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2008 Election Candidate Forum: The Questions Question 13: What new technologies, and what new organizational processes should the Club adopt to improve the connection between National operations and grassroots leadership? Candidate responses were limited to 150 words per question. Lane Boldman 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. Joni Bosh Questionnaire Not Returned Clark Buchner A feeling of trust would be good. And transparency would be a strong statement that would be helpful in building that trust. You can slather over most anything with techno-talk and still go bowling alone. Building real communities and being able to trust one another in our work will go much farther than whatever new technologies you wish to pull up. Jeremy Doochin Effective online communication tools are essential. We can create new electronic Facebook applications that will target younger leaders to take action by simply clicking on the application and sending an email to their legislators. All effective movements start with dialogue, and Facebook, Google, and other electronic applications are an excellent way to generate that dialogue and provide low-cost advertising. We now have the capability to do online marketing to specific age groups in almost any city. Should we choose to use this, it will play greatly to our advantage. We can improve our grassroots leadership by switching to an online networking group with which all Sierra Club activists can better communicate, send messages, post events, provide feedback, and more! Jim Dougherty Technologies and processes are not the solution.  It is more important for the Board and national staff to simply get that we are, above all else, grassroots.  We accomplish more on behalf of Mother Nature at the Group and Chapter level than at the national level, in my opinion.  We need to empower our volunteers to be more effective. Larry Fahn Questionnaire Not Returned Barbara Frank I find this difficult to know how to respond. I still think newsletters, conference calls, e-mails are not a bad way to go.   Of course, who knows what new technology awaits.   But see #12 above.   The regional staff is also an excellent resource and mediator between national and chapters and  groups. The regional volunteer organizations (RCCs) were another important link between chapters, and between national and chaptersandI think the RCC concept should be looked at again. David Scott The club seems headed in the right direction with the new HELEN database and Convio.  From what I’ve seen, we’ll be able to do a much better job of keeping track of what members are doing so we can target messages to specific groups of activists. Jerry Sutherland The Electronic Communications Task Force I served on in 2006 came up with a comprehensive list of recommendations regarding this. This is an area in which I think the Club has come a long way. I fear going into details will be wonky and boring to most members but I’ll summarize. Clubhouse has been reworked to be more dynamic and user-friendly with docents like myself to help folks out. HELEN and Convio rollouts to chapters are proceeding. Project Renewal has attracted attention to our Clubhouse Forum pages. Grassroots Scrapbook, Faces, and Stories pages are making the best of the elimination of the Planet by showing a lot more of the work we do. There is more we can do to facilitate web-based social networking while not abandoning those who prefer print media. Matt Urban See #11 and #12 above. In addition, we need to figure out how best to empower the role of the Council of Club Leaders. This is an essential bridge between national and grassroots, and although a review/reform process was done a few years ago, much remains the same. The CCL needs a true position of responsibility/accountability within the Club’s structure, and we need to continue to take all steps to strengthen its role. Nathan Wyeth Questionnaire Not Returned << Question 12   Question 14 >> Show all questions Show all candidates Back to Candidate Forum Main Up to Top HOME | Email Signup | About Us | Contact Us | Terms of Use