Sierra club members sounds like AARP all over again

[GinaMaria]

Dear MoveOn member,

Are you a Sierra Club member?

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... 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

Learn more: http://www.groundswellsierra.org

** 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.

________________
Subscription Management:
This is a message from MoveOn.org. To remove yourself (Regina Marubio)
from this list, please visit our subscription management page at:
http://moveon.org/s?i=2469-1180282-.ua2ce8fhAG5aR5Ln.LPRA

[prolesunited]

1. Thanks for posting this

I had heard some rumblings but was unsure of which candidates to vote for. When I received the postcard from Groundswell Sierra, I thought perhaps it was a trick as well. (No, I'm not getting paranoid.)

Sierra Club members, make sure you VOTE!

[pmbryant]

2. Very important for other SC members to see this

:kick:

[Woodstock]

3. kick

http://www.moveon.org/news/sierra.html

:kick:

[sonias]

4. kick - vote all you Sierra Club members

I'll admit that I have not voted some years but this one is very important.

Sonia

[karabekian]

5. over population is a huge threat to the environment

and illegal immigration has led to overpopulation. I don't see why you can't observe this without being a neo-con right wing conspirator. Bottom line, more people living in an area will have a bad impact on that area environmentally. Think of it on every level. More people will mean more trash, more polution, less natural space, it will contribute to water shortages, it will force more production of food in large scale farms and ranches, it will in short, be detremental to the environment. Illegal immigration is having a large impact on the southern area of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. Isn't it the responsibility of the Sierra Club to speak out.

[prolesunited]

6. Are you a member

of the Sierra Club?

[karabekian]

7. yes

I don't know which way I am voting but I think that there is an environmental arguement against the current wave immigration and to dismiss it as racist or as some right wing plot to take over the SC is off target and a cop out arguement. How can the massive ammounts of people who have moved into the south west united states in the last 10 years or so not have a negative impact on the environment? Why is it so taboo to point out that immigration has had a negative impact on the environment?

[mantis49]

10. World population is a better focus.

I don't think we want to get hung up on immigration. I think it would distract from other issues that, IMO, are more pressing. Such as logging, water, clean air.

[pmbryant]

11. Because it is a false argument

Immigration from outside the country has no more a negative impact on the environment than does immigration inside the country (i.e., people moving to the 'sunbelt' from the northeast and midwest).

The 'environment' extends beyond our borders, and encompasses the entire world.

--Peter

[Bridget Burke]

17. So, you want to live in a gated community?

And you think the USA should be that way. Overpopulation, worldwide, is definitely a problem. Pollution does not respect borders.

Alas, my membership in the Sierra Club lapsed, so I'm unable to vote. I do hope the racists lose, so I can join again.

[K-W]

14. Only if we build a big bubble around our country,

so that our enviromen exists in a vacuum. Enviromentalists arent only concerned with the U.S. enviroment. A temporary slow down of only the local land use through stemming population growth is hardly any reasonable man's enviromental platform. Stopping world population growth, ie actual population growth, not just movement of people would be a valid if not politically misguided concern.

[bleedingheart]

16. Actually the most waste and trash is created by affluent americans

if you really think about it.

People in developing poor countries have nothing to begin with and tend to recycle objects more than we do.

Illegal immigration has not led to overpopulation. People reproducing biologically has led to overpopulation. The vaccination programs technically have led to more overpopulation.

Illegal immigration is just population redistribution.

Loads of capitalist americans love immigration because its how they get cheap labor. Consuelo watches the children, Jose trims the hedges and washes the car and somewhere else nameless others pick their fruit and vegetables. When they go to hotels, Svetlana cleans the room and makes the beds and Ivan runs check in desk....etc
Now some see this as a problem and other do not. I do not think that this is an issue for the Sierra Club to contend with...

[mantis49]

8. Thanks.

Hadn't yet looked at the ballot and candidates, was going to do my voting this weekend.

I remember the controversy in '98 and was very careful to read the positions, but I take it they are more careful (as in sly) this time?

[KoKo]

9. I just got my ballot and have my area Sierra Club member's name to

talk to about this issue. I called the National Office and a very nervous sounding person told me she couldn't talk about the vote as an "Employee" but please to talk to my area representative because I needed to hear both sides and she couldn't say where she was on the issue because of legal reasons but she did say "your vote is so important on this issue, please call your local Sierra Rep...."

This reminds me somehow of the "Grey Davis" recall.. Forces working behind the scenes trying to tell people that "a change must be made."

I'm going to vote against these jerks who sound like RW'ers taking over Sierra Board.

[DeepModem Mom]

12. kick

[bleedingheart]

Thank you so much for posting this! I got my ballot but didn't

know who to vote for...

[bleedingheart]

13. Thank you so much for posting this! I got my ballot but didn't

know who to vote for...

[DeepModem Mom]

15. Let's keep this kicked --

[KoKo]

18. Kick!

:kick: