February 3, 2023
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Powerful Together: Sierra Club’s Listening Tour |
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Sierra Club's new Executive Director, Ben Jealous, has begun a nationwide listening tour – an ambitious undertaking where he will meet and hear from our volunteers, chapter leaders, donors, and close community partners across the country. Ben will solely focus his time on learning about Sierra Club and will not officially start all the responsibilities of Executive Director until February 23rd at the National Board meeting. You can also stay up to date with what is happening on tour by signing up here for weekly updates. Early in Ben’s life, he spent his time in nature and communities devoted to activism, from growing up in a neighborhood of oceanographers in California to summers spent with his grandparents during the civil rights movement in West Baltimore. The first protest Ben organized at school was against timber clear cutting. He worked as a journalist exposing “cancer clusters” in rural parts of Mississippi and was the youngest person to serve as president and CEO of the NAACP, which launched its climate justice program under his leadership. We are excited to have Ben as the next leader of Sierra Club and are looking forward to sharing his Listening Tour updates with you. Make sure to sign up and learn more. |
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Committee and Campaign Updates |
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Legislative Update & Lobby Training The Ohio Legislature recently kicked off the 135th General Assembly, and some bills of interest to the Sierra Club are starting to be introduced. Join us at 6p on Thursday, February 23 via Zoom to learn more about the Club's legislative priorities in 2023 and specifically about the biennial statewide Transportation Budget bill, which will be introduced by the Governor in early February. We will also conduct a brief lobby training that covers how to effectively communicate with state and local decision-makers about our priorities. |
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News From the Sierra Club Ohio Environmental & Social Justice Committee The ESJ Committee is in the process of creating a profile of folks within the organization, how they contribute to our local Ohio work, and what the important issues are for our team to collaborate on. Most importantly, how we as a committee can use our strengths and opportunities for growth to be effective in addressing justice issues in Ohio. A questionnaire was recently sent to all Ohio staff team members to help discern the most positive and effective steps we can take in the months immediately ahead of us. More conversations will follow…Stay tuned! |
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| We are hiring an Inspiring Connections Outdoors (ICO) Intern The ICO Intern will design and lead a recruitment strategy to build a Chapter-level volunteer leadership team. This team will develop a statewide strategy for the Inspiring Connections Outdoors program to engage youth partners and other community entities that are aligned with our mission to provide increased opportunities for youth, children, and families to develop and enhance personal connections to nature through community-inspired and led programming. The Ohio ICO Intern reports to the Chapter Director, for daily assignments and questions and works closely with Chapter staff on assigned tasks. The intern will help Ohio Chapter volunteers and staff, in collaboration with our partner organizations, to (re)build a sustainable Inspiring Connections Outdoors program for the Chapter and will gain great skill in grassroots organizing, coalition building, project management and operations skills. |
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Group Updates |
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| Portage Trail Group: Go Local! Want to protect the earth? Attend public meetings of your city, village or township councils, school board, or other governmental bodies. In public comments, or in person, let people know you wish to support renewable energy, and hope they do too. Make friends through pleasant statements about the importance of making our lifestyles more sustainable. In October 2022, Portage Trail Group folk joined the Summit County executive’s “State of the County” address & lunch. We asked questions, and had 4 questions asked publicly to almost 1,000 people present. Go local! |
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