2015 DCLobby Week final report 31Dec2015 - Sierra Club...September 2015 September 2015 2015 Lobby Week ReportLobby Week ReportLobby Week Report A generous Grassroots Network grant

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September September September September 2015 2015 2015 2015 Lobby Week ReportLobby Week ReportLobby Week ReportLobby Week Report

A generous Grassroots Network grant of $12,000 allowed the Wildlands & Wilderness Team

(WWT) and Borderlands Team to recruit Sierra Club members who, working with the Club’s DC

Lands staff, participated in a lobby effort September 15-17, 2015. The Wildlife & Endangered

Species Activist Team (WESACT) was also invited to participate but no one from their activist

network was successfully recruited in part because the person on that team with whom we’ve

worked with in the past is no longer a member of WESACT and there seemed to be less energy

on their part to actively work to recruit.

The Lobby week was originally intended to coincide with the multi-organizational Wilderness

Week that has been in June for the last several years. After our grant was approved, however,

we learned that there would be no Wilderness Week in 2015 and thus no compelling reason for

a June lobby week. Subsequently, it was decide to move our Sierra Club lobby to September

when we figured relevant legislation (particularly the Land & Water Conservation Fund) would

be more likely to be on the agenda and giving us a bit more time to recruit volunteer lobbyists.

Activists were recruited from across the country, particularly but not exclusively in western and

southern border states. Our Washington, DC participant, Krista Schlyer is an active member of

the Borderlands Team and author of a published book on the subject (provided to several

members of Congress) who was also able to provide housing for other Borderlands Team

recruits. The Borderlands Team (the AZ and Texas participants below) was a very visible and

active participant in this year’s lobby week and we were excited to have them as part of our

effort.

Jill Workman Oregon

Julie Shipp Texas

Vicky Hoover California

Cyndi Tuell Arizona

Rick Galbreath California

Harry Romberg Washington

Rebecca Deehr Washington

Maureen Dowd Arizona

Catalina Ross Arizona

Cathy Corlett Oregon

Denis Rydjeski New Hampshire/Vermont

Betsy Eldredge New Hampshire/Vermont

Eric Rechel Colorado

Krista Schlyer Washington, DC

One of the best stories from the lobby comes from the Borderlands recruits. After trying for

several weeks prior to the lobby to get a meeting with Senator McCain’s office and getting no

response, they decided to stop by the Senator’s office. When they were told that no one was

available to meet with them, they essentially staged an impromptu sit-in by simply staying in

McCain’s lobby until someone found time to meet with them.

Borderlands Activists

Another great story is that after the Borderlands team visit and their verifying the true facts of

McCain’s border bill, one of the original co-sponsors withdrew support of the bill.

We always hear from Lands Team staff that one of the many benefits of volunteer lobbies is

that volunteers/constituents often get higher level meetings and are able to help staff make

those connections. We saw that this year when Senator Ron Wyden joined the meeting Jill

Workman arranged with a staff member because he had heard that Jill was in the office. The

Senator’s arrival was a surprise to all, including his staff member.

While we were very successful in recruiting an age and gender diverse group this year and we

succeeded in our effort for a geographically dispersed team, our recruitment time was

foreshortened by unexpected delays in getting our travel arrangements in place due to our staff

liaison needing to be away on family issues at critical times in set-up. In part due to the shorter

than expected recruitment time, we were not as successful in our ethnic diversity goals as we

would have liked and where we have been very successful in the past. In our effort to remain

within budget and not over-recruit in this foreshortened timeframe, we also found we probably

had enough money for at least one if not two additional lobbyists.

This year, thanks in large part to help from long-time National and DC Chapter activist Jim

Dougherty providing names, we were able to recruit local Club members to provide

accommodations for most of our team. We have not had such success in the past so this was a

welcome and significant cost-savings that allowed us to not only recruit more lobbyists but left

us with the surplus referenced above. While this required a bit more effort on our part, it

proved worthwhile.

Lobby week logistics and activities while in DC were coordinated by Wildlands Core Team

members Jill Workman and Harry Romberg in conjunction with the Lands Team staff, Athan

Manual, who also conducted the pre-lobby training, and Marni Salmon. This coordination

included a thank-you dinner for the lobby team to which we also invited all of our volunteer

hosts, several of whom attended. This dinner is usually held the last night of the lobby week,

except when we have had the multi-organization Wilderness Week when there has usually

been a Senate Reception. This year, since there was a separate reception for Sierra Club

President Aaron Mair on Wednesday evening, we held the dinner on Tuesday evening, after the

training and first day’s lobby visits so that activists would have a chance to meet Aaron.

Team and Volunteer Host Dinner

Reception with Aaron Mair

Lobby topics vary every year we conduct a lobby week, although some topics seem to persist

for several consecutive years. Generally, we lobby for good public lands bills and against bad

ones. In addition to related local issues, this year’s topics included:

• Supporting reauthorization and full funding of the Land and Water Conservation Fund

(LWCF)

• Co-sponsorship of the Save Oak Flat Act (reversing the vote for Resolution Copper which

had been passed as a rider on last year’s National Defense Authorization Act),

particularly in the House, We have lobbied against Resolution Copper for several years.

• Against the Arizona Borderlands Protection and Preservation Act (S.750/H.R.1412)

• Against the Offshore Production and Energizing National Security Act (OPENS)

• For local Wilderness and public lands bills

Fifty-six lobby appointments were scheduled and conducted, not including drop-in meetings.

Most of these were conducted in teams of two from each state, although the Borderlands

participants sometimes had meetings as a team and sometimes broke into smaller teams.

Forty-six lobby reports were turned in by participants.

Long-time Sierra Club activist Vicky Hoover was recruited this year because we knew LWCF was

going to be a hot lobby topic and she is the lead for the Sierra Club, and also the Wildlands

Team, on that subject. In addition to the lobby appointments she scheduled during the

“official” lobby week, she stayed in Washington DC for approximately another week, scheduling

or dropping by over 100 Senate and House offices urging support for LWCF reauthorization.

We believe that our lobby effort and follow-up by team members, including the extra effort on

the part of Vicky Hoover noted above, was a significant contribution to the eventual

reauthorization of the LWCF, although at this point that reauthorization is only for 3 years.

Several participants from this and past years’ lobby teams (8 or more including both trainers

and participants) also attended the Wildlands training held in October and remain active. This

training had been promoted on both the listserv that we created for this year’s lobby team and

at the Tuesday AM lobby training.

Conversely, due to a very successful and engaging Wildlands training in October, we have a

diverse pool of possible recruits, in addition to our other resources, for a possible lobby week in

2016, should we receive another grant. At that training, we also heard from activists who

would be willing to help organize a 2016 lobby week. In addition, we now have a small pool of

possible local hosts which we might be able to expand upon.

In addition, there were participants who volunteered at the training to help organize a 2016

lobby effort if we are successful in obtaining another grant for this purpose.

2015 lobby team members remain on the listserv we created for the team but perhaps more

importantly were also added to the Wildlands Info listserv so that they could remain apprised

of important land conservation efforts and perhaps even apply to join our team.

Staff or members with whom we met were thanked after our days in DC and any follow-up

information supplied. In several cases we have also followed up with additional communication

with staff, especially on the status of LWCF legislation.

LTEs were submitted by some team members after the lobby effort, again particularly on LWCF

reauthorization and opportunities to talk with in-state staff on this and other topics were also

encouraged and taken.

Borderlands activist Maureen Dowd wrote an excellent article for the Planet (Sept. 30 posting,

http://www.sierraclub.org/planet/2015/09/borderlands-boondoggle) including great pictures,

including one with Sierra Club President Aaron Mair in their lobby with Raul Grijalva. Speaking

of her lobby experience Maureen also said “There is so much to learn, but the team support and

kindness has made it a very pleasant experience. I'm grateful to Krista for introducing me to

such a fine group of people and to the organization's causes. Maureen Dowd, first time

lobbyist.”

One of the results we hear every year that we are able to lobby in Washington DC is that the

Club’s Lands Team staff greatly benefits by having volunteers visit as a demonstration that their

year-around work is supported and backed up by a large number of Club members. It gives

credence to their work and enables them to rightfully claim that their professional lobby work is

supported by a network of members across the country. This was confirmed once again by

Lands Team supervisor Athan Manual.

Athan Manual training activists

Betsy & Denis with Senator Kelly Ayotte

Jill & Cathy to right of Senator Ron Wyden