Check the new
WhoseFlorida
for updates
Are you a Sierra Club member? ( - There's
apparently another side to this story... see
below 3/31/04)
The future of the Sierra Club is at stake.
Outsiders are trying to take over the Club by placing stealth candidates
on the Club's board ballot this year. This is driven by anti-immigration
activists, and their tactics are underhanded -- they aren't declaring
their real issue positions to members. They hope that low participation
and confusion will allow them to stack the board of directors.
You can stop this, but you must vote now in the Sierra Club board
election. You probably have already received the ballot in the mail.
We've attached below an outreach from Groundswell Sierra -- a volunteer
network of Sierra Club members working to defeat this threat. This
outreach includes a list of endorsed candidates. We recommending printing
this email and having it on hand as you fill out your ballot.
If you'd like more information on this threat, go to:
http://www.groundswellsierra.org/takeover_index.php
Thank you,
-Carrie, Joan, Noah, Peter, and Wes The MoveOn.org team Tuesday, March
18th, 2004
P.S. You won't be hearing from the Sierra Club directly about this
underhanded maneuver by anti-immigration activists. Sierra Club staff
cannot speak out about board elections. It's up to us.
You can review an article on this attempted takeover by former Sierra Club
President, Adam Werbach, at:
Hostile Takeover Anti-immigration coalition seeks control of Sierra Club
By Adam Werbach | 3.9.04
http://inthesetimes.com/comments.php?id=644_0_2_0_M
Key excerpt:
"In 1998 the membership voted overwhelmingly to stay out of the
(immigration) issue, restating that the most effective way to deal with
the impact of population on the planet is to reduce levels of American
waste and to raise the global status of women."
P.P.S. You can vote on line, but only with your paper ballot in hand. For
more information:
http://www.groundswellsierra.org/vote.php ________________
ACTION ALERT FROM GROUNDSWELL SIERRA:
The Sierra Club has been targeted for a hostile takeover by
anti-immigration, animal rights and other groups who are running petition
candidates with no Sierra Club experience for the Board of Directors.
Don't take our word for it: The Los Angeles Times, Santa Fe New Mexican,
Denver Post, and Philadelphia Inquirer have all warned that the threat is
serious. That's why Groundswell Sierra - a diverse group of Sierra Club
volunteers who are working to defend the Sierra Club - is asking you to
support five Nominating Committee-recommended candidates who have over 75
years of collective experience as Sierra Club grassroots activists and
will put their loyalty to the Sierra Club above their personal agendas:
NICK AUMEN, Everglades restoration scientist and former Sierra Club
Treasurer and Vice President for Conservation.
DAVE KARPF, Recent Director of Sierra Student Coalition, and Chair of the
Sierra Club's Training and national EPEC field programs.
JAN O'CONNELL, Sierra Club Treasurer, former Vice President for
Organizational Effectiveness, fundraiser in the Sierra Club's beat-Bush
effort.
SANJAY RANCHOD, delegate to the U.N. Kyoto global warming negotiations and
Chair of the Sierra Club's Sustainable Planet Strategy Team.
LISA RENSTROM, leader of the Harvard project to strengthen the Sierra
Club's groups and chapters, former Director, former Foundation Trustee,
and former Chair of the Sierra Club's fundraising efforts.
Nick, Dave, Jan, Sanjay, and Lisa have brought experience and dedicated
leadership to the Sierra Club. They have led our conservation priority
campaigns, the Sierra Club's EPEC program, help strengthen the Sierra
Club's financial health, run the Sierra Student Coalition, and represented
the Sierra Club at UN conferences on the Kyoto accord on global warming.
(For information on these candidates, go to our website,
http://www.groundswellsierra.org )
At a time when the Sierra Club's own democratic process is being used
against us, when our agenda and assets are targeted for takeover by
outsiders, we are giving Nick, Dave, Jan, Sanjay, and Lisa our unqualified
support. These are trusted leaders who have shown that they value the
Club's mission and grassroots culture, and who believe only a united and
strong Sierra Club can stop George Bush's assaults on our air, water, wild
lands and wildlife.
Finally, we would be remiss if did not acknowledge the invaluable
contributions former Board Directors Chad Hanson, Michael Dorsey and Ed
Dobson have made to the Sierra Club's conservation work, and we wish them
well in this election.
Please share this email with as many of your friends and other Sierra Club
members as you can. Urge them to visit our website (
http://www.groundswellsierra.org ), and when their ballots
arrive in early March, please VOTE!
There's a lot at stake. The following quotes explain why.
"We're only three directors away from controlling the board. And, once we
get three more directors elected...[We'll] change the entire agenda of
that organization." -- Paul Watson, Sierra Club Director and animal rights
activist at the center of the take over effort.
"If they succeed. Our integrity, our credibility and our reputation will
be severely damaged and we will be rendered less effective on all the
issues our members care about." -- Ross Vincent, long time Sierra Club
activist.
"Fighting over immigration policy nearly destroyed the Sierra Club's
effectiveness once; it cannot be allowed to happen again by electing
people to the board whose purpose is to overthrow its established
policies. We should not be battling each other when our main task must be
to end the worst administration in the history of our nation." -- Paul
Ehrlich, Bing Professor of Population Studies, Stanford University
"Sierra Club has an essential role and voice in the debate over the health
of our environment. It is crucial that this voice and leadership are
maintained and strengthened during these challenging times." --Carol
Browner, Chair of National Audubon Society, former EPA Administrator,
1993-2001.
"Now more than ever we need a strong Sierra Club. With the Bush
administration's assault on the environment, we need directors who care
about its 112- year mission. Please support these five nominated
candidates." --Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Environmentalist and NRDC Board
Member
** PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO YOUR SIERRA CLUB MEMBER FRIENDS ** By
circulating this to your personal contacts, you can help support the
Sierra Club's democratic culture against outsider takeover. Please don't
spam; spam works against us.
I'm disappointed that you
took MoveOn's word for what's really happening at Sierra.
I'm disappointed that you took MoveOn's word for what's
really happening at Sierra. I emailed Wes Boyd right away about my
disappointment that they didn't take the time or make the effort to check
out both sides of this issue. I've supported MoveOn since the beginning,
back when it was all word-of-mouth (so to speak) via forwarded emails.
In fact, this matter at Sierra has been grossly and dishonestly distorted
by the "old guard" at Sierra. When this issue first came to my attention I
was very concerned. I was horrified by the accusations and wondered what I
could do to help. But . . .
But my common sense was nagging at me. The PR I was reading just didn't
make sense based on what I knew about some of the so-called "hostile
takeover" people. So I did some digging myself.
Here's the other side:
www.sierrademocracy.org
Pay special attention to internal links like this one:
http://www.sierrademocracy.org/election2004/ov_false_claims.html
And this:
http://www.sierrademocracy.org/election2004/ov_frequently_asked_questions.html
http://www.susps.org/
http://www.seashepherd.org/media_040319_1.html
http://www.seashepherd.org/media_040212_1.html
There's plenty more, but they're easy to find by following links and doing
searches.
You (or anyone) may still disagree w/ the ideas and policies of the
so-called "hostile" candidates (although I can't imagine hostility toward
Frank Morris, for example), but at least you'll have the truth. Truth is
always better than propaganda and spin. I learned a valuable lesson here.
I had the utmost respect for MoveOn, but now it's a bit less. I learned
that we should never just take the word of someone or some organization
just because we like what they stand for. Sometimes they get it wrong.
Sometimes even the best of us can fall prey to powerful PR.
If you take the time to really check out the above links, I think you'll
find that these are not crazy people aligned w/ homophobes and racists.
These people are as mainstream as anyone else *in* the Sierra Club or *on*
the board.
I hope you'll reconsider your apparent whole-hearted support for MoveOn's
misguided advice based on incorrect information and assumptions.
You've done a fabulous job w/ WhoseFlorida; keep it up.
Many thanks,
Deborah (posted 3/31/04)
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