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2008 Election Candidate Forum:
The Candidates
Lane Boldman's responses to the 16 questions of the candidate forum:
Candidate responses were limited to 150 words per question.
1: What leadership positions have you held in the Sierra Club and what have you accomplished in those positions?
Leadership Positions: National
Council of Club Leaders Chair: 2005-2008
Communications and Education Governance Committee: 2005-2008
Election Reform Task Force, 2004-2005
Leadership Positions: Local/Regional
Cumberland Chapter Chair: 2002-2005
Cumberland Chapter Vice Chair, 2001-2002, 2005-2006
Cumberland Chapter Wildlands representative and State Forest representative
Bluegrass Group Chair, 1997-2000
Bluegrass Group Vice Chair, 1995-1997
•As Council Chair, I launched new processes to improve our effectiveness including monthly reporting, new leader orientations, and increased representation on Board committees, while simultaneously reducing our expenses. I served as a key advisor for many grassroots outreach initiatives such as Cool Cities.
•On the Communication and Education Governance Committee, I helped form communication strategies for our three National Conservation Initiatives and advised on many new electronic outreach tools.
•As Chapter Chair, I managed two successful national initiatives: A key battle of the Midwest Coal Rush, and Tyson Foods, setting a national precedent on factory farming regulations.
2: What, if any, endorsements have you received from Club chapters or leaders?
Presidents: Robbie Cox, Jennifer Ferenstein, Chuck McGrady, Michelle Perrault, Lisa Renstrom.
Current Directors: Chin, Ferenstein, Karpf, Mann, Pillard, Ranchod, Renstrom, Reyes, Wall, Zaleha.
Chapters:
Angeles, Mother Lode, San Diego, Santa Lucia, Tehipite (CA); Cumberland (KY), Florida, Iowa, Missouri, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, South Carolina, West Virginia, Northstar (Minnesota), and the Sierra Student Coalition.
National leaders:
Wallace McMullen, Chair, Midwest New Energy Future Project
Paula Mitchell-Glore, Vice Chair, Inner City Outings Steering Committee
Joan B. Saxe, Global Warming and Energy Committee
Verena Owen, National Coal Campaign
Susan Heitman, Communications & Education Governance Committee
Tom Libby, Chair, Outdoor Activities Governance Committee
"Lane Boldman is well qualified to serve as a Sierra Club Director. She has an understanding of how to enlist volunteer enthusiasm for environmental protection in addressing the many challenges the Sierra Club faces nationally." --Richard and Doris Cellarius, National Sierrra Club leaders
3: The Board of Directors has appointed the Organizational Change Steering Committee to come up with recommendations for making changes to the organizational structure of the Club. The OCSC has come up with a draft proposal called Project Renewal which will be acted on at the February Board meeting. Please present your thoughts on Project Renewal and, in particular, whether you, given the opportunity, would vote in favor of the OCSC's current recommendations.
Not in its present form, referencing the version posted on December 3rd, 2007, because it was not well accepted nor understood by a great majority of our leaders, who had questions regarding need. Since that version, I have worked hard to facilitate comments on this proposal from the Sierra Club Council of Club Leaders, which I chair. From those comments, I worked directly with the Organizational Change Steering Committee to help identify key components that were the most contentious, and offered them my advice, insight and alternatives. In mid-January, the OCSC released an update indicating areas in the proposal that will likely be changed. In addition, I authored a resolution passed by my chapter, and endorsed by other chapters, which requested Project Renewal recognize and address the unique needs of Chapters. The Board adopted their own version of this document as guidance in the revised Project Renewal proposal.
4: What special abilities would you bring to Sierra Club leadership?
•My proven ability as a consensus builder, bringing leaders together, working in a productive manner.
•My professional skills in communications and media, where I will focus on improving our internal communication and our electronic outreach needs.
•My experience as representative of the grassroots leadership, from my time as Chair of the Council of Club Leaders. We currently have a gap in coordinating between National and Local programs. My unique vantage point gives me the best ability to bridge that divide. As a Board member, I will come with the experience of having an immediate and personal connection to each and every Board Governance Committee, Chapter and the Sierra Student Coalition because of my work as Chair of the Council.
•Due to my successful national victories while Chair of my local Chapter, I bring conservation and issue expertise, but also proven administrative skills.
5: What do you view as the most important responsibilities of a Sierra Club Director?
One of the most important responsibilities for a Board member is to listen actively, to debate collegially, to build consensus in a professional manner, and then to communicate the results effectively, including a plan for action. I believe I have demonstrated those traits convincingly in my time working directly with the Board and with the Delegates as their Council Chair.
A Director needs to ensure that our resources are used as effectively and efficiently as possible and to set “big picture” goals for the organization. Most importantly, a Director needs to manage by example, approaching tasks in a clear and thoughtful manner, to be clear about who is responsible and accountable on any given task the Board sets, and to see that the tasks have been accomplished.
6: Having prioritized energy and climate work with the Smart Energy Solutions conservation initiative, what do you see as the most important things that the Sierra Club must do to respond to the urgent threat of climate change and win victories on this issue in the coming years?
I am very experienced in the area of energy, having been one of the key leaders in the first successful battles of what became the Midwest Coal Rush. With regard to conservation priorities, our greatest urgency is stopping the Coal Rush via the National Coal Campaign and our grassroots and Chapter-based activists, because coal-fired power plants are the most significant factor that we can address quickly and successfully in the fight to combat global warming.
But this question is about far more than looking at conservation priorities. We as an organization need to enlist the public far more aggressively than ever before. We are talking about a goal that has never been done: a large-scale, comprehensive shift in how the public views energy choices. We can no longer just show the public what is wrong with the present system. We must come prepared with real answers and achievable alternatives.
7: Many people feel that the environment is not an important factor in deciding federal elections. Why do you think this is, and what strategies should the Club pursue for electing pro-environment candidates to office?
The environment in many ways is still seen as a special-interest issue when it comes to our national presence. We cannot continue to be seen as a special interest group to the politicians and the electorate and expect to win consistently, even in a favorable political climate.
The primary way that the Sierra Club can become a winning force is for our members to be seen as members of their communities. This is not just accomplished by increasing our numbers. We need to expand our base by broadening the kinds of people who engage in Club activities. I support the Club’s recent Diversity Initiative, and I work directly with programs that broaden our outreach. But diversifying our member outreach is a long-term strategy. In the short-term, we need to look at expanding our coalition partnerships, reaching across to different groups who have shared goals.
8: The environment is sometimes an important factor in deciding local and state elections. What strategies should the club pursue for electing pro-environment candidates to local and state offices?
This IS an area where numbers have an effect. Our grassroots-based structure allows us to have an exceptionally effective influence on State and Local issues, because in contrast to my answer to question #7, our activists at the state and local level ARE seen as part of the community. But we have a problem in that we have not effectively integrated our national and local work across the board. As a former Chapter Chair, I can say clearly that we as a Club have not done a good enough job of supporting local Chapters and Groups when it comes to political training. Since funding for political work is always in short supply, we need to look beyond dollars and develop our resources that enhance the valuable efforts that local volunteers can provide. Since resources are tight, I would look at online training tools and resources that are specifically designed for local activists.
9: What do you feel is the image of environmentalists in general and of the Sierra Club in particular, and how would you change or reinforce that image?
We suffer from several problems when it comes to our image. I work in marketing, advertising and communications, so I have a lot of thoughts on this topic.
•First, we need to take some time to reinforce what the definition of an environmentalist actually is, not what it has been stereotyped as. I believe the general public is somewhat mystified on what an actively-engaged environmentalist does. That they are not just people who recycle a lot of cans. We need to show that they are simply concerned neighbors who live down the street and are working to make their community better.
•Secondly, with regard to the Club, we need to take a step back, review, renew, and respect our history. We have a history that is a proud one, steeped in the very foundations of American history. We need to own this fact in a public manner.
10: What do you see as the role of outings in the Club, both National outings (including international) and those organized by chapters and groups? What changes would you like to see in these programs?
As an Outings and Inner City Outings leader, I am committed to connecting people to the outdoors. I’ve worked with adults and children to show them the value of our wild and special places. I would like to see the programs expanded, because they are an invaluable source of goodwill and connection to the general public.
Liability has been an issue in the past few years, so additional support for leader training is helpful. The rollout of Outings Leader 101 Training and the soon to be released Online First Aid Training are the types of support that will be immensely helpful.
I would like to see an expansion of outings related to issues and education, such as environmental impacts in China for International, or perhaps outings to Mountaintop Removal sites in West Virginia for domestic outings. These could be promoted directly to educators in addition to our traditional advertising.
11: The Club is structured with a Board of Directors, governance committees, Council of Club Leaders, chapters, groups, and sections as the prominent entities. If you could change this structure or how it functions, how would you change it?
We are a complex organization with multiple layers. Any efforts we can make to reduce the number of steps needed to connect National back to Chapters would improve our overall structure. The Council exists as a result of fulfilling a California Law, so this entity would need to continue. As Chair of the Council, I would like to see them more directly involved in advising Leader Support programs, since they have a direct connection to grassroots leaders.
In the Club, we are currently rolling out new online organizing tools and more online outreach. We must design ways in our structure where organically-organized online activists, those who have taken an online action, can be encouraged to migrate their activities into face-to-face contact in their local cities and states. The Chapter structure is a great support mechanism for this, so we need to connect online activists with Chapter and Group activists.
12: What, if any, are the key differences between 21st century grassroots organizing and 20th century grassroots organizing, and how might the Sierra Club change in response?
As referenced above, the younger generations now communicate in different ways than our traditional membership. This means that we need to maintain our traditional ways of organizing yet also add relevant and modern tools. This year the Sierra Club has begun to roll out many structures that support a modern approach to communications by updating their database capabilities. As a member of the Communications and Education Governance Committee, I was an advisor on many of the initiatives to increase our electronic outreach, including new online organizing tools and internal communications improvements such as our Clubhouse intranet.
However while the tools may change, the principles of grassroots organizing are really very much the same now as they were in the 70’s. Therefore we need to not structure parallel channels but instead connect our traditional leaders with these new online-organized activists to share each one’s valuable expertise in a mentoring situation.
13: What new technologies, and what new organizational processes should the Club adopt to improve the connection between National operations and grassroots leadership?
New technologies are available all the time. Some of our most recent rollouts of blogs and Convio online organizing are great additions. There have been discussions on creating Wikipedia-style tools where activists can help build resources themselves. These are all great advancements and will help us stay relevant in a fast-changing world. However tools are only as good as the design of the plan to use them. We need processes that allow integration of National Structures, Local Structures, and Organically-Organized Activists. These cannot just be top-down or bottom-up. The design must be cyclical, where one entity continually feeds and reinforces the other, i.e., new activists come in through a National campaign are contacted and invited to come to local Chapter face-to-face activities. Local leaders can nurture new leaders, and then become National leaders. Our challenge is to make this seamless and continual, where each channel opens doors to others.
14: What are some measures the Club should take to improve leadership development? What other grassroots capacity-building actions, if any, would you recommend?
The Club invested heavily in the Leadership Development Project. I attended these projects and held a demonstration at my own meetings. While this program is a great start, the LDP is scaled as a large, comprehensive program. Local leaders also need support for smaller-scale, immediate situations related to leadership development. Many times, particularly this year, I have seen an increase in contacts from leaders to me as Council Chair, desperately looking for advice on how to handle leader-related situations because they found other channels to confusing or complicated. I believe we can start by taking our existing LDP program and our existing Chapter Leader Training program and configure a smaller scale, online version of some of the components. I would also like to investigate a “hotline” for leader support where advice can be obtained quickly, similar to what was intended in the Mentoring program but even more immediate.
15: The Sierra Club has limited resources. Where is it most important for the Club to focus its volunteer and financial resources over the next four years?
•Developing their grassroots capacity. Dollars can go much farther when you have the support and resources supplied by grassroots energy. I define ‘grassroots’ as both organically-organized online supporters AND our existing base of Chapter and Group leaders. I have heard that our online outreach tools are attracting a wide range of new people. But our follow-through plan for these people is still unclear. Solidifying a long-term engagement plan will be critical.
•Regarding financial: using our still-developing online tools to solicit smaller online donors. We have seen this used effectively in political campaigns such as the Howard Dean campaign and we are in dire need of unrestricted funding. Large donors tend to give to particular designated programs. Small-dollar donors may be one answer we can leverage on. We also need to offer more ways for Chapter leaders to solicit funding to increase our resources.
16: The club is undertaking work to bring more youth and diverse cultures into our membership and leadership. What specific strategies would you suggest?
•Working with lower-income people in Appalachia, I’ve learned you have to start from where people already are, not where you want them to be. That’s why I place high value on programs like Sierra Club Inner City Outings, which my husband and I are both involved, and the Environmental Justice program. We need more programs that are set by design to cross into new demographics.
•We have to review some of the basics: for example, we do not offer a lot of basic Club materials in Spanish, even though we have a Chapter in Puerto Rico who’s members speak in Spanish. We cannot possibly engage a broader audience if we are not even accommodating our own existing members.
•We need to expand our campus outreach, just like many environmental organizations did in the 1970’s since this generation is already highly engaged in the environment.
Learn more at my website: www.laneboldman.com
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