The Sierra Club has been engaged for several months in "Project Renewal," an effort to revitalize revenues, reduce expenditures and increase membership. One of the hardest steps of this process was the recent announcement of staff reductions to bring expenses in line with income next year.
Through a year-long planned process of attrition, voluntary resignation, consolidation of positions and 17 layoffs, the Club reduced some 40 of the approximately 350 national staff positions.
"Difficult as these decisions are, we had extraordinary Board consensus that we had to consolidate our staff size and structure if we were to reduce expenditures and improve our organizational efficiency," said Sierra Club president Robbie Cox. "We know that our members want us to plan and act responsibly to fulfill our goals."
"We need to have an organizational structure that can respond quickly and effectively to the challenges we are sure to face in the next few years," he said. "We are confident that these changes will make us stronger."
Another facet of Project Renewal has been the elimination or consolidation of many Club committees. Sixty-three committees are in the process of being consolidated into six governance committees. Cox recently appointed the new Conservation Governance Committee:
Joni Bosh (chair) Nick Aumen Phil Berry Ken Cline Kathy Fletcher Liz Frankel Chuck McGrady Mark Pearson Brett Smith
The Conservation Governance Committee will soon announce new strategy teams and other working groups.
The Nominating Committee has announced nominees for the 1995 Sierra Club elections, in which five members are to be elected to serve on the Board of Directors for the 1995-1998 term.
A diverse group of Sierra Club members took part in our process. Recognizing the present national political scene, the Club's current financial status and its organizational restructuring, the committee looked for candidates with a broad, clear environmental vision, a proven ability to be fiscally responsible and a commitment to reinvigorate the Sierra Club.
The Nominating Committee candidates are:
David Carson (Texas) Marty Dait (California) Karin Derichsweiler (Oklahoma) David Foreman (New Mexico) Hank Graddy (Kentucky) Chuck McGrady (North Carolina) Ed Paynter (Indiana) Tony Ruckel (Colorado)
Joan Jackson, a longtime Sierra Club activist, was recently awarded an Honorable Mention by the National Wetlands Awards, a program co-sponsored by the Environmental Law Institute and the Environmental Protection Agency.
The awards program recognizes innovation in wetlands protection at the state and local levels and in the nonprofit and business sectors. Jackson, a San Diego resident, is a member of the Club's National Coastal Committee. Her award, presented in the category of Outstanding Wetlands Program Development, honors more than two decades of wetlands preservation work.
Among her many accomplishments, Jackson led grassroots efforts to pass California Proposition 20, the Coastal Initiative, in 1972. This initiative eventually led to the passage of the Coastal Act, the single most important law protecting coastal wetlands in California.
Longtime Club activist Anne Ehrlich and her husband Paul Ehrlich were recently awarded the 1994 United Nations Environment Programme Sasakawa Environment Prize.
Anne Ehrlich has chaired the Club's National Committee on Military Impacts on the Environment since 1986. She brought widespread attention to the costs of engaging in and preparing for war with her book Hidden Dangers: Environmental Consequences of Preparing for War.
The Ehrlichs have worked for decades to study and communicate the causes and effects of environmental deterioration and the value of biological diversity.