Question 9

We need demographic data to drive our campaigns. We need to know where among people support lies for our mission and go to those places and organize. We need to play to our strengths but also not be conceding the “red” states and be busy identifying, organizing, and growing the pockets of support. We need data to drive our electoral priorities, to know where we can have the biggest impact.

We need scientific data to assure the effectiveness of our proposed solutions. We also need a bit of healthy skepticism about data driven efforts. Data implies technology and technology, while useful, is no assurance of success.  Success will come from relationships and allies. Political power is fundamentally relational. Data can help us identify and mobilize support we were previously unaware of and insure that our proposed solutions work. Data needs to be placed at the service of our values of Equity in our relationships with people and in our relationships with other species.

The role of data within the Sierra Club will become a lead indicator and necessary pulse identifier as we navigate our 131-year-old green group into the next 131 years. As the world becomes more technologically driven, we can use this as a way to stay in tune with our close to 4 million members in a way that could never be done before. 

I think it would be smart for the Sierra Club to develop an interactive app. Since we already have such a large membership base, it would only enhance engagement and areas of interests to be expanded upon. Areas of interests would be such things as environmental issues, calls to action, nearby open spaces to enjoy nature, upcoming events, etc. From this, we will have not only a target audience, but a focus group that we can utilized to further our collective interests.

I wrote a book in 2016 titled Analytic Activism: Digital Listening and the New Political Strategy. It is about how progressive political associations in the United States can institute a culture of testing and digital listening to identify new leverage points in a fast-changing communications environment.

I mention this not to brag, but to indicate that I have so much more to say on this topic than will fit within the 250 word section limit!

The short version is: (1) treat digital interactions with the membership as a form of passive democratic feedback, (2) build an organizational culture that runs lots of small experiments and continually tests our assumptions about how you gain and build power, (3) be aware of the limitations and biases of that data, and (4) build an organizational culture that takes that all that feedback seriously.

I see the role and use of data as very important in the Sierra Club's mission and health. With the rise in Artificial intelligence (AI), gathering data is very important to inform values-driven campaigns. With science and facts being debated and disputed, having data-informed, values-driven campaigns help to create the right messaging and craft the correct talking points for all of us to be on the same page when discussing important information.

As a scientist and PhD, I deeply value data. The Sierra Club should prioritize the use of data in two ways. First, data should be used internally to better measure our health as an organization. I am unable to think of a time during my tenure with the Sierra Club when I received a questionnaire about Club strategy or structure, and many of my colleagues at the Group level have similar experiences. As a large organization with multiple levels of structure (Group, Chapter, National), the Sierra Club needs to innovate new ways to collect feedback from its membership and prioritize analyzing these data in a transparent manner that informs decisions. The Board should prioritize the use of data in this way as it will allow the Sierra Club to identify areas where we are succeeding, areas where we need more attention, and ways to best chart a path forward. Importantly, I think these data should be sampled with the goal of acquiring a breadth of samples (unbiased and diverse) and a depth of information.

Second, I believe data should inform our advocacy, as well. Some of the most successful campaigns I have been a part of or witnessed locally have been ones where Sierra Club members compiled reputable, science-based information from primary sources and used this to advocate for a specific goal or outcome. The Sierra Club should train, support, and encourage its members to engage in data-based advocacy.

In order to maintain a healthy Club, the members’ vision, attitudes, culture, satisfaction, and areas of interest and engagement may be assessed through various means of data collection. The role of data is a necessary tool in comprising needs assessments, setting goals, building buy-in, and measuring outcomes. Other areas in which data can drive decision making and innovation include financial planning, membership rosters, and engaging donors. When Club actions are aligned with Club intentions, successful values-driven campaigns may be launched such as planning National environmental campaigns.

I would encourage various entities in the Club to identify areas which are in need of information gathering in order for them to reach their respective goals. The Club could assist with recommending and providing state-of-the art software and tutorials at the Chapter and National levels for collecting and analyzing data across the scope of the Club’s work.

When I was an elected official, good data was a key tool for good policymaking. For example, data helped name and expose adverse health impacts from fossil fuel drilling and explain the science behind those impacts. It helped educate the public and my City Council colleagues to see beyond the fossil fuel industry talking points, to understand the real trade-offs our city was making in allowing fossil fuel extraction to continue.

It’s important to note that data points can also be used too narrowly, and can be selectively used to hide larger lived experiences in communities. In other words, studies must include community perspectives, and statistics must be placed in people-centered contexts.

Ultimately, the combination of good data, excellent, long-term community organizing, incredible persistence, and connecting data points to real life experiences, contributed to our historic move to stop all new drilling and phase out existing oil drilling in Culver City. Those data points, that organizing, those stories, were studied and delivered by a coalition with Sierra Club volunteer and staff leaders, with whom I worked closely to achieve this incredible victory.

The Sierra Club has an immensely important task of informing communities and policymakers, with “data-informed, values driven campaigns.” Now that I’m on the other side, as a Sierra Club volunteer leader on the Board, I deeply appreciate the power and the responsibility of gathering, studying, and communicating data to win policy victories nationwide.