Retired, but not retiring

Senior Fellows program enables people to bring skills into Club's work

Over the last eight years you may have read a Yodeler "volunteer opportunity" announcement inviting retired folks to help out at the Sierra Club's national headquarters in San Francisco. Retirees bring wonderful experience (both professional and from years of living) and often have time for something new and stimulating. This "Senior Fellows" program has coordinated the participation of over 80 valuable volunteers.

These volunteers start off by contacting a volunteer organizer who has some significant experience herself: over the years Michele Perrault, now Club international vice-president, has held practically every role in the organization, from working on local conservation campaigns to serving as Club president. Perrault interviews each caller to get ideas of their skills and interests and to match them to a list of prospective projects. Some projects can be done at home, others at the office, and others involve attending (and monitoring) meetings. In some cases, volunteers choose to learn new skills.

Most participants have volunteered a minimum of a day a week. At year end the program usually holds a dinner celebration to thank volunteers and let them share ideas. Their work has been valuable and varied.

• Susan Gladwin, Susan Weisberg, and Monika Lewis have produced fine copy for the web site of the Bay Area Alliance for Sustainable Communities, of which the Club is a member, on what sustainability looks like in the region's counties
• A historian helped compile Club bylaws and other materials for archives.
• A parent with fundraising experience from her child's school assisted staff fundraisers.
• A law student helped Club lawyers with legal research (yes, some participants have been not retirees but people in work transitions).
• Volunteers have assisted in a wide variety of work - maintaining files, helping with exchange visitors from other countries, designing brochures, and responding to correspondence.

One of the program's great successes is that participants have branched out as Club leaders in multiple areas.

• Jim Diamond, a former pediatrician and now editor of the newsletter of the Club's International Committee, has also served as chair of the Club's Bioengineering Committee and as a member of the Club's former Sustainable Planet Team.
• Ed Mainland, a former State Department employee, assists on international matters and now leads the Sierra Club California Energy Committee.
• Amanda Leung, who designed the first web site for the Club's International Committee, went on to become a member of the committee itself.
• Photographer Norman Herterich, a contributor to the International Committee's web site, has also contributed wilderness photos to help in wilderness-designation efforts in California and Nevada.
• Some starting in the program have gone on to provide services to the Club Investment Committee and to participate on key Club task forces.

Volunteers have included a retired nurse, a former urban planner, a new college graduate, a language professor, an author, a water engineer, a foreign intern, a systems analyst, a biologist.

Are you ready to help? Call Michele Perrault at (415) 977-5670