At the Summit:
> Home
> Schedule

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

 

by Mark Bettinger
Direction Setting

Seeing the mass of people getting ready to participate in the direction-setting session is amazing.  Everywhere I turn, I see friends, leaders, and family that I have had the privilege to work with at the Sierra Club in the past 14 years. The knowledge, commitment and dedication to the Sierra Club mission that is in the room are awe-inspiring.  

The directions-setting process is fascinating. 

In the strategic planning I have participated in with chapters, groups, and steering committees, there is lots of butcher paper and colored dots strategically placed and 6 to 20 leaders.  This is dramatically different -- microphones, keypads to vote with, PowerPoint slides to immediately display the results, music, and over 700 leaders. 

As part of the process, ten of us have been assigned to be Theme teamers. We are broken into four teams to match the four subjects the delegates are asked to discuss.  Our assignment on each team is to distill more than 200 visions for the Sierra Club future into 8 to10 common themes. No pressure there!

It is amazing the ideas and visions that appear on the bulletin board.

My Theme Team partner and I scramble to do justice to all the ideas. The deadline is tight to get the themes to the front so that they can be displayed on the big screen.  We make it just under the wire….

My favorite –

In 2020, 50 percent of the population are Sierra Club Members. 

Just think of what the Sierra Club could accomplish with that!   

-- 09/08/2005 Thu
8pm