To be eligible to vote in the election, you must be a member in good standing of the Atlantic Chapter as of the mailing of this newsletter in the fall of 2011. Please read all the candidates' statements below. Indicate your choices by checking the boxes next to the candidates' names on the ballot in your hard copy of the Fall Sierra Atlantic.
Each member may vote for up to five candidates. You may vote for fewer than five, but voting for more than five will void your ballot.
DO NOT cover up your mailing address. It is used to verify that the ballot is being submitted by an Atlantic Chapter member. It will be removed before the ballots are counted. Secrecy will be insured. Putting your folded ballot in an envelope is the best way to send it. This greatly reduces the possibility of damage during mailing. If you don't use an envelope, please fold and secure as indicated. Please tape it - NO STAPLES. Affix a first-class stamp and mail to:
Elections Committee, Sierra Club, Susquehanna Group, PO Box 572, Endicott, NY 13760.
If you have not received your paper by the end of October, or have damaged or lost your ballot, you may request a replacement. The replacement ballot will bear your membership number and the signature of Chapter Staff. Only such replacement ballots sent to you from Chapter staff will be counted. No replacement ballots will be issued after December 15, 2011. If you have any questions or problems, please e-mail Chapter Coordinator, Bobbie Josepher or contact her at 516-672-8252. Allow enough time for your problem or question to be resolved before the deadline. Mail your ballots so that they are received on or before December 31, 2011. Ballots will be counted in early January 2012.
Following are the unedited statements, in random order, received from candidates for at-large seats to the Chapter's Executive Committee.
| Arthur Kuypers My name is Arthur Kuypers. Raised and educated in the Netherlands, I have three children and live in Brooklyn, NY. I have retired from a 20-year career in banking and now devote myself to family life. I have been actively involved with the Chapter since 2010. In that year, I attended a hydrofracking lobby day and understood the importance of community and citizen participation in the legislative process. Subsequently, I have served on the Hydrofracking Task Force, the Legislative Committee and the Spectra Pipeline Task Force. I currently hold the position of Chapter Conservation Vice Chair, am on the Chapter "Beyond Coal Campaign" Committee and participate in the Chapter's Green Jobs, Green NY and Water Sentinels programs. I believe that energy politics drive environmental policy and often lead to questionable legislation. The assumption that there are no costs associated with environmental damages contributes to the poor quality of political decisions. In reality, the cost of the resulting environmental damage - such as clean up costs, loss of livelihood, health care costs, infrastructure damages, litigation costs - are all disproportionally born by the community. Consider hydrofrackers that avoid the cost of processing their dangerous waste products, and hereby cause immeasurable damage to communities and the environment. The end result; seemingly cheap gas. Growing up in the Netherlands, a country that gave land back to the sea when wetland flora and fauna diversity declined, I have experienced first hand how common wellbeing can be increased by recognizing environmental costs. I seek a position on the Chapter ExCom to work with its members to realize improved energy and environmental policies. | Jim Lane |
Diane Buxbaum | Erin Heaton, Armonk, NY I became involved with the Lower Hudson Chapter upon learning of their lobbying work regarding unconventional shale gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing (fracking), am on the Atlantic Chapter's Gas Drilling Task Force and am a co-founder of Chenango Community Action for Renewable Energy (C-CARE). C-CARE raises awareness of the negative impacts associated with fracking and motivates local communities to participate in protecting their clean water and air while pushing for the necessary shift to alternative energy. We believe the long-term economic well being of Chenango County, in the center of the Marcellus Shale region, is based on the protection of our environment and the development of renewable energy, sustainable agricultural practices and recreational enterprise. Professionally I am a school librarian in Westchester County and served four terms on the board of the Hudson Valley Library Association as both President and Treasurer. I strive to instill a passion for inquiry and research in my students as well as an understanding of sustainability and our interdependence on one another and the planet. Children and adults alike naturally wish to problem-solve and to feel empowered that their voice counts. I am interested in working with the Executive Committee of the Atlantic Chapter to positively engage a greater number of New Yorkers on the issue of fracking, expand membership and lend a louder voice to the call for the Sierra Club to truly support an alternative energy future, one without nuclear and fossil fuels, particularly natural gas, as a bridge. Frank Morris It's been a privilege to serve on the executive committee of the Atlantic Chapter for the last several years. As Chairperson of Long Island Sierra Club and Vice Chairperson of NYC Sierra Club, I've helped to raise over $30,000 for Sierra Club activities through special events and the cultivation of major donors. I recently ran for the Board of National Sierra Club, took a direct stand against gas Hydrofracking, and received 19,000 votes. With Mayor Bloomberg's 50 million dollar gift to Sierra Club, I'll be working with NYS Sierrans and allies nationally to shut down coal power plants. America needs to replace coal, gas, oil, and nuke with energy efficiency, renewable energy, and energy storage. Email fm@ecologicadvisors.us to discuss environmental issues, or to share ideas related to this vote. |
| Art Klein My life prepared me for nearly any Sierra Club mission. I am the Vice-Chairman of the Niagara Group Executive Committee and Delegate to the Atlantic Chapter. I can use my dedication and experience more effectively as an At-large-Delegate. I would like to broaden the geographic base of the Chapter to include Western New York. I grew up intimate to nature in farm country north of Buffalo. I learned of our declining bounty in 1949 when I worked a commercial fish boat and the crew pointed at the ten boxes of fish we filled each day. Before the war, they assured me, thirty or more boxes were common. Later, a seaman, I worked the St Lawrence Seaway and learned the consequences of poorly planned projects. We traded marginal economic benefit for increased invasive species in the Great Lakes. Afterward, I worked all the Great Lakes and witnessed scummy, oil-slicked waters that were accepted as the price of progress. A waterways investigator in the Corps of Engineers from 1973 to 1990, I had a direct role in the preservation and restoration of water quality and habitat in freshwater habitats, especially wetlands. I am a long time bicycle advocate and active in outdoor recreation as an active member of the Adirondack Mountain Club, Niagara Chapter, for over 20 years. I serve on the DEC Open Space Committee. My current Sierra involvement includes nuclear and toxic waste climate and energy, open space conservation, forest and park policies, and transportation. | Hal Bauer As a first term, At Large Chapter delegate, Hydrofracking member and Wilderness Chair (wilds@newyork.sierraclub.org) from rural New York, I have gained an understanding of Chapter capacities to serve a second term. I operate a small NOFA-NY farm, and am a long-term member of the Sierra Club, and national science associations. I studied animal/human behavior in Africa, Europe and Canada and several US states, returning upstate for research in the 1990s and to raise 2 children now in universities. Increasing women's rights, education, health and reproductive choice is an essential means to address human sustainability. When I entered my NYC high school in 1960, humans were 3 billion strong. By the early 1970s, while studying apes in Africa, we added another billion. Later in 1999, working in the Western Finger Lakes/raising my kids, we reached 6 billion. Now in 2011 we are 7 billion humans. All are demanding renewable and nonrenewable natural resources and goods, causing carbon-energy-dependent, climate, political and economic disasters. We are raising our atmospheric CO2 to past 400 ppm, burning ancient carbon, formed from ancient sunlight. Extreme oil drilling led to the BP Gulf spill of 2010, and the immediate prospect of extreme Hydrofracking of NYS and the Tar Sands Pipeline from Alberta-to-TX, will be associated with more extreme societal and climate disruption. Our schools and universities, as well as political leaders, continue to ignore learning and acting to change this carbon fuel past to a design a conservation, solar and geothermal energy future reality that works. Vote. |
Kate Bartholomew
I doubt anyone would argue with the assertion that the times we live in are challenging at many levels and on diverse fronts - and in such times, the environment and environmental policies are often asked to bear an extraordinary percentage of the cost associated with shoring up the rest of the system. It is because of this fundamental imbalance and injustice that I find myself running as a candidate for a position as Atlantic Chapter Ex Comm Member-at-Large.
It's true, I've only been a Sierra Club member since 2006, but in that time I've served as the Chair of the Finger Lakes Group, Ex Comm Group Delegate and now Co-Chair of the Atlantic Chapter Gas Drilling Task Force. I have also served, and continue to serve, in a number of other environmental organizations over the years.
During the period of my Sierra Club membership, we've lived through two presidents, three governors, and three DEC Commissioners. Environmental protections have thinned, Pennsylvania has been pillaged, the tar sands are being eyed as a viable energy resource, and evidence for accelerating climate change is mounting. What better time could I choose to ask for your support in electing me so I can help the Atlantic Chapter fulfill its mission to "explore, enjoy and protect the planet" - and insist on environmental justice for all life along the way.
Thank you.