Four big steps forward:

1.) Since our November newsletter, our action teams have made big strides toward a final climate action proposal. We hope you’ll enjoy reading this draft, which lays out our initial goals for university action. This will be presented to the SGA, Faculty Senate, and Staff Senate for their approval, and then we will make an official proposal to the Chancellor. We couldn’t have done this without the great ideas you provided at our general assemblies, open meetings, and through google forms. We are excited to continue this democratic and collaborative process moving forward. Stay tuned for how to continue to share your ideas!     

2.) On December 13, amid the hustle and bustle of snowy final exams, we had a fantastic meeting to chart the long-term strategy of our movement and the core values that will guide us. There’s plenty more to come, but this was a big step from initial excitement to a systematic and powerful movement. If you couldn’t make it but want to be deeply involved in guiding the movement’s strategy and ethics, please contact burkebj@appstate.edu

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3.) We have revived the faculty pledge to include climate in the curriculum where appropriate. In 2015, this pledge had 75 signatories from 25 departments. This is critical for getting faculty buy-in and creating a 21st century curriculum even as we wait for an official university response.               

4.) We have an exciting student pledge, just in time for your New Year’s resolutions.

SHARE YOUR VOICE

We need your input to make this movement work. Learn how our easy online polls work so you can shape our core values, our language/messaging, and our strategy.

In creating a movement that speaks for the collective, we need to deliberate as a community over the decisions that we make. This includes the language that we use in sharing movement declarations. Participate in this dynamic poll here to give original input and weigh in on others’ input.

How do the polls work?

This poll structure is based off one created by participants of the occupy movement who wanted to crowdsource decision making through online polling software. Their software is structured more like a forum than a traditional poll, because it encourages poll-takers to not just vote on pre-selected statements, but to add new ideas to the poll. It’s more of a software for crowdsourcing ideas in order to find compromise and consensus than it is a simple survey.

We have not yet obtained the rights to use their exact design or made our own version, so for now we’ve created a google form that will work similarly.

So, to use the polls for the best deliberation, we ask that you first go through existing statements and select agree, disagree, agree with reservation, disagree with reservation, or undecided. For this to really work, though, we need you to take one more step: if you selected anything other than full agreement, we implore you to take a moment and post a statement that more accurately reflects what you think was missing in the original post, even if you think it’s just a minor edit, or a detail. The place to do this will be in the final section of all polls. Your suggestion will then be brought back into the poll for others to vote on and modify. Through this iterative process, the ideas and language get better and better.

Note that we will be copying and pasting exactly what you type for the new post, so try to make it concise, respectful, and well formed while still capturing your ideas. Remember that your audience is our entire group and this is your opportunity for ongoing discussion with everyone while we are not in a formal meeting.

Finally, once you’ve gone through and selected responses for all statements and added a new statement if you so choose, we ask that you reopen the poll periodically and click ‘edit your response’ to see what new posts have been added and update your previous responses if you’ve changed your mind.

That's our current method for fostering a system that listens to the people.

Thank you, and happy deliberating!

GET INVOLVED - Opportunities to build the movement.

There are lots of ways to volunteer or contribute during the next month and in the lead-up to Spring semester.

Discover our movement’s heart.

The magnitude of the climate crisis is a unique opportunity for transformation. We must go beyond issues of energy and waste and build a movement founded on our community's vision for a just and sustainable future. This vision will be the heart of our movement. Help us discover the heart- Share your vision.

Let’s plan an event to build our creative capacity to envision a flourishing future for our community. One more large-group meeting before the end of the year.

Specific needs: musicians, artists, a large gathering space, ideas on ways to facilitate group-visioning and community-building.

Email blumesa@appstate.edu with any interest or suggestions.

Build community.

We need to build communities of mutual support, on campus and the community as a whole, beginning with an end-of-semester support for students. Hot drinks, yummy snacks, good conversation, climate visioning, and a much needed break from the stress of finals. We need people to volunteer a couple of hours as bakers, musicians, hosts, etc.

Share our vision.

Help the Chancellor envision App State as a national leader: let's give Chancellor Everts her most important holiday gift -- a clear vision of what it would mean for App to be a national leader on climate change. We are creating a mock issue of Time magazine reporting on our (soon-to-be achieved) climate victory.

We need:

• action team members, both those willing to think about it and those willing to do it

• 2-hr commitments from journalists, wannabe journalists, or good fakers who can write some of the surrounding articles and ads (i.e., not the main feature)

• 2-hr commitments from people who can serve as editors

• 10-hr commitment from one or two people skilled in graphic design

• 10-hr commitment from one or two good writers who can write the feature article (it’s all fiction, so getting quotes and researching examples is easy!)

Email burkebj@appstate.edu to get involved.

Develop democratic tools of the internet.

Do you know coding? Do you understand how to make web features from open-source codes? We need your help. We want to develop a platform for democratic deliberation for consensus-building, perhaps around pol.is open-source.

Grow our roots.

In winter, trees store their energy in their roots. Let’s take winter to grow our community network to build the roots of our movement. Please share this newsletter and opportunities for involvement with anyone and everyone. There is a place for all here.

Get involved with similar organizations.

Sustainability Council meeting: Friday, November 30th, 10 am, in PSU 155

Transition Blue Ridge meeting: Tuesday, November 27th, 5:30-7:30, at F.A.R.M. Café.

See the events page for more events and information.

Additional volunteer needs:

• advertising for January climate activism workshop: graphic design, posting flyers, chalking the campus, sending e-mails, etc.

• editing and layout for final demands

• writing press release for final demands

• website development

Building a movement will take all of us-- get involved in a way that brings you joy. Let's make change together!