SierraScape October - November 2009
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CANDIDATE STATEMENTS

Executive Committee (ExCom) members meet once per month to authorize club actions and assist activities of other Eastern Missouri Group (EMG) members.

There are seven voting members on the ExCom. Three persons will be elected, each to fill a two-year term. Voting instructions are given on the ballot (see page 8).

The following are statements by candidates for the ExCom, listed in alphabetical order.

     Toni Armstrong

I have been active in the Eastern Missouri Group of the Sierra Club for about 30 years. I have served various roles within the club: Outings co-chair for 10 years, Chair of the Alaska Lands committee, Operation Clean Stream coordinator, and Outings leader.

The EMG has been an effective leader in protecting the environment from stopping the Meramec Dam to the passage of Prop C (clean energy bill) in 2008. To continue this important work we need to recruit and activate new members. I want to reach out to young potential members via Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc. I believe there is an interest in environmental issues in our college students, youth and families, I want to tap into that interest and enthusiasm. I want to explore how we can modify our monthly meetings to intrigue and involve more people. I have watched over the last 30 years the graying of the EMG, currently most our active members are 50+ years old. My goal is to lower that average age to make the EMG a more vital and viable club.

     Henry Robertson

I've now served three terms on Excom. I also serve at the Chapter (state) level on Excom and as Energy Chair. In my spare time I often represent the Club as an attorney with Great Rivers Environmental Law Center.

We face two major challenges. The first, you'll be shocked to learn, is financial. The lemonade business has soured (sorry), and we're going to need new fundraising tactics. In the short term, we'll have to do some belt-tightening.

The second challenge is engaging members in the electronic age. I've stopped holding monthly face-to-face meetings of the Energy Committee I founded four years ago and hope to be able to keep the work going through email and phone contacts.

Let us know what you think about electronic versus paper newsletters (the e-kind is much cheaper!), new ways to do our business, and especially fundraising ideas.

Serving on Excom is a way for me to give back in return for being able to do what I care about in the name of an active, effective organization. But I'm a low-tech dinosaur and need to give way to someone more attuned to present realities. If I'm reelected, I hope that the next time my term expires someone will be there to get rid of me and be a fresh face.

     Ken Schechtman

I am a lifelong activist committed to the notion that change does not happen unless ordinary people join together and demand it. Environmentalists have been doing so for decades, and anyone who considers the clean air bill or our many reborn streams and lakes must marvel at the successes, even as we battle for all that is yet to be won and for all that is currently being stolen.

I have been Vice Chair of our Executive Committee for the last eight years and am an active member of our Political committees. I am also a Washington University Professor who brings to the Club a dedication to environmental ideals, a scientist's measured analysis of issues and, most important, an abiding commitment to an effective results-oriented Club that lets no one forget that we did not stand by and watch.

As a hiker with a reverence for nature, I have an obligation to Missouri's forests and to our wild and special places. As an advocate, I have authored dozens of published op-ed articles over many years. As a citizen, I have been a long-time activist in numerous progressive causes. And as a parent, I can do nothing less than fight for the planet I will one day leave behind. I hope you will again offer that opportunity.

     Paul Stupperich

I have been a member of the Sierra Club for over 20 years and have served on the Excom in the past. I have been hiking since the mid 70's in Missouri and come to love our Wilderness Areas , Natural Areas, the Ozark Trail and our State Parks. The Sierra Club needs to be a strong voice for Public Lands and the Ozark Trail. I would like to help the Sierra Club to be that strong voice for Public Lands.