At the Summit:
> Home
> Schedule

Coverage:
> See all reports
> Gallery
> Random!
> Video

 

Steve Baru votes his conscience.
Photo by John Byrne Barry

by John Byrne Barry
Direction Setting
The Summit's first Deliberative Session, Thursday September 8.

"I was there at the Summit in 2005 when the tide turned."

In the middle of every one of the 80 tables is a stack of what look like extra-wide TV remote control devices. Or maybe they're more like garage-door openers. These are the tools that the 700 delegates gathered here in Moscone Center Thursday afternoon are using today and Saturday to chart the Sierra Club's future. They won't open your garage, these "option-finders," but they will, without wires and without more than a few seconds of delay, record your vote on whatever issue is being deliberated on.

This is the first of the deliberative sessions, the first time this many delegates have gathered in one place to discuss and vote on Sierra Club priorities. Board member and Summit Co-Chair Greg Casini, who delivers the opening remarks, asks the rhetorical question: "Will my input make a difference? Isn't the board just going to do what it wants?"

After a pause, he says, "No. This is the real deal."

Executive Director Carl Pope, who follows Casini, says that he hopes that when we're old and gray, we will be able to say, "I was there at the Summit in 2005 when the tide turned."

The delegates, who represent chapters, groups, and national committees, are meeting for four and a half hours today and another four hours on Saturday to decide, as a group, the Club's strategy, vision, and direction for the next five years. As Pope says, it will be hard, hard work. "But if not us, who? If not now, when?"

The facilitators explain how the wireless keypads work and delegates practice with a few uncontroversial answers like gender and geographic location.

But quickly, it's apparent that the delegates are anxious for real substantive change. To the statement, "When it comes to change and the environment, I support...", 60 percent of the delegates answer: "...a new way of thinking."

Stay tuned. We're just getting started. More on Saturday.

-- 09/08/2005 Thu
6pm