Calling all Vermont movement builders!
The time has arrived for the inaugural gathering of a new statewide Climate Justice spokescouncil, The Vermont Climate Union. You are warmly invited to join us for this long-anticipated event. If you would like to come, please fill out this doodle scheduling poll and come continue to build this movement with us. If you would like to know more, please read on or send us an email. We’d love and appreciate your input.
Thanks so much for all your hard work,
The VCU Coordinating Committee
The VCU Spokescouncil
This Spokescouncil is a structure created to help build unity, power and coordination for the Climate Justice movement and allies in the region. Put simply, representatives of organizations will come to the council to represent their organization as we build and carry out our work together. While our collaborative work will be a product of consensus, all groups retain full autonomy to do their organization’s work at their discretion. We are setting a table to address the intersections of climate and justice in the work that we do in this state. VCU will empower us to pool our resources and strategic thinking, and to collaborate on more effective and coordinated social movement-based campaigns. (Read more about the make-up and background of spokescouncils here and here. )
Many of us have been working on stopping the VT fracked gas pipeline, doing educational and community work, or challenging the state policy makers and regulators on energy and climate-related issues for some time. We now aim to deepen these projects to make them both more successful and more relevant to diverse interests.
Whether you’re group already works on climate change and climate justice, or is interested in getting more involved or supporting this work, you’re invited. Be ready to join a constructive conversation about getting some work done, and to grab opportunities to roll up our sleeves together.
There will be an agenda coming out soon, which will be sent to respondents and people who have participated in the process thus far.
Background
In May, 2017, over 20 organizations met at Common Ground in Starksboro for a two-day strategic retreat. The question: where do we go from here? We agreed on the importance of integrating our organizing priorities and working across issues to build a broad, people-powered network among Vermonters working for change.
This August, as agreed at our Starksboro strategy retreat, VCU’s Coordinating Committee held a meeting to propose an organizing structure. These proposals were agreed to, by consensus, at a meeting open to everyone who had been to the retreat. And so the Vermont Climate Union was born.
These founding documents are now how the Vermont Climate Union works. We will be working on digest versions down the road. For now please take a moment to go over them, to help streamline our upcoming collaboration.
2.) Working Groups
And please join us for this 1st Spokescouncil! Help us pick the date and time, show up, and represent your team in a collaborative movement for justice and a livable planet.
Thanks so much for all your hard work,
The VCU Coordinating Committee
Feel free to get in touch with the current Coordinating Committee by replying to the CoCo email vtclimateunion@gmail.com or individually:
-Julia Barstow (Central Vermont Climate Action) – jbarstow@bennington.edu
-Karen Bixler (Upper Valley Affinity Group) – kbixvt@gmail.com
-Erok (Rising Tide VT / the Make) – flyingcyclecircus@hotmail.com
-Rick Barstow (Central Vermont Climate Action) – rbarstow@ezcloud.com
-Lyndsay Love (Bread and Puppet Theater / the Make) – lyndsaylovelove@gmail.com
-Emma Schoenberg (Rights and Democracy) – emma@radvt.org
-Henry Harris (the Make / National Lawyers Guild) – henrydoit@gmail.com