take this campaign to the next level – in the weeks and months ahead.

 

Exciting New Message Box on Climate Disruption!

Intrepid Sierra Club communicators, take note: we just added a New Message Box on Climate Disruption to the Clubhouse Talking Points section!  We also revamped the entire climate change messaging page, removing out-of-date information on cap and trade, the 2% solution, and other topics, and adding up-to-date Sierra Club messaging on climate disruption,  extreme weather events, carbon pollution, and more. 

While climate disruption is a vital part of the Sierra Club's agenda, it can be a very tricky issue to communicate strategically to the American public, and we often get questions about how to approach it.  We hope the new climate disruption message box will be a helpful resource. 

Remember to check the Clubhouse Talking Points section and the climate change messaging page often, as changes are made and new materials added!