Get Involved, Make A Difference
The Sierra Club, Montgomery County Group, offers many volunteer opportunities, from one-time events to joining a standing committee. Our group is 100% volunteer-driven and we really need your help. Our standing committees – Events, Campaign Resources, Communications, Fundraising, Membership/Volunteers and Cool Cities/Climate Change – all need volunteers. From grassroots campaigning and handing out flyers at local farmers markets to brainstorming communications strategies and helping craft a strategic plan, we can match your interests and talents to a meaningful volunteer opportunity. You joined the Sierra Club because you believe in its mission on a national basis. Now you have an opportunity to get involved locally and make a difference in your community. Contact Barbara Newland, Membership/Volunteers Committee Chair, at bnewland@verizon.net or 301-926-5922.
Tabling at Montgomery County Farmers’ Markets
We need more people to hand out brochures and talk about the Sierra Club and its activities in Montgomery County at local farmers’ markets this fall. We will pair you up with another Sierra Club member and you can volunteer for as little as an hour a month at your local market. Contact bnewland@verizon.net or 301-926-5922.
Takoma Park Folk Festival, September 16
We’ll have a booth at this festival which attracts several thousand people from around the area. Volunteers are needed to help with set up and for two-hour shifts between 11:00 and 6:30. This is a good way to meet other Sierra Club members and talk to others who want to protect the environment. Contact bnewland@verizon.net or 301-926-5922.
Membership and Volunteers Committee
Can you volunteer a few hours a month to contact new members about local Sierra Club events and campaigns? If you can help with this, contact bnewland@verizon.net or 301-926-5922.
Cool Cities/Global Climate Change
We are launching a series of in-home discussions about energy conservation actions and retrofits home owners can take to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. If you are interested in hosting one of these discussions, we’ll provide the discussion leader and information handouts. Contact David Hauck at Hauck_D@msn.com or 301-270-5826 for more information.
Montgomery County Conservation Corps Friends Board Seeks Sierra
Club Representative
Montgomery County has a program known as the Montgomery County
Conservation Corps (MCCC) that is designed to address the needs of 18 to 24 year
olds who are school dropouts, single parents, or simply in need of developing
life skills. The successful program has been in existence for over 20 years and
teaches young adults essential life and job skills. The Corps works on a
variety of environmental projects and has brought much value to our parklands
and urban spaces as well as to the lives of its participants.
While the program is publicly funded, the County funds are limited, and MCCC
relies on a volunteer, non profit corporation - the Friends Board - to further
support its efforts both in resource and program development areas. The Board
has four regular meetings a year, and committee meetings as necessary. For more
information, contact Anne Ambler anneambler@comcast.net or 301-946-5599.
The Executive Committee of the Sierra Club Montgomery County Group recently approved the formation of four new committees that will increase our reach and effectiveness on local issues of concern to the Sierra Club. Take a minute to look over the responsibilities of each committee and see where your skills, experience and interests best fit. Then, call or email the contact person.
Events Committee. A series of varied and compelling events is the major way the Sierra Club informs members about the issues, motivates them to become more active and recruits new members. We need you to help come up with creative ideas for future events; publicize them to ensure a good turnout; help on the day of the event itself by greeting attendees, working the literature table, or by making sure the projector works with the speaker’s laptop. Please contact either of the Co-Chairs: Tom Ralph (tom.ralph@comcast.net 301-299-2028) or Eric Luedtke (ericluedtke@yahoo.com 301-847-0461).
Campaign Resources Committee. We see this committee acting like our local Sierra Club group's very own in-house consulting group and campaign clearinghouse. The purpose of this committee will be to supply critical support by: (1) providing strategic planning to our group's campaigns; (2) matching resources to campaign needs; and (3) offering skills training and workshops on local environmental issues to our membership as part of our expanded schedule of events .
We need your help to get this Committee off the ground! For starters, we are developing two databases - one, the Campaign Allies database (identifying contacts in other environmental organizations, schools, neighborhood associations, etc. that we can work with to achieve our campaign goals) and two, the Member Skills database (identifying the skills and areas of expertise present among our members - graphic design, media relations, legal consulting, energy policy, computer skills, you name it - to be called upon as needed for campaigns). These databases will be important tools for the committee.
Please call Kate Konschnik, Campaign Resources Committee chair, at (301) 891-8578 or kkonschnik@hotmail.com to help create the databases, or to provide information to be included in these databases.
Communications Committee. This committee is responsible for our newsletter, website content and design, and other forms of communication with members. Specifically, we need several people to maintain the content on our redesigned website (launch scheduled for July/August) and someone to provide backup editing and layout support for the newsletter. Please contact David Hauck (david.hauck@maryland.sierraclub.org 301-270-5826) or Clay Birkett ( cbirkett@origene.com 240-620-0252)
Fundraising Committee. Campaigns to slow climate change, stop the
ICC, protect the urban forest and open spaces and reduce storm water runoff
into the
Expanded Membership
and Volunteers Committee. We’ve always had a Membership Committee but
now it has been expanded to include responsibility for making sure volunteers
are matched up with meaningful opportunities that help to preserve and protect
our own corner of the planet here in