February-March 2008
Roanoke Group changing member communications --
How we'll
stay in touch in a digital world
This issue of "Sierra Club News" marks the end of an era, as it is
the last one to be printed on paper and sent by regular mail. In
our real-time world of the Internet and email, it seems that a
bi-monthly, traditional newsletter doesn't serve our needs very well at
all. What's more, the newsletter is our biggest expense, costing
about $1500 annually to produce and mail, about three times more than
our share of member dues.
To provide you with the timely
information you need to participate in Sierra Club activities, we will
be implementing enhancements to our web site (virginia.
sierraclub.org/roanoke), and we'll be using the new member Sierra
Club email communication system.
Synopsis of changes:
We've already changed our calendar of
events to the Google Calendar format. This enables us to quickly
update, add, delete and manage entries. Anyone can view the
calendar, and If you register with Google, you can copy our events to
your personal calendar. You'll find it in the same place as
always, under the CALENDAR link on our web site.
We'll have a
"NEWS HEADLINES" area on our home page, where we will post important
news capsules, with links to the full stories.
All news
articles will be stored in a searchable archive.
Each month,
we will send an email reminder of our key events to members who choose
to give us their email addresses. We already have email addresses
on file for about one-third of our members. Do we have yours? (See
box on the right side of this page).
If you want to get more
timely news, consider joining the "Roanoke Environmentalists" email
list, which has postings of local events for Sierra Club and other
groups. You'll find a link to this on our home page (at the
bottom).
What if you don't do email? While a growing majority of people
use the Internet on a regular basis (recent estimates as high as 80% in
the U.S.), we recognize that some Sierra Club members do not, for a
variety of reasons. If you are one of these, you will still be
able to get information about our local activities through the
Virginia Chapter Newsletter, "Old Dominion Sierran". In each issue
of the statewide bi-monthly, we will publish information about upcoming
events, and telephone contact information to enable you to get in touch
with your local leadership.
The "Old Dominion Sierran" (ODS) has been providing space for more
stories about what Sierra Club people around the state have been doing,
and it also offers in-depth analysis of important issues. Our local
leaders will be contributing articles to the "ODS" on a regular
basis.
Our mission remains unchanged. The Roanoke Group exists to
pursue the purposes of the Sierra Club in our community. Group
leaders have certain responsibilities to you, our members.
These include: 1) keeping you informed about the meetings, actions and
decisions of the Executive Committee, 2) giving you opportunities
participate in our local campaigns and events, and 3) enabling you to
vote for Executive Committee members and on other questions that need to
be decided by member vote.
We are committed to fulfilling these responsibilities through the use
of our web site, email system, and the "Old Dominion Sierran".
HELEN will help with some of our changes. No, HELEN is not one
of our new volunteers! It is an acronym for the new Sierra Club
on-line membership tool, "Helping Environmental Leaders Engage
Neighbors". This system makes it extremely easy for Club leaders
to access and update member information. HELEN offers the
capability of tagging member records with information about their
activities, interests, and other pertinent facts. As the name
implies, the HELEN system is not just for membership tracking -- it also
accommodates record keeping on other local resources including
non-member volunteers, media, government, other environmental groups,
and supporting organizations.
HELEN makes targeting key groups of members easy. It can generate
emails, mailing lists, labels, or files for downloading.
Change can
be painful, but we have tried to deal with every contingency as we make
this transition. Our goal is that the effectiveness of the Roanoke
Group will continue and perhaps even be enhanced by the new technologies
that are available to us. As always, we invite your comments
and participation in the process of guiding our organization.
Mark McClain
Group Chair
540-387-0930
YOUR PREFERENCE MATTERS
HELP US GET IT
RIGHT!
On February 1, 2008, we sent an email to
every active member in the Roanoke Group using the addresses from the
HELEN file. If you received this message, and you wish to continue
to receive occasional updates by email, you don't need to do
anything. If you change your email, be sure to let us
know!*
If you got the Feb. 1 email but DON'T want to receive
emails from us, or you want them to go to a different email address,
just reply to that email, and we'll make the correction.
If
you DIDN'T receive the February 1 email, but you DO want to get
occasional emails from us about our activities, just send us an email,
and we'll add your email address to our records.*
If you
DIDN'T receive the February 1 email, and you DON'T want to receive
emails from us, you don't need to do anything.
You can always
get information on current events, activities, and leader contacts on
our web site virginia.sierraclub.org/roanoke/ or just Google "Roanoke
Sierra Club"
You can always change your mail, phone, and email
preferences by using the address below* or membership.services@sierraclub.org
*You
may send any changes, corrections or questions to mcclainmark@comcast.net
Earth Friendly Friday - February 8 - "Appalachian Spring"
Exploring the AT in SW Virginia & Eastern Pennsylvania
Veteran hiker Diana Christopulos will
present a photographic odyssey along the Appalachian Trail.
In the spring on 2007, Diana (trail name "DC Turtle") and several trail
compadres (all seasoned outdoor photographers) captured the beauty and
mystique of America's favorite walk in the woods, and she created a
digital slide show set to music a marvelous multi-media
experience. Come on along, and enjoy two great sections of the
AT.
First, we'll start from Damascus, VA,
and hike up over Mt. Rogers National Recreation Area, the Grayson
Highlands (look for wild ponies!), and beyond, a total of 130 miles in
early spring.
Next, we'll jump north to
Duncannon, PA, and scramble over the infamous rocks at Lehigh Gap, Bake
Oven Knob and dozens of other scenic spots on the way to the Delaware
Water Gap on the Pennsylvania-New Jersey border another 175
miles. Spring is turning to early summer. so watch out for
snakes!
When she's not pursuing her personal
goal of hiking the entire Appalachian Trail (about 80% complete), Diana
Christopulos devotes much of her time to environmental activism.
She serves on the ExCom and is Clean Air Coordinator of the Roanoke
Sierra Club, and she is Coordinator and Board Chair of Roanoke Valley
Cool Cities Coalition (www.rvccc.org).
For event details and local map, see "Earth Friendly Friday" below.
Earth Friendly Friday -- March 14, 2008 An Eyewitness
Account of the Bali Conference on Climate Change
The UN Bali Roadmap: Global Warming and what we
must do about it!
We are extremely fortunate to
have as our guest speakers Glen Besa and Tyla Matteson, who recently
returned from the landmark UN Bali Conference on Climate Change.
Glen and Tyla represented the Sierra Club
at the conference and made a presentation on Cool Cities and Cool
Countieslocal based solutions to global warming.
You won't want to miss their first person accounts of what it was like
to be a part of perhaps the most important international environmental
conferences in history.
Glen Besa is the
Virginia Chapter Conservation Program Director. He has worked for the
Sierra Club for over ten years on issues as diverse as solid waste,
factory farms, off shore drilling, sprawl and more recently on energy
and global warming related issues.
Tyla Matteson is a Sierra Club volunteer serving as Virginia Chapter
Political Chair. She is active with the Richmond Cool Cities campaign.
Previously, Tyla has served as Virginia Chapter Chair and Conservation
Chair.
See article below for event details, and
picture on page 3.
EARTH FRIENDLY FRIDAY - Roanoke's monthly environmental
gathering
Earth Friendly Friday (EFF) is a monthly program series to celebrate
the natural wonders of the earth and to mobilize our community for
needed action to protect our environment. This series is sponsored
by the Roanoke Sierra Club and The Unitarian Universalist Church of
Roanoke.
LOCATION: At the UU Church, 2015 Grandin Rd., Roanoke (at Brandon
Ave., across from PHHS).
DATE/TIME: Second Friday of each month. Doors open at 6:30 PM,
program starts promptly at 7:00.
Everyone is invited to bring a snack dish for sharing, and to enjoy
socializing, music and refreshments before and after the program - for
details of upcoming programs, see articles and pictures on page 1,
3, & 4.
Earth Friendly Friday is FREE and open to the public! Contact: Diana
Christopulos 387-0930 or Bob Egbert 384-7448.
Leadership Changes in Roanoke Group. . .
Jerryanne Bier is the newest member of our Executive Committee and was
also named Sierra Club Area Coordinator for Franklin Co. Other new
Area Coordinators are Bob Egbert & Ed Kyle, Roanoke Co.; Mark
McClain, Salem; Theo Evans, Botetourt Co., and Mary Bishop, City of
Roanoke. ExCom expresses its appreciation for the service of Grace
Terry who completed her term on ExCom. Grace will continue as Membership
Chair. Sherman Bamford and Bill Modica were re-elected to
another two-year term. Other leadership positions are
unchanged.
