Weekly Briefing: CCL Volunteers Hold 280+ Lobby Meetings This Week
November 8, 2023
It’s lobby week! After a motivating weekend at our “Grassroots Rising” virtual Fall Conference, CCLers across the country are now meeting with legislative offices.
In at least 281 virtual meetings, volunteers are generating more support for our primary and secondary asks: the BIG WIRES Act, the RISEE Act, and the Increased TSP Access Act.
Social media is abuzz with posts from North Dakota to North Carolina, from New Hampshire to New Mexico, and everywhere in between!
Check out CCL’s X feed and our Instagram stories to see all the pictures posted from our citizen lobby meetings so far, and watch for more throughout the week.
In other news this week:
• Republican Senators introduce foreign pollution fee: Sen. Cassidy of Louisiana and Sen. Graham of South Carolina have introduced the Foreign Pollution Fee Act of 2023. This is an encouraging development after years of our lobbying on this type of policy idea! Get the details in today’s blog post.
• Conference catch-up: The recordings of this weekend’s conference sessions, as well as all the presentation slides, are now available on CCL Community.
• Open positions: CCL is hiring a Senior Development Officer and a Development Coordinator. Please share the job listings with anyone in your network who may be interested.
Take action this week
If you have a little time: Support lobby meetings by reinforcing our primary ask. We're lobbying on the BIG WIRES Act this week, and you can help reinforce the message our volunteers are bringing into congressional offices. How? By calling Congress about the bill and asking your friends, family, and visitors at your tabling events to do the same. Use our calling tool at cclusa.org/bigwires and help us reach our national goal of 2,500 calls to Congress about this legislation.
If you have more time: Learn about CCL's 50 State Strategy. Feeling fired up from the conference? Use that energy to help expand CCL and build even more political will for climate action! We're establishing new chapters, reviving existing chapters, and growing the reach of statewide chapters. Watch some or all of the five videos listed on the Trainers Action Team welcome page to learn how you can help.
Featured chapter: CCL Chequamegon
CCL Chequamegon is made up of folks living near Lake Superior in northern Wisconsin. The group includes 10 to 15 volunteers who regularly attend chapter meetings, and 20 to 30 more who take occasional action, including reaching out to their members of Congress, says group leader Bill Bussey.
This summer in downtown Bayfield — a popular summer tourist destination — the chapter conducted some informal climate opinion polling using a poster of the Yale Six Americas graphic. “Over the course of 13 Saturdays, we asked passersby to place a pin in the circle best describing their view on climate change,” Bill reports. “The cumulative results were 1243 alarmed, 437 concerned, 192 cautious, 50 disengaged, 89 doubtful, and 59 dismissive, for a total of 2070 participants.”
Chapter member Liz Fentress wrote a column about this effort, saying, “These astounding numbers have been shared with Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-MN), Sen. Ron Johnson (R-MN), as well as Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-MN-07). We hope the survey results will influence their votes on climate change policy.” Her column went on to share some interesting connections made through the chapter’s outreach, such as a man from Arizona said he’d relocated to northern Minnesota because of climate concerns, and a conservative engineer who installs wind turbines. The column appeared in Wisconsin's second largest newspaper, published in Madison, and was also featured by the Yale Program for Climate Change Communication.
In addition to this recent media hit, the chapter has been publishing a climate-focused column in the Ashland Daily Press each month for the past eight and a half years. Fantastic work, CCL Chequamegon!
Have you logged your recent activities in the Action Tracker? Tell us what your chapter has been up to lately.
Action Tracker Want your chapter to be featured? Share your info and photos with us.
Upcoming trainings
11/9: CCL 2023 Fall Conference Highlights - Relive the conference magic or catch up on the highlights with CCL Vice President of Programs Brett Cease. We'll review short clips of the favorite moments, and you can bring your own suggestions to add to the party. Join us!
Need training on the basics? Catch our next session of Core Volunteer Training, made for newer volunteers:
11/14: Grasstops Engagement Basics - Build momentum for climate action by gaining the support of local community leaders, or “grasstops” members of your community. In this training, CCL's National Action Director Todd Elvin will cover how to conduct outreach to grasstops leaders in your area and beyond. Join us!
To see other topics and past trainings, visit the Training Topics page of CCL Community.
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