To: Group and Chapter Leaders, Campaign Leadership Teams and Grassroots Network Teams

From: The Climate Movement Task Force

Scientists have issued increasingly urgent warnings about the pace and extent of climate disruption.   As the nation's largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, the Sierra Club needs to respond to these warnings by leading a stronger and bolder climate movement.

Input from all parts of Sierra Club is essential to build a climate movement strong enough to achieve a clean energy future.  That's why the Sierra Club Board of Directors just voted to establish the Climate Movement Task Force to make sure that every part of our organization is involved in developing an effective and inclusive movement to fight climate disruption.

To that end, we have two major upcoming steps where your participation is critical:

#1- A leadership questionnaire to solicit input from Sierra Club chapter and national team leaders.

#2- A dialogue process to solicit recommendations from chapter and team leaders on key questions.

The Climate Movement Task Force’s previous engagements have included: Distributing a survey to the entire organization's staff and volunteers; issuing an online sign-up for project updates; conducting dialogues with the senior management group and Council of Club Leaders at the annual meeting; and organizing a meeting with a well-balanced group of 40 staff and volunteers in September.

Building on what has been learned in our process to date, we now seek more specific information from leaders and members of Sierra Club chapters and groups, national leadership teams, and staff teams. The Sierra Club's chapters, groups, and teams are on the front-lines of the fight against climate disruption, and your input on how to build a stronger climate movement within and beyond the Sierra Club is critical.

STEP ONE- We are inviting participation in a questionnaire aimed specifically at the leadership of chapters, groups, and teams. The questionnaire focuses on learning how your Club chapters/groups and/or teams are engaged, what works when building a climate movement, what can be changed, and more. The deadline for survey answers is January 10, 2014. Please forward to active and engaged members of your Chapter/Group ExCom or other campaign team members with whom you work regularly. Take the survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BZCVC7P

STEP TWO- We want to solicit feedback from chapter and team leadership on some key questions through an intentional dialogue process.    

We are asking each of these entities to convene discussions on building a stronger climate movement. We are asking each Chapter/Group or Team to determine your “dialogue leader.”  The dialogue leader role can be designated as the Chair or Team lead or someone else designated by that leader(s). The person in this role should be able to both participate in a prep call in advance of their dialogue process and convene that Chapter/Group or Team’s dialogue conversation.  The process will take 90 minutes and involve discussion of three questions which result in answers that are collated and will be used to inform the task force’s recommendations.   Your dialogue leader or someone else should be prepared to record the results of your conversation using an online survey tool.   We will send a more detailed email to everyone who RSVP's below.

To prepare to do this, we are offering three orientation calls for the dialogue leaders from each entity to walk through the questions in real time and answer any questions about the process.

Then those leaders will convene dialogue sessions in person or by phone to gather input and put forward recommendations from their own specific chapters, groups and teams between January 15 and February 15, 2014 and due by February 21.   

Please RSVP for one of the three orientation calls which will be held on the following dates:

January 6 4 pm pst, 5 pm mst, 6 pm cst, 7 pm est

January 7 6 pm pst, 7 pm mst, 8 pm cst, 9 pm est

January 8 4 pm pst, 5 pm mst, 6 pm cst, 7 pm est

By late February, we will compile the results and begin shaping recommendations. We will meet with the Conservation Department Leadership Group, the Sierra Club Board Advisory Committees and the Executive Staff. We will make our final recommendations to the full board in March and expect final decisions on climate movement building from the Board of Directors in April of 2014.

Ultimately, the Climate Movement process is designed to chart the course for a bigger, stronger and more effective Sierra Club that will play a leadership role in solving the 21st Century’s most important crisis.

Sincerely,

Spencer Black, Vice-President, Sierra Club Board of Directors

Robin Mann, Member, Sierra Club Board of Directors

Sarah Hodgdon, National Program Director