The "ladder" to environmental success

The 30-day/month/year method for becoming an effective Sierra Club leader

Where do environmental leaders come from? They're not born; they're made. You too can become one.

Chapter conservation organizer Anna Oursler describes how Sierra Club volunteers may climb the "leader ladder". On the first rung are first-time volunteers; she might accompany them as they distribute flyers. On the next rung are those who might have been on the first rung the week before; now they have the confidence to distribute flyers by themselves. The following week these volunteers might climb up to the third rung: this time they would be showing others how to distribute the flyers. Soon they might organize the flyer distribution, then create the flyers, and ultimately, as they gain experience and confidence, manage the campaign. Oursler tells how a team of such volunteers - about 60 of them - made the difference in the successful campaign for Measure CC, a hotly contested parcel-tax for the East Bay Regional Park District, in last November's elections.

There are many ways to step up the leader ladder. Perhaps your first Club experience is coming to a "phone bank" to telephone other Club members in support of a campaign. More experienced leaders greet you, instruct you about what to say, and reassure you. At first you may be a little uncomfortable, and your voice sounds shaky. You come back the next week, and you find you've gained confidence, and your voice sounds stronger. The next week perhaps you're ready to give the briefing to other new phoners. Soon - surprisingly soon - you may start organizing phone banks, leading campaign efforts, and taking part in Club decision-making.

Perhaps your first encounter is at a committee meeting, say the Chapter Wilderness Committee or Energy Committee. You have the feeling that everyone else in the room is an expert, or at least knows more about the subject than you, and they all know each other. (Don't worry; all the `experts' had their slightly uncomfortable first meetings, too.) When they ask for volunteers, the only project you feel able to help with is stamping envelopes. You come back again. This time you see familiar faces and find you know enough to contribute to the discussion. Some time passes, and you find that you know plenty, and you can apply your knowledge: you can speak up knowledgably at a hearing or help draft the letter that gets stuffed into the next batch of envelopes. You too are on the way to effective leadership.

You can follow the ladder at any pace to any level you want. Some people are happiest just to stuff envelopes. They too are leaders, who serve as models for others to get involved. Others want to climb higher and more rapidly - or find that to protect their favorite local open space or to unseat that awful local politician, they must rapidly rise to high levels of leadership.

The leader ladder is the key to how the Chapter, with a limited number of conservation staffpeople and a somewhat larger number of highly experienced and active volunteers, can run numerous campaigns at once. New volunteers are constantly stepping in to take growing responsibility for planning and directing action - and at the same time they train others to step up.

Climbing the ladder to save a canyon

A great example of the leader ladder happened in the city of Hercules. When an out-of-town developer proposed a massive project for the hills, oak woods, grasslands, and creeks of Franklin Canyon, a dozen or so people started into action as Friends of Franklin Canyon. Some had been active in environmental causes, but none had ever mounted a campaign of this intensity. As Jeffra Cook puts it, they "just started doing what needed to be done." And last November, as a result of their efforts, a 63% majority of the voters passed an initiative to limit development in the canyon.

Cook, an artist who moved to Hercules in 1988, attracted by its wild areas, found herself utilizing some of the skills she had learned organizing folk festivals and managing a children's theater. She talked to everyone she encountered and called almost everyone she knew. Though some of her contacts were too busy or shy, many others said, "I'd like to get involved." Cook found ways to involve them. "One person acting is like a drop in a pool," she says. "The ripples get bigger and embrace more and more volunteers."

Greg Lewis was another key volunteer. Since he runs a law practice from his home, he was often the most available person to help with many things.

A growing circle was just what was needed. Volunteers had 180 days to collect signatures of 10% of the registered voters in Hercules. Then they would need to mount an election campaign against a well-financed developer.

This core group of campaigners also called on the Sierra Club Bay Chapter for help. Chapter conservation manager Jonna Papaefthimiou helped provide resources, advice, and guidance. Chapter volunteer Dick Schneider, who had cut his chops on Alameda County's Measure D Urban Growth Boundary initiative, lent them the insights of his initiative experience. Hercules resident (and Yodeler March-April 2005 volunteer of the month) Steve Kirby, one of the Friends founders, got involved with the Club through his efforts for Franklin Canyon and ran to become a member of its West Contra Costa Group Executive Committee, helping integrate the Group into the effort.

In less than 35 days the campaigners collected over 1,800 signatures. More than 40 people helped gather signatures. Even more pitched in for the election effort. Three of the campaigners even ran for City Council, and one, Charlene Raines, got elected, as Measure M passed by a landslide.

In April the Rose Foundation awarded an honorable mention to the Friends of Franklin Canyon for the 2005 Anthony Grassroots Prize, honoring an outstanding achievement in grassroots environmental stewardship. "They are living proof of the power of an organized community," said prize founder Juliette Anthony, "and a textbook example of how, with creativity, savvy, and persistence, David can beat Goliath."

Cook acknowledges the value of the leadership lessons. "Although our core group was blessed with courage, skill, and knowledge," she says, "we couldn't have done it without the Sierra Club." And of course the Sierra Club couldn't have made a difference without the dedication of all these volunteers, who cared enough to learn to do things they had never done before and to lead others into the democratic process.

Big waves

Helen Burke is a long-time activist who has been making ripples - waves, in fact - big waves - for years, and when those waves reach promising helpers, she has taught them how to keep standing amidst the foam and to make waves of their own.

Burke was among the founders of the Club's New England Chapter back in 1967. When she moved to the Bay Area in 1971, she got her environmental feet wet almost immediately, working in the campaign to pass Proposition 20 to establish a Coastal Commission. She passed out literature, made signs, raised money. In November 1972 the Coastal Initiative passed with 54.5% of the vote. In 1972 Burke became Chapter conservation chair, in 1973 she was elected to the Chapter Executive Committee, and in 1974 she won election - the first woman and the first environmentalist - to the Board of the East Bay Municipal Utility District. During her four terms there - 16 years - she consistently and forcefully championed environmental interests - and she worked to bring other environmentalists up the ladder.

Environmentalism, she says, always requires team effort. When she meets people - and she meets a lot of them - she seeks to find out what they are comfortable doing - and then gets them doing it. She entices even shy people into becoming valuable members of the team. She is "always on the lookout for leaders".

At the top of the ladder she worked to get other environmentalists elected to the EBMUD Board. (An environmental majority even was elected in 1990, though it has not lasted). She also works at the bottom of the ladder. Don Forman, today editor of the Yodeler but in those days an eager but very wet-behind-the-ears activist, recalls how she encouraged him to testify for the first time at an EBMUD Board meeting. "It was just what I wanted to do, but I needed someone to tell me: this is where you go and when, you'll have three minutes to speak, and so forth. Helen was one - among quite a number - of Club leaders who guided me and helped me to fulfill my potential."

Burke, who today serves as chair of the city of Berkeley Creeks Task Force, as a member of the Berkeley Planning Commission, and as vice chair of the Club's Northern Alameda County Group, cherishes her memory of having worked on environmental issues with David Brower, a leader who helped and inspired an amazing string of people up the ladder of skills and involvement.

You too

The Sierra Club recruits volunteers in many ways. "Some come to us," says Oursler, phoning or e-mailing or walking in the door at our Berkeley office. The Yodeler and the Chapter web site are always full of invitations to get involved. Our Chapter telephone-outreach staff are always alert for people who may want to volunteer. We also staff tables at Earth Days and other community events.

We try to respond promptly to everyone who expresses an interest. We may call and ask "Can you help? We need 20 people to . . . ." If you want, one of our volunteer coordinators will meet with you to talk about your skills and interests and the range of volunteer options available. We try to match volunteers with activities that appeal to them; that is the way to create happy and effective volunteers who stay with the cause.

Oursler sums up the secret of nurturing new leaders: "It all comes down to believing in the cause - and then having that same belief and confidence in the volunteers and leaders you work with".

To start climbing the Sierra Club ladder yourself, see other articles in this Yodeler, especially the front-page article on our training series, or contact conservation director Mike Daley at (510) 848-0800, ext. 304, or email mike-at-sfbaysc.org

Karen Rosenbaum

Conservation representative Anna Oursler, quoted above, is climbing the ladder herself, leaving her Sierra Club position as of July 1 to return to her studies.