October 16, 2015
At its June meeting in Buffalo and in telephone conference calls, the ExCom addressed budget matters. The ExCom approved a grant to Water Sentinels and increased the appropriation for litigation support, a growing but expensive component of the Chapter’s work. The Chapter is trying to step up fundraising efforts. In addition, a “Water Fund” account will be established for tax-deductible earmarked donations.
The ExCom asked the national Club to reinstate the Northeast Regional Committee (NERC), which facilitated cooperation among different chapters in the Northeast and eastern Canada. In preparation for the annual Council of Club Leaders meeting in the fall, the ExCom reiterated its previous recommendation that the Council call for membership giveaway items to be made in the United States, and added a recommendation that the Council seek a more ambitious target than the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s proposed temperature goal of a 2°C increase above pre-1850 average global temperature.
The ExCom asked the national Club to assign significant resources to the campaign to close Indian Point. It also approved a resolution calling for expanded PCB cleanup of the Hudson River and Champlain Canal.
The ExCom dealt with National’s demand that the Chapter abolish its modified proportional representation, under which the Groups with more members had more ExCom delegates, and instead seat only one delegate from each Group. There was discussion of increasing the number of at-large delegates at the same time. On a tie vote, the ExCom rejected a proposal to approve both changes as one package. It then narrowly approved the reduction in Group delegates, which National said would not require a vote of the entire membership, and separately asked National to approve holding a referendum on adding more at-large delegates. It also created a Grassroots Democracy Restoration Task Force to seek reconsideration of the order.