Join Our Team as a Volunteer Treasurer!

Are you looking for hands-on experience with the behind-the-scenes work of running a major non-profit? Are you computer savvy? Do you want to join the team of Oregon’s largest grassroots environmental organization? If so, the Oregon Sierra Club needs you!

We are looking for a skilled and dedicated volunteer to join our team as Treasurer beginning June 2018. This is an excellent opportunity for anyone looking to learn more about non-profit budgeting and financial management while providing much-needed support to our organization. The Treasurer will have the opportunity to be trained by National Sierra Club, our bookkeeper, and our outgoing volunteer Treasurer.

Requirements:

• Commit 8-10 hours a month, with a yearly increase from January to March to create an IRS/National Annual Report
• Live in Oregon and attend quarterly board meetings (The position is remote, though if the Treasurer lives in Portland they are welcome to work out of our office)
• Experience with QuickBooks, Excel, and general computing
• Understand budgeting, including tracking of revenue and expenses, and compiling cash flow projections of up to two years.
• Communicate clearly, effectively, and regularly with the Chapter board, staff, bookkeeper, volunteer leaders, and Sierra Club National financial staff.

Professional accounting or other finance experience is a plus, but not required.

To apply or for additional information, please contact Board Chair, Drew Kerr, at kerr.drew@gmail.com or 312-375-6104 by Monday, May 14. We look forward to hearing from you!

Volunteer Spotlight: Gregory Monahan

On any given day, you can find Gregory working in the office on the Portland Clean Energy Fund (PCEF) ballot initiative, recruiting and training volunteers as the Oregon Chapter’s Volunteer Coordinator for the campaign. He’s been volunteering with the Chapter for 3 years, and found his way into the environmental movement after being tasked with teaching climate change and sustainability to engineering students at Portland Community College over a decade ago. (Later on, he made those topics a requirement for all students on the engineering track at PCC.)

Upon learning the science behind the impending climate crisis, Gregory diagnosed himself with what he calls the “green blues,” a deep despair for the vast problems plaguing our world, which can only be cured by activism. He’s been non-stop ever since. “I tend to go all in or not at all,” he laughed.

What excites Gregory about PCEF is how clearly the initiative would address the intersection of what he called the four major problems plaguing our country: racism, a broken democracy, income inequality, and climate change. “None of these problems can be solved individually,” he told me. “It will take a system-level, movement-building approach to transition to a just, equitable, and sustainable world.”

The Chapter’s Clean Energy Task Force, of which Gregory is a member of the Steering Committee, became inspired by the concept of a Beloved Community, a term popularized by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the Civil Rights movement. Their vision is to create a Beloved Community of volunteers – where all working on this historic initiative feel welcomed, supported, and valued. (Want to be one of those team members? Learn more and sign up here!)

“Let’s look at climate change this way: We’re on an airplane that we know is going to crash. Look around look at your fellow passengers: there will be people running around screaming and those raiding the cocktail bar. Then there’s the people doing something about it: moving their collective weight to the left and right of the plane so we bellyflop rather than nose dive. And while we’re going down on this plane, moving our weight back and forth, we might as well radically shift the culture we’re in and love each other.”

— Gregory Monahan

Fun facts about Gregory

• He holds a Master’s degree in engineering and a PhD in electromagnetics. He’s held a variety of different jobs throughout his life, including car mechanic, carpenter, electrical engineer, building contractor, private school manager, and engineering instructor at Portland Community College.
• Soon he’ll be finishing up a 6-month course called Awakening to Whiteness at the Zen Community of Oregon. “If you want to change the world,” he says, “You have to start by changing yourself. I am a 73-year-old white male who has benefited from our culture of a white, male, heterosexual dominated society. I have learned so much about my personal privilege and the undeniable ongoing existence of racism in our present-day culture.”
• He and his wife Amy have 2 daughters and 3 grandchildren – all who live in Portland.
• “I’m a deacon in the church of early!,” you may hear him say, as he always arrives at least a half hour early to events.
• As a self-described “JewBu,” or Jewish-Buddhist, his favorite quote is from Rabbi Tarfon, who lived over 2,000 years ago: “It is not your responsibility to finish the work [of perfecting the world], but you are not free to desist from it either.”
• Gregory’s currently reading: Energy Democracy: Advancing Equity in Clean Energy Solutions, edited by Denise Fairchild and Al Weinrub and No Time to Spare, by Ursula K. Le Guin.

Legislative Update: Let’s Get Clean Energy Jobs Legislation Done!

We’re now in the back half of the madness that is a short session of the Oregon Legislature. Our primary legislative priority – the Clean Energy Jobs legislation – is still moving, though its path has become a little murkier at the moment. Nevertheless, we are hopeful that the Legislature will recognize the need to take climate action now and get this critical legislation passed this year!

The Clean Energy Jobs legislation is actually two different bills – House Bill 4001 and Senate Bill 1507. After an amazing Clean Energy Jobs lobby day on February 12 that drew nearly 500 people to the Capitol, both bills passed out of their committees of origin on February 14. The Sierra Club weighed in in support of both bills in their public hearings and also noted that we would like to see the legislation become even stronger. As noted in our testimony, we agree with our equity partners that the bills should be improved to protect our most vulnerable communities.

Our hope was that such improvements to the legislation could be made in the House and Senate Rules committees, where the bills got sent. However, an amendment has been proposed in House Rules which would legislate the emissions cap now, but save much of the rest of the hashing out of the cap-and-invest program for the 2019 session of the Legislature. We believe the Clean Energy Jobs legislation is ready to move in its entirety now and submitted testimony to that effect for the February 22 hearing.

At press time, no action had been taken yet on that amendment, so we are waiting to see what happens next. But as noted in our testimony, the bottom line is that we can wait no longer, and delaying action on a climate bill is not in the best interest of our communities, climate, nation, or planet. Clean Energy Jobs must pass in the 2018 session in the strongest possible form; we’ll continue working to try to make that happen.

And while Clean Energy Jobs has been our major focus in the Legislature, we’ve also been working on a few other issues. Unfortunately, the fairly strong bill to address oil trains in our state (HB 4004) met an untimely demise in committee, though a much more timid attempt to address oil train safety remains alive as part of SB 1518. A bill to prohibit the construction of a bridge in the Deschutes River State Scenic Waterway (HB 4029) passed out of committee and went to Ways and Means. HB 4126 would address the disposal of household hazardous waste and it too is being considered in the Ways and Means committee. That committee also has the Home WRAP bill, HB 4121, which will provide Oregonians with incentives for home weatherization and solar energy installation.

So, with roughly a week and a half left of the 2018 session, much still remains to be done in the waning days of the legislature. We’re hopeful that we can accomplish some victories large and small before the final gavel falls. You can help by contacting your legislators to help push these important bills across the line! Thanks so much for your help, and stay tuned for more details!

Creating the Best Clean Energy Jobs Bill

As we gear up for another legislative session, the wheels are already in motion to pass a bill that will create good-paying jobs, reduce greenhouse gases, and promote local renewable energy. The Clean Energy Jobs bill puts Oregon on the cusp of setting a new path for clean energy production that other jurisdictions will be able to follow. But like any major overhaul, the devil is in the details.

Sierra Club has worked for over a decade to reduce the climate impacts of our fossil-fuel-dependent electric utilities. And on one hand, this bill is a huge step in the right direction: it’s a robust policy that caps greenhouse gas emissions, increases the cost of pollution to big businesses, and reinvests that money into communities. The state’s largest polluters will be charged for their dirty business practices with caps on major emissions while business will continue to grow and thrive. The program will increase jobs and drive revenue to clean energy, transportation, healthier communities, and transition funds for workers impacted by climate change or policies. The Clean Energy Jobs bill will also make fossil fuel projects in Oregon more expensive and increasingly less competitive with clean energy, further tipping the scales towards our goal of 100% clean renewable energy.

While there are tremendous benefits to the current bill, we also want to  avoid the mistakes and giveaways that other states have made. For example, without additional safeguards, big polluters could continue spewing dangerous pollutants other than greenhouse gases. These mega-polluters tend to be located near frontline communities, creating concentrated “hotspots” of pollution that disproportionately impact low income people, people of color, and rural and Tribal communities. The Sierra Club believes we can fight climate change without sacrificing public health and we are working to ensure that ALL Oregonians benefit from this legislation

For now, the Oregon Chapter of the Sierra Club is working on and watching this bill closely to better understand its impact on both climate change and public health. As a grassroots organization, we’ve appointed a leadership team of smart and dedicated volunteers to meet with with various stakeholders, learn more, and determine our final position.No matter what, the path Oregon chooses on carbon emissions and greener jobs will have tremendous impact. We need your voice to make this the best bill possible. Contact Nakisha Nathan to learn more or volunteer: nakisha.nathan@sierraclub.org, 503-238-0442, x 301.

Executive Committee Elections are Approaching!

The Oregon Chapter is preparing for the upcoming annual elections, and the Nominations Committee has submitted a slate of seven candidates that are running for election for five positions on the Executive Committee.  All members will be receiving a ballot either by mail or electronically, and we encourage everyone to participate!  More information on the current seven candidates will be coming soon.

But in the meantime before we vote, our members have the opportunity to recommend their own candidates for these positions.  Per our bylaws, the name of any Chapter member proposed in writing by at least 1 percent of the Chapter members shall also be included on the ballot.  If anyone wishes to petition another Chapter member for the ballot, please get in touch with Conservation Director Rhett Lawrence (rhett.lawrence@sierraclub.org) and begin gathering the requisite number of member signatures.  The signatures must be gathered and submitted by November 10th!

Following the finalization of the slate of candidates, ballots are expected to go out by November 17th.  We are excited about the candidates this year, and look forward to the election. Again, please vote!  All votes will be due December 22nd.

Thank you for your participating and support of the Oregon Chapter of the Sierra Club!

We would like you to meet Erika Alabarca, the unstoppable Portland volunteer!

For Erika Alabarca, volunteering at the Sierra Club was personal. In 2003, her brother Adam tragically passed away in a car accident at just shy of 30 years old. Adam had been a passionate activist for the Club here in Portland, working on the important local elections of the day. He was so strongly committed to his environmental activism, in fact, that rather than buy flowers for his funeral, people were encouraged to donate to the Sierra Club to set up a fund for environmental education.

That year Erika flew out from New York City, planning to visit Portland temporarily to get to know her brother’s life — meet his friends, see where he worked, and connect with everyone and everything he had been involved in. That visit became a permanent move; Erika, originally from Wisconsin, has been in Oregon ever since and has dived head first into the advocacy role that her brother had filled.  

Though Erika met the Club’s regional director when she first moved west in 2004, she spent the majority of that year concentrated on national projects, working for the eight months prior to the presidential election on the Environmental Voter and Building Environmental Communities campaigns. In 2007 Erika embarked on a new project: increasing awareness of all the environmental issues still afflicting New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Distressed that the situation was fading from the media spotlight while there was still enormous need for sustainable rebuilding, she and a small group of others hatched an idea for a three-part awareness campaign. Through an art exhibit at City Hall and panel discussions in the newly renovated Armory building regarding themes of environment, home, and displacement, Erika and her partners raised $8,000 for the Alliance for Affordable Energy.

For the past year-and-a-half, Erika, who is a Portland Public School teacher by day, has been part of the Columbia Network Steering Committee, and is closely tying those two worlds together. The opportunity for her to do so is the sweeping Climate Justice Resolution, endorsed by many of the city’s teachers, the Club, and now adopted by the Portland Public School Board.  

The resolution is the first of its kind from any school system in the country and instructs the district to look at both new and current curricula in order to teach the severity, human causes, and human influences of climate change. Not only that, but the resolution dedicates time for professional development for teachers and administrators to bring climate justice education into their schools so that students will be empowered to develop climate literacy and look at environmental issues through an equity lens.

As with any resolution, Erika cautions that the work is ongoing. But with the resolution turning a new page for Portland Public Schools, we have the opportunity to look forward to another generation of young people who not only understand the climate crisis and perils facing the environment, but have the energy, passion, and relentless drive to do something about it; just like Adam and Erika Alabarca.  

 

Welcome Trevor Kaul!

Trevor Kaul is a nonprofit capacity builder with over 15 years of experience, including 7 years working for the Sierra Club in Washington State. A dynamic advocate and leader, he specializes in talent management, problem solving, and developing program strategies which deliver immediate impact while fulfilling long-term organizational priorities. Trevor began his career as a community organizer and advocate working for groups like the Sierra Club, Public Interest Network, and Human Rights Campaign (HRC). In national leadership roles at Taproot Foundation and Coaching Corps, Trevor applied systems oriented thinking to highlight patterns of organizational behavior and recommend enhancements to change theory and performance management. As a consultant with Grassroots Solutions and Venture Leadership Consulting, Trevor partnered with youth development and social justice organizations to provide strategic program evaluation and leadership services.

Trevor is extremely excited to be returning to the Sierra Club. During his tenure as the Washington State Director of the Sierra Club, he helped grow the chapter into a leader in the environmental community by building high performing teams, establishing diverse partnerships, and doubling fundraising. He’s looking forward to working with the volunteer leaders in Oregon to achieve similar success.

A student of humanity with an adventurous side, Trevor is a world traveler, nature lover, and a graduate of Westminster College, MO.

Meet Oregon Sierra Club’s volunteer and activist extraordinaire Jennifer Haynes

Jennifer Haynes didn’t start out as your trademark activist. The Many Rivers Group Executive Committee member describes herself as an “introverted scientist,” and for many years she resisted joining volunteer leadership or campaign efforts, thinking she didn’t fit the mold.

Jennifer joined the Sierra Club in Los Angeles in the mid-1990s.  An avid hiker — she has backpacked the length of Oregon along the Pacific Crest Trail — she had been retreating from the L.A. city bustle to the Santa Monica mountains when she began to notice the extent of environmental damage being done there. But with her Ph.D. in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics and Jennifer joined the Sierra Club in Los Angeles in the mid-1990s. An avid hiker — she has backpacked the length of Oregon along the Pacific Crest Trail — she had been retreating from the L.A. city bustle to the Santa her work at Children’s Hospital, she figured it was better to stick with outings and donations, leaving the activism to others.

That all changed a year-and-a-half ago. While in the middle of pursuing her next degree in environmental nonprofit management from the University of Oregon, studying hard and switching careers, Jennifer decided to pitch her hat in the ring and run for a position as a Club board member on the Many Rivers Group Executive Committee. Needless to say, she won.

In that post, she’s been striving to protect the Elliott State Forest, an ecologically priceless tract of land threatened by privatization. The Elliott State Forest has been part of the Common School Fund lands for nearly a century, an archaic designation that has unfortunately pitted the forest’s continued preservation against the successful funding of Oregon’s public education system. State law mandates that the land be used to bring in cash that funds schools, and the obvious revenue stream from a forest is timber. Ironically then, in an effort to better our children’s future, the state is promoting ecological unsustainability.

But the Elliott isn’t just a tract of valuable trees. It’s home to marbled murrelets, spotted owls, and coho salmon, three of the Pacific Northwest’s iconic endangered species, and each in relatively high numbers to boot. Upon their listing to the Endangered Species Act and a coinciding series of environmental law suits, Oregon could no longer clear cut and log timber to the extent they desired, resulting in several years of monetary losses.
Under Governor Kate Brown, the state decided to try to minimize the losses by selling off the land. They expected to receive over $200 million for the sale to the lone bidder, a timber company. Unsurprisingly, the proposed protections for the land were frighteningly lenient.

Jennifer, a native of Eastern Oregon, and her partners in the Many Rivers Group didn’t like the sound of that. Through ads in the Eugene Weekly, rallies, and organized meetings for the campaign, along with an alliance of “Elliotteers,” a multi-organization environmental coalition, they succeeded earlier this year in convincing the State Land Board to keep the land in public ownership. Then Governor Brown and the Oregon legislature succeeded in securing $100 million in bond money during the 2017 session to buy out the most sensitive areas of the forest, constituting a major victory in the campaign to keep the Elliott in public ownership.

But even with the funding, that leaves two main goals for the continued protection of the Elliott and forests around the state in similar positions. First, Jennifer and her team want to make sure that the Elliott’s habitat conservation plan proceeds in a positive way, as the state has been known to enact and practice poor management policies in the past. Second, the passage of the Trust Lands Transfer bill in the 2017 session should help clear up any future conflicts of interest between environmental protection and children’s education. That legislation will not only impact the Elliott State Forest, but all Common School Fund lands.

And yet, despite all her success in activism, Jennifer still has a year to go in pursuit of her environmental degree and continues to identify as a scientist. To this end, she offered a message to any prospective volunteers for the Sierra Club: overcome any lingering fears or doubts about jumping into volunteering, she said. Everyone has their own abilities to offer the Club, and who knows, it could lead to a new path in life, just like it did for Jennifer.

We are thrilled to announce two new faces!

Ethan Taswell joins us as our Storyteller Intern for the summer of 2017.  In his new role, Ethan will embark on a multimedia storytelling project to increase awareness of our Organization’s work, with a focus on the volunteer, community-based advocates who make it possible.  In addition to telling the story of the Oregon Chapter and the environmental issues it works to solve, Ethan will travel the state meeting the Chapter’s volunteers, writing and photographing their stories in order to engage more grassroots advocates, donors and supporters to rally around the Chapter’s efforts to stand up for Oregon’s natural resources, wildlife, and wild places.

Ethan is a rising junior at Brown University where he is studying Environmental Science with a specific track in Conservation Science and Policy.  He is currently working on an initiative in Rhode Island to reduce peak electricity demand and has previously worked as an assistant to a professional photography firm and later as a communications intern for the Nature Conservancy Maryland/DC Field Office.  So far, his studies have centered around ecology and environmental law.

Originally from Maryland, Ethan developed his love and appreciation for the outdoors by exploring the Potomac River via trail and canoe. In his free time, Ethan likes to hike, climb, play board games, read a good book, and fine-tune his key lime pie recipe.  He is thrilled to explore Oregon for the first time this summer!

Preferred Gender Pronouns: He/Him/His

Languages Spoken: English

contact: ethan_taswell@brown.edu

Olivia (Libby) Bakonyi joins us as an intern from Melbourne University. She is currently in the last phase of her Masters of Environment degree which she began in March 2015. She has studied a range of subjects regarding food policy, food security, local food production methods, climate change, sustainable behavior change, sustainable development, renewable energy alternatives, environmental policy, and forest ecosystems.

She hopes to implement the skills and knowledge gained from her Masters degree into her internship placement with The Sierra Club. Libby is very excited to be part of the team and observe and learn how environmental organisations operate. She has previously completed an internship in Melbourne with The Wilderness Society, assisting with research on The Great Australian Bight campaign.

Libby and her 4 siblings lived in Italy, Holland, Norway, Scotland, and Houston before settling in Sydney, Australia in 2001. She has spent 5 years studying in Melbourne, where she enjoyed exploring its unique lifestyle and culture. She loves to walk, run, swim in the ocean, and explore all kinds of nature. She also loves to sew, take photographs, and go to music festivals. This will be Libby‘s first visit to Oregon so she is very excited to get out and explore its natural beauty and lifestyle in her free time.

Preferred Gender Pronouns: She/Her/Hers

Languages: English

Contact: libbybakonyi4@gmail.com

We welcome a new face!

Nakisha Nathan joins us as our new Organizer. In her new role, she will start off with legislative organizing the clean energy jobs bills, and other climate work.

Nakisha’s love for nature and commitment to Environmental Justice stem from spending her formative years living in Panama, Canada, Texas and throughout the United States.

A few years after graduating from Texas A&M University with a degree in bioenvironmental science, Nakisha began her community organizing journey with Texas Campaign for the Environment (TCE) where she and her colleagues generated statewide pressure that helped convince Dell and Apple Computers to establish a free Computer TakeBack program.

In the Summer of 2012, Nakisha moved to Portland and began her studies toward earning a Master of Science degree in Education, with a specialization in Leadership for Sustainability Education from Portland State University. During her time at PSU, she worked as a  STEAM Garden Educator, cultivating students’ curiosity and facilitating experiential learning opportunities.

She joins Sierra Club after working as a Community and Environmental Justice Organizer with Neighbors for Clean Air, and as the Program Coordinator for the Organizer-in-Training program at OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon.

When she’s not at work, Nakisha can be found playing a variety of games with her friends and family; camping with her partner and two dogs; photographing Oregon’s natural landscapes, flora and fauna; or, gleefully pursuing her quest to find every member of the Araucaria araucana species in Portland.