All committees are listed alphabetically.

 

 

EDUCATION:

Purpose: Education is a key component of protecting our environment for today and for the future. Raising the awareness of young people as to what they and their parents can do to protect and appreciate the world around us is a goal of the Sierra Club.

 

Activities: The Sierra Club L. I. group does school presentations for grades K -12 on topics including climate change, recycling, and protecting Long Island's marine environment. Also, guiding older students in “how to set up an environmental activity” in their school.

 

Qualifications - required: Enjoy working with children

Qualifications include: (one or more of the following)

Familiarity with school scheduling processes; Ability to research and create presentations on some environmental topic; Ability to determine the grade appropriateness of a presentation; Understanding of how to plan an in-school or out of school event to assist older students in setting up ones of their own.

 

Committee Chair: John.

 

 

ELECTRONIC MEDIA outreach/communications:

Purpose: To send out messages concerning things we are doing, events we need people to attend, activism, information concerning environmental happenings on L.I. or things that would affect Long Islanders, press releases, etc. using electronic means.

Information will be supplied to the media person when something needs to be sent out. A committee of interested persons can each cover different areas of the island or each take a particular type of electronic media.

 

Qualifications include: being able to find and make connections with those who are on electronic media; skills in using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media; familiarity with texting; ability to maintain an active contacts list; ability to turn notes into good looking attention grabbing electronic message.

 

Committee chair: Anthony Becker & Ann Aurelio

 

 

FUNDRAISING:

Purpose: To develop no or low upfront-cost fundraisers to raise unfunded or underfunded money for our programs.

 

Qualifications include one or more of the following:

• Time to brain storm with others to develop potential ways to raise money

• Time to plan and carry out all or parts of the fundraising ideas the committee comes up with

• Familiarity with home grown efforts that do not require much upfront funding

• Contacts to secure low cost venues

• Familiarlty with how to get people to the fundraisers.

• Willingness to either work with the communications volunteers or do printed and electronic advertising of the events yourself.

 

Committee chair: Position is open.

 

 

LEGISLATIVE:

Purpose: To gather information about legislative actions and local actions taken but the Towns and share it with the committee; to influence the creation of legislation; to influence outcomes of legislation; to build good working relationships with County legislators and Town council persons.

 

Qualifications include:

- ability to speak with people to make a point without being offensive or abrasive.

- good note taking skills

- desire to share what you learn with other committee members and the committee chair

- ability to attend meetings - most commonly held during the day, but many are evenings too.

 

Committee chair: OPEN

 

 

NEWSLETTER: (printed version for members)

Purpose: To work make sure there is enough news for the printed newsletter to be assembled each quarter.

 

Qualification include: each person should have the ability to do one or more of the following:

- read and edit (for proper use of English), news items submitted to you;

- communicate with those who submit news items or informational article to make sure they are OK with changes you feel should be made;

- collect news and environmental articles from others;

- write articles yourself about environmental things that have taken place on L.I. or would affect Long Islanders

- make sure there is enough material for the editor for each of the quarterly printed news issues.

- make sure there is a good variety of items for each quarterly printed newsletter.

- coordinate and store all the article and news items for easy access and keep a record of what items are used with which issue.

 

Committee chair: John Filippelli, jfblogger1000@gmail.com.

 

 

NOMINATING:

Purpose: To find candidates for Executive Committee seats. Candidates must have been a Sierra Club member for at one year prior to their submitting a candidate statement.

 

Activities: The work takes a minimum of 6 hours. The committee must be populated and begin their search no later than the end of August. To locate candidates, committee members must communicate with each other via email, conference calls or in person, to establish means for locating qualified candidates* and to determine what each will do. Suggestions to get you started are …

1 - Ask the current executive committee members if they intend to run again. Most do, but from time to time someone does not.

2 - Get a list of Sierra Club members from our membership chair and call those who you know - people you’ve had prior dealings with so you are familiar with their willingness and availability to make decisions about policies and procedures and who know how to work within strict budgets.  

3 - Contact any of your own personal family, friends, acquaintances, and people you’ve worked with that you know are Sierra Club members and would be good at managing an organization and working with other people to set and achieve goals.

4 - In conjunction with the other committee members, write up a short but effective call for candidates to go in our Fall newsletter and on the restricted Sierra Club Facebook page.

 

*A list of qualities for a good board candidate: have a deep personal commitment to protecting L.I.’s environment, a good understanding of how to get things done, good connections to like-minded people, skills in communication that allow the person to move others to their side, good organizational skills, etc. The nom com, the election committee, and the exec com can establish additional qualities appropriate for good exec com candidate. Being an activist is not a requirement for being on the exec com but it is a plus. So is the ability to find time to attend the group activities such as monthly public education presentations, luncheons, outings, or similar events. Ex com members must attend at least 10 of the 12 annual executive committee meetings normally held in Huntington on alternating Monday and Tuesday evenings from 7 to 10 and be able to put in 2 to 15 hours a week reading about (or researching) issues and confirming information they receive so they can make informed decisions. The exec com makes decisions about policy, procedure, actions to take or not take, annual goals, finances, expenses, and is responsible for the treasury for the group. Skills in these areas are a plus.

 

Qualifications for a nom com member include: ability to use lists to reach out to current club members, good communication skills, good contacts with others who might want to join the nominating committee or be candidates for the exec com, ability to write short, concise, effective appeals to be used in person, on the phone or in print (emails or newsletters).

 

Committee chair: will be elected by the committee members if they feel a chair is necessary.

 

 

NUCLEAR:

Nearby reactors at Oyster Creek, Millstone and Indian Point are old and operating past their designed-for lives. At Indian Point, the NRC has dangerously issued hundreds of exemptions from safety rules. In addition to accidental radioactive releases, these plants have leaked tritium into groundwater and released other radioactive materials into the air on a daily basis. Massive amounts of radioactive waste is stored in flimsy spent fuel buildings. There is no evacuation plan for Long Island. With the potential risk of making much of Long Island uninhabitable, there is an urgent need to shut and decommission our nearby reactors. New York State has excess energy and plans to increase renewable energy and efficiency to prevent any future energy shortage. Why should we risk everything when there are better solutions?

Purpose: To educate members and the public member about the importance of ending nuclear power, starting with the shutting and decommissioning of the operating reactors at nearby Indian Point and Millstone. We want to motivate people to take action towards that goal.

Activities include: (one or more of the following)

Getting together to share ideas, writing, making phone calls, tabling, talking at libraries and town meetings, attending rallies. 

 

Qualifications include: (one or more of the following)

A disaster at Indian Point or Millstone has the potential to create large uninhabitable exclusion zones; one qualification is an appreciation for the NY-metro area, Long Island's beaches and parks, your community and your home. Home insurance policies are exempt from coverage for radioactive contamination; do you have a desire to protect against economic loss to yourself, the NY-metro area and the US?  Do you think "shelter in place" is a risky and expedient idea that will not be followed by most? Do you want the issue of an evacuation plan to be addressed by our government leaders? Good communication skills to work with leaders and the public (written or verbal) are also key. 

 

The National Sierra Club Nuclear Free Campaign web page states: "The Sierra Club remains unequivocally opposed to nuclear energy. Although nuclear plants have been in operation for less than 60 years, we now have seen three serious disasters. Tragically, it took a horrific disaster in Japan to remind the world that none of the fundamental problems with nuclear power have ever been addressed.

Besides reactor safety, both nuclear proliferation and the required long-term storage of nuclear waste (which remains lethal for more than 100,000 years) make nuclear power a uniquely dangerous energy technology for humanity.  Nuclear is no solution to Climate Change and every dollar spent on nuclear is one less dollar spent on truly safe, affordable and renewable energy sources.  Help us work to phase out nuclear as quickly as possible."

 

Committee chair: Gail Payne, PayneStudios@gmail.com, 631-385-9122

 

 

OUTINGS:

Purpose: To support and enhance the outing program for the Long Island group of the Sierra Club.

 

Activities include: Gathering names of potential outing leaders, soliciting outings from the certified leaders for each “next quarter”, developing lists of places to hold outings and outing types, assisting in gathering information about new places to hold outings, if desired, become an outing leader and train other leaders in one or more kinds of outings.  

 

Qualifications include:   (one or more of the following)

Understanding of how important an outdoor program is to all humans; a strong desire to get people outdoors to discover Long Island’s natural places and things; ability to use electronic media such as email, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.; ability to use print media; good communication skills to work with leaders and the public (written or verbal).

 

Committee chair: Jane Fasullo, jfas1@optonline.net, 631-689-1568

 

 

POLITICAL:

Purpose: To work with our elected officials to help them better understand and support the issues important to Club membership. To identify and support candidates for office who represent and support these same issues. Endorse the candidates who best represent the Club's interests, and make Sierra Club members on Long Island aware of these endorsements.

 

Activities include: Meet with elected officials, identify candidates for office who meet Club standards for endorsement, support the candidates who receive Club endorsement.

 

Qualifications include: An understanding of the broad issues facing elected officials in the areas of conservation and environmental protection on Long Island; an understanding of the issues of importance to Club members and the Sierra Club's stance on these issues; excellent communication skills; the willingness and ability to represent Club interests and membership in working with elected officials and candidates for office; a desire to make a difference.

 

Committee chair: Albert

 

 

PRINTED MEDIA outreach/communications:

Purpose: To send out messages concerning things we are doing, get more people to our events, send information concerning environmental happenings on L.I. or things that would affect Long Islanders, send press releases, etc.

 

Messages will be supplied to the media persons. A committee of interested persons can each cover different areas of the island or each take a particular type of printed media.

 

Qualifications include: being able to find and make connections with editors, special news reporters, and be able to write good content that the media will accept for print.

 

Committee chair: there is currently no committee chair. Committee members will work together and select a chair if they feel they need one.

 

 

TABLING:

Purpose: to attend various events promoted by many entities at which we can set up a table of information to educate the public on a myriad of issues or to carry out specific actions such as getting signatures on petitions for a specific campaign the executive committee is working on.

 

Qualifications include one or more of the following: ability to

- find events to sign up for

- find people to table at those events or table them yourself (we have a list of some we’ve attended in the past)

- make and stick to commitments

- attend at least one tabling event a year yourself

- physically set up tables with materials and take them down at the end of events

- store equipment and materials you use at the tablings you do - can be a small area of a room to an entire room, depending on how many tablings you do and how into it you get

- keep records of what opportunities you find and which ones you attend

- work with other committee members to develop ideas concerning ways to improve effectiveness

 

Executive Committee & Tabling chair: Jan Brenner.

 

 

WEBSITE:

Purpose: to work advise and work with the webmaster to keep our website current and attractive.

 

Activities include: adding new content that is submitted to you to the website; keeping items on the website logically ordered; removing old items from the site as requested by the executive committee; reading content on a semi-regular basis to find potentially outdated items and asking the executive committee or the author if such items should be removed.

 

Chairman: there is currently no chair for this committee. However, the current webmaster, is Gail Payne and web designer is Kanwaldeep K. Sekhon.