Volunteer opportunities

How will you get started as a volunteer? Virtually everything the Sierra Club does is done largely or entirely by volunteers.

Some volunteers pick a cause that they care about and offer to do whatever is needed to advance it. Some pick a type of activity:

• do you want to do something valuable but mindless, or are you looking for challenge;
• do you want to do something sociable, or do you prefer working mostly alone;
• should it be a regular commitment, or just once in a while?

One of the keys to the Club's success is that different volunteers bring such different aptitudes and preferences.

Almost every Yodeler article contains a volunteer opportunity. Every type of Sierra Club event and activity is led by volunteers, and experienced volunteers are always helping new folks get started. The listings below are just a tiny sample of the opportunities.

So call a name that you see in this Yodeler, or if you're not sure who to call, call Joanne Drabek at the Chapter Office at (510) 848-0800, ext. 315

We'll welcome you and try to help you find the volunteer opportunity that suits you best.

Sierra Club Calendars

Starting Aug. 25 the Chapter Office will be selling 2009 Sierra Club Calendars. To make this year's sales successful, we need your help filling these volunteer positions.

• Marketing manager: a sales-oriented volunteer with creative ideas to find new ways to promote and sell the Sierra Club calendars; and develop a business-customer base. Needed August through October.
• Project coordinator: manage the entire sales process, overseeing each step from receiving orders to shipping the calendars. You need to be available September through December, weekly during business hours. You should be detail-oriented, well-organized, and self-motivated, with good leadership skills.
• Regional-group reps: help your regional group raise money by selling calendars at local meetings and events, from September through December.
• Packaging clerk: we need efficient, detail-oriented volunteers to pack and address calendars, from September through mid-December, for weekly 4 - 6-hour shifts.
• Shipping clerk: able-bodied persons with motor vehicle to take packages (4 - 20 per week, weighing up to 20 pounds each) to the post office and UPS store once a week from September through mid-December.

To volunteer or get more information, call Joanne Drabek, (510)848-0800, ext. 315

Plan to support your local chapter this holiday season and order your 2009 Sierra Club Calendars from the San Francisco Bay Chapter. Calendars will be available from late August through mid-December (order early for early-bird prices!) Ads with full details will appear in the next two Yodelers.

Solano Stroll

The Sierra Club needs volunteers to help at the Solano Stroll on Solano Avenue in Albany and Berkeley on Sun., Sep. 14. Typical shifts are two hours, at times ranging from 8:30 am (setting up) till 7 pm (cleaning up), with lots of fun in between, sitting at the table and greeting visitors. Volunteers will share information about sustainability and the November elections, and will sell Sierra Club Calendars.

To volunteer or get more information, call Joanne Drabek, (510)848-0800, ext. 315

Detailed MS Word typing

Are you a detail-oriented typist, fluent in Microsoft Word, to help copy picky editorial changes from manuscripts into the computer? You would work at the Bay Chapter Office in Berkeley. To help, contact Yodeler editor Don Forman at (510)848-0800, ext. 305.

Retired? Want a challenge?

Volunteer at the Club's national headquarters in downtown San Francisco (one block from BART and Muni); contribute your experience to help us come to grips with the environmental problems of the next century. You'll meet new people with similar interests; have access to computers, the Internet, and one of the best environmental libraries in the country; and expand your own interests while sharing your time and skills. Experience is useful in just about any field. We can use skills at translating from English into a wide range of languages. In addition, we need a volunteer to help with administrative support including filing, copying, and some light correspondence and Internet searches. For details, call Michele Perrault at (415) 977-5670.

Brighten a child's life (and yours!)

Have you ever seen a child's face light up during their first real experience with nature? Join the Club's Inner City Outings Program and open new eyes to the wonder of day-hiking, backpacking, and car-camping. ICO provides outdoor experiences for those who otherwise wouldn't have the opportunity. Diverse volunteer opportunities exist throughout the year. Most needed are volunteers interested in mid-week day hikes. No prior experience is necessary, but a love of the outdoors and comfort with children are highly recommended. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org/ico/sfbaychapter/index.html or contact Sadie Rabe at (925) 768-2242 email sadierabe -at- yahoo.com

Alaska volunteers needed!

The Bush administration is attacking the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the western North Slope, and the Tongass National Forest all at once. Help the Sierra Club's Alaska Task Force and the Alaska Coalition defend Alaska's unique lands! To volunteer, contact Vicky Hoover, Sierra Club Alaska Task Force, at (415)977-5527 or email vicky.hoover -at- sierraclub.org

Help stop clearcutting

You can help to stop massive clearcutting in California. Join other activists to work on this issue. You could help make phone calls, write letters, speak to other groups, help with mailings, collect signatures, create flyers, attend Board of Forestry meetings, or donate money to help support these activities - whatever your interest! Contact Patricia Jones at (510)548-2204

Your chance to write Sierra Club history

We have some great projects for volunteering, internships, even dissertations.

In the Bay Chapter Office in Berkeley and in the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley are extensive archives of materials about the Sierra Club and in particular the San Francisco Bay Chapter. We are looking for historians or antiquarians - amateur or professional - to pore through these fascinating documents to preserve and study them.

• We have a more or less complete collection of back issues of the Yodeler, going back to 1937. If we don't take action, however, gradually these are going to crumble into dust. We need you to help scan them into electronic form for long-term preservation.
• Help compile a list (do you have GIS skills? could you make a map?) of all the locations in the Bay Area that the Sierra Club has helped to preserve.
• Work with the Sierra Club's Oral History Project to interview local environmental leaders.
• Teachers and professors, these resources could be the base for a class project.

As you go through the archives, you can also develop your own projects, perhaps for publication in the Yodeler, perhaps for academic research in fields such as history, environmental studies, political science, planning, sociology, organizational behavior, library science, or geography.

If you are interested in such a project, contact Yodeler editor Don Forman at (510)848-0800, ext. 305.

Energy Committee

The Bay Chapter Energy Committee needs volunteers to help us keep abreast of energy issues affecting the Bay Area and to work with other Sierra Club entities to encourage renewable energy and energy conservation. Current needs include:

• following local efforts and clean technologies;
• implementing a plan to educate local communities about energy efficiency and conservation;
• exploring ways locally to move towards sustainability and to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.

We meet monthly, on the fourth Wednesday, 7 - 9 pm at Sierra Club Headquarters, 85 Second St. in San Francisco (near Montgomery Street BART/Muni), to discuss these and other local energy issues, and to hear presentations from energy experts. Experience in the energy field is helpful, but more important is an interest in learning the details of specific technologies and legislation. Sign up for our e-mail listserv for meeting and event announcements at http://groups.google.com/group/sfbayenergy

For more information, contact committee chairs Doug Beach (San Francisco/Marin Counties) at (415) 608-1439 or email dbeach7 -at- mac.com or Aaron Israel at izzinsf -at- gmail.com or call (415) 515-2683

Proofreader

The Yodeler needs one more regular proofreader. You would come to our Berkeley office for several hours every two months (roughly the middle of even-numbered months). You should be detail-oriented and flexible. If interested, call editor Don Forman at (510) 848-0800, ext. 305.