It's time again for election of four of our Executive Commitee officers! The elected officers meet monthly to discuss and take action on environmental issues that affect our region, state, country, and world. Their terms of office are for two years. As with most Sierra Club positions, these are volunteer. Finger Lakes members should be receiving the current newsletter in the mail, which has the ballot. Voting online can be done also. The deadline is December 31. Here are their candidate statements:
Gene Stolfi
Hello fellow Sierrans. Time sure flies when you are busy. It’s reelection time for the Finger Lakes Group Executive Committee. If you choose to reelect me, I promise to continue to fight for our environment. Thank you for all your support.
Philip Gillemot
Hello, all! I am a candidate for re-election to the Finger Lakes Executive Committee. I have greatly enjoyed serving the last two years and look forward to the next two. I first joined the Sierra Club in 1977, and since retiring in 2021 from my career as a physician assistant have been active in the environmental movement. I have attended and spoken at numerous public meetings, written several stories for our website, and attended and lobbied multiple times at the capitol in Albany. I support the closing of the polluting Seneca Meadows landfill, the closure of the greenhouse gas-producing Greenidge Bitcoin mining facility on Seneca Lake, and support the change away from fossil fuel greenhouse gas-producing energy to clean energy such as solar and wind as rapidly as possible to help turn around climate change. I will be acting in whatever ways I can to resist the new federal administration's actions that would nullify, water down, or reverse pro-environmental laws and regulations. I would greatly appreciate your vote!
Thomas Hirasuna
A long-term resident of Ithaca, Tom works on advocacy toward global sustainability and environmental justice. As a member of the FLG Executive Committee, he works toward the mitigation of and adaptation for the effects of climate change. He participates on the Atlantic Chapter Legislative Committee working to achieve the goals of the NYS Climate Law (CLCPA) and to increase public awareness.
Collaboration with other climate advocacy groups has become essential for dealing with the intense lobbying and disinformation from the fossil fuel industry. Tom is also Co-Chair of the Climate Reality Finger Lakes NY Chapter and co-leads the Climate Reality NYS Chapters Coalition. He serves on the Environmental Program Advisory Committee for Tompkins County Cooperative Extension and is an Associate Member for the Tompkins County Environmental Management Council. He is an alumnus of MIT, Columbia, and Cornell with a background in biochemical engineering and food science.
Hal Bauer
I would be honored, on behalf of the Sierra Club Finger Lakes members, to serve as their elected representative. I’ve been a member for 38 years. As a graduate and doctoral student, then a post-doctoral NIH scientist, & university faculty, I have studied behavioral biology on 3 continents, in 4 countries & 5 US states. From great marshes, forests, & to cities, I have studied chimpanzee and human behavior as a research scientist. For the last decades, we raised together our children operating a small farm. Here I have served as our local Vice Chair and Chair of the Finger Lakes Group, Chapter ExCom At-Large Delegate & Group Delegate (together for 14 years), and on Energy, Wilderness and Wildlife, Political and Legislative Committees. I believe ignoring the science/policies necessary to reduce our 6th Mass Extinction/ climate crisis are horribly self-destructive to earth’s uniquely, wondrous world.