Delegate Robbie Cox votes electronically during a Direction Setting meeting.
Photo by John Barry
|
by Debbi Landshoff
Direction Setting
In the Saturday morning direction-setting session, delegates from Sierra Club chapters, groups, and national committees voted on the relative importance of eight "grassroots capacities" for influencing environmental decisions. (The top choice was "Build a New Energy Future," followed by "Vibrant, Healthy Communities," "Defend Federal Lands and Public Waters," and "Protect People and the Planet from Pollution.")
In the first session and on Friday, attendees demanded (Sierra Club activists are good at demanding!) a more democratic approach to designing Club priorities. A big worry was that the choices were designed in such a way as to close out support for the campaigns most activists work on, such as protection for wildlands and water. The Saturday morning session began with various speakers addressing these issues, but I remained confused, especially about the effect of this direction setting on future support for work done at the local level.
The facilitators did listen to suggestions for more instruction in the exercises they assigned to us, so my table’s discussions were much more focused this time around. We had excellent conversations about the relative importance of various types of campaigns and the types of tactics we each use.
The session closed with a discussion of the National Purpose, Local Action report analyzing organizational effectiveness of Sierra Club groups and chapters. We learned that those groups and chapters that are successful in developing leadership have a well-governed executive committee whose members get help from each other, accept coaching from locally-based staff, and participate in formal training. Further, those chapters and groups that are successful in engaging members in local action have active committees and welcome new members by sending them material, contacting them, and having new-member meetings.
Although I'm glad that the votes in the two sessions came out very close to my personal preferences, I would rather not have spent over eight hours reinforcing the results of almost identical votes made by chapters, groups, and committees earlier in the year.
For me, the Summit was most valuable for the speakers, exhibits, and personal connections. They were truly inspiration, educational, and often very moving.
-- 09/10/2005 Sat
2pm
|
