By Jim Wylie, Chair, Sierra Club Pennsylvania Chapter
First of all, please join me in thanking Veronica Coptis for her dedication to the chapter leadership over the last X years. And of course we owe a huge thanks to Joanne Kilgour, former Chapter Director, for being the face of the chapter in Harrisburg and beyond. Tom Torres (new Chapter Director) and I look forward to the challenge of filling these hiking boots.
Personally, I am excited about the opportunity and challenge of acting as volunteer PA chapter chair in 2020. Let me take a few minutes to tell you about myself and what I see as my role and priorities as chapter chair.
I am a longtime member of the Sierra Club and have been an active volunteer for the last 12 years, since I left the corporate world in 2008. My wife Eva and I live in West Chester Borough, Chester County -- an exurb of Philadelphia. I don’t like to use the “R-word”, but let’s just say I am able to devote the bulk of my time to activities and organizations that I care about, like Sierra Club, the West Chester Borough Sustainability Advisory Committee and the regional Energy Transition Advisory Group.
I currently serve as the chair of the Southeastern PA Group (SPG) and we are fortunate to have lots of active volunteers interested in reducing our dependence on fossil fuels and advocating for increasing the demand for clean renewable energy. Of the 150+ cities in the US that have committed to transitioning to 100% renewable energy, 25 are in southeastern PA. This show of support for renewable energy, both from the public and our municipal elected officials, illustrates the urgency people share to DO SOMETHING to address our problem of a warming planet. I’m hoping I can help spread that message to other parts of PA.
Volunteers in southeastern PA use a variety of digital tools to keep in touch with our supporters and team leaders. Some are Sierra Club tools (Salesforce, Campfire, sierraclub.org) and some are not (GoogleGroups, Zoom, Google Drive). I look forward to learning about your volunteer organizing methods and sharing our collective best practices with all groups and working with chapter staff to help make digital tools an enabling platform and not a barrier to effective communications.
I don’t have to tell you about the important role Pennsylvania will be playing in elections this November. I hope Sierra Club volunteers will be taking advantage of every opportunity to promote candidates that advocate for a transition to a clean energy economy with family-sustaining jobs.
I’d also like to invite (and hopefully inspire) volunteers to step up to issue-based leadership positions in the chapter. We have defined roles and opportunities for people that are interested in advancing the conversation about: pipelines, etc [look up the conservation chair names] Issue chairs can provide opportunities to communicate with others on the same topic across PA and Sierra Club.
I know most of the chapter staff and I look forward to helping issue chairs help our volunteers with our priorities to fight against polluters and advance clean energy solutions. I’m on a first name basis with chapter staff and leadership: Tom T, Tom S, Tom H, Jen, Chantal, Zakia, Rachel, Eva, Chloe, Ashley and Sherrie. The Chapter Vice Chair, Ashley Funk, and I are hoping to share leadership responsibilities -- both regionally (Ashley lives near Pittsburgh) and in the task list for our roles.
And of course -- let’s get outdoors, put on our hiking boots, grab our bikes and paddles. Explore, enjoy, and protect this piece of the planet that we all live in.
Please do not hesitate to reach out to me with questions or thoughts about the chapter Executive Committee, our priorities and anything to do with ramping up the volunteer side of Sierra Club in Pennsylvania.
Jim Wylie
jim.wylie@verizon.net