CCL Community Release - December 30, 2023

What's a release?

New Features

• Group Forums Update (12/30/23): Group Forums pages now feature a more interactive display, including an embedded search, more advanced filter options (by topics you've posted in), sort by options including the most recent replies, most replies, most engagement (likes) and date created. To create a new post click the green "Add Topic" button in the upper right. Select General Discussion unless you prefer to post in a more focused subcategory.
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• CCL Community Calendar: All national training, workshop, and conference/event pages are now visible to the public and no longer require a logged in view (as of Dec. 18th). This should help with sharing the links both before and after the national events with your local community outside of CCL.
• CCL's Knowledge Base- Updated platform with ZenDesk for IT Support and Membership-related queries and support (as of December 18th) 
  • The Knowledge Base includes directions and answers to FAQs for using applications and organizing tools such as CCL Community, Action Tracker, chapter rosters, etc.
  • The Knowledge Base does not include details or other information related to program support (policy, organizing, training, etc.).
  • How will I get to the Knowledge Base?
  • You can access the Knowledge Base via the "Help" link (see below) in the main navigation menu (see below), a link in the footer to CCL's Knowledge Base or the "? Help" button at the bottom left of any CCL Community page.
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  • Notice the Knowledge Base is a separate site hosted by Zendesk. You can bookmark it if you like.The email replies will come from Zendesk (support@citizensclimate.zendesk.com), the worldwide leader in customer support software. Please add that address to your address book, contact list, or whatever else your email provider uses. Important note: Tickets created with the current system will be closed out and tracked separately.
• Updated Sitewide Forums Page. See below.
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• Finding your local chapter's page- The pin icon to the right of your messages icon links to your CCL Chapters' page on CCL Community. The chapter pin is displayed on all pages across the site, so you no longer have to click several times to get to your chapter's page. 
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• Action Tracker Updates:
• Action Tracker Dashboard view now allows you to toggle to a "U.S. Lobby and Conference Statistics" page to see the updated stats nationally for the year for our collective lobby meetings (as of Dec. 30th)
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  • New Action Tracker descriptions (including Town Hall category, additional notes fields for meetings, etc.)
  • New short link that when clicked auto-logs your attendance at the CCL International Monthly Meeting: https://cclusa.org/log-meeting 
• New Volunteer Activity Marked on Action Tracker: There are new little white stars in a green circle, hovering right over those two-digit initials of our action-takers.
  • The star is not just decorative; it is to celebrate a noteworthy action that was logged, and it will appear in one of two situations:
  • It's a shiny high-five to a supporter logging their first action – maybe they just hopped off the Info Session or took another training, or they sent an online message to Congress. Go, team!
  • Oh, and see that star for someone who's been around a while? It's letting you know a supporter whose been away for a bit has logged an action – whether they took a short vacation, a medium hiatus, or a longer sabbatical. And don't forget, engagement is recalculated around the 6th of every month, so a star supporter might still reflect as 'Recently Unengaged,' 'Medium-Term Unengaged,' or 'Long-Term Unengaged' on your roster. ✨
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  • Feel free to use the information in a way that works best for your situation or to ignore it entirely if it doesn't do anything for you. We understand there might be instances where it's unclear if it's a first action or a re-engagement. However, using the action tracker CSV and online filters should clarify this. We're sensitive to how someone might react if we publish they're re-engaging, so the star represents both cases. 
  • Here's how it appears when there's more than one participant:
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Bug Fixes

• Messages: In CCL Community emails sent from groups, the group name and link to their homepage now shows up again by default at the top of the email message(December)
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• Join Notifications: Issue with notifications of new volunteers not sending when joining was fixed (October)
• Text to Join: CCL's text-to-join feature working again (August)
• Search: The use of quotations works now to help restrict your search to a group of keywords together (August)
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• Engagement Segment updates due to Apple Mail's Privacy Policy changes (August) (no longer counting email clicks as part of the passive engagement metrics - for more details on what counts as activities and what the parameters are for each segment see the Engagement Segment training.

• Public-facing chapter pages on the www.citizensclimatelobby.org website (example). (August)
  • Previously, group leaders or their designates could upload a single image or video to their chapter’s public-facing page. However, Salesforce no longer allows you to do that without a Salesforce license. As a result, CCL has updated all chapter pages with the latest CCL intro video and removed the upload option from the chapter web page editor (the editor was the interface that allowed you to edit the text on the page).
  • The new default text is optimized for search and will likely lead to more users finding your chapters via search engines. As a reminder, each chapter has a group page here on CCL Community that serves current volunteers, AND we have public-facing pages that are designed to acquire new members for each chapter. The latter is what this update refers to.
• Events: Fixed an issue where the ‘Add to Calendar’ option was not working for Outlook. (July)
  • Note: we are aware of an ongoing issue with the Upcoming Events block on group homepages not currently displaying upcoming events and are working with our vendor to address this as swiftly as possible.
• Group Admin: Added the notification wording for group settings (July)

New & Updated Content

Most Recent Training Page Updates:

• Communicating with Progressives
• What's in the Fifth National Climate Assessment Report?
• Telling Compelling Stories
• End of Year Media Opportunities
• Social Media Basics Workshop
• An Update on State-Level Implementation of Inflation Reduction Act Climate Funds
• Communicating With Conservatives
• Grassroots Outreach Basics
• Sesión Informativa en vivo
• Hosting A Film Screening
• Grasstops Engagement Basics
• CCL 2023 Fall Conference Highlights
• Economics of Carbon Fee & Dividend Policies
• Climate Advocate Training (Online)
• Leading A Lobby Team
• Fall 2023 Lobby Training #2: Legislative Plan
• CCL's Policy Agenda
• Fall 2023 Lobby Training #1: Primary & Secondary Asks (During Liaison Call)
• Overview and Benefits of the BIG WIRES Act
• Fall Conference and Lobby Days Q&A
• Exploring the Power of Intergenerational Conversations
• Lobbying Basics: Planning and Practicing Your Meeting
• Overview of the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act and Q&A
• Understanding Congress Basics
• Reintroduction of the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act Updates!
• Media Basics
• Ask Community Leaders to Champion their Support to Congress
• Preventing Burnout as a Climate Advocate
• Clean Energy Permitting Reform Basics Action Party 🎉
• CCL Community Website Walkthrough - Core Volunteer Training
• Highlight Your Local Climate Impacts With Regional Climate Slide Decks
• Progress & Prospects for Carbon Pricing Around The World
• Welcoming New Volunteers To Your Chapter
• Attending Town Halls During the August Recess To Bring Up Climate Impacts
• Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanisms & The PROVE IT Act
• Extended Q&A with Dr. Adam Simon
• What Climate Funding Is Available From The Inflation Reduction Act For Your Community?
• Summer Tabling Opportunities
• Climate Science AMA w/ Dr. Ben Santer
• Summer CCL/CCE Fundraising Ideas and Resources
• Clean Energy Permitting Reform Updates and Q&A
• Citizens' Climate Roadmap for the 118th Congress
• June 2023 Conference & Lobby Days Q&A
• June 2023 Lobby Training #2: Open Q&A Discussion
• June 2023 Lobby Training #1: Primary & Supporting Asks
• Solar on houses of worship (Environment America webinar)
• Comparing Permitting Reform Proposals Across the Political Spectrum
• Farm Bill Basics

Most Recent Resource Page Updates:

• Communications Exercises Directory
• Watch Party Toolkit
• Outreach Materials For Younger Audiences
• Snowmen Protest Toolkit
• Buy The Climate A Coffee Handout
• Clean Energy Permitting Reform Handouts 
• Inflation Reduction Act Handouts
• Climate Guilt-Free Coupon 
• Volunteer Opportunities Role Descriptions - added additional descriptions
  Volunteer Opportunities Email Templates - added additional descriptions
  Volunteer Opportunities Handout
• Yale Climate Opinion Data
• Carbon Fee & Dividend Handouts
• Spanish Language Materials
• Energy Innovation Act Flyers and all related Energy Innovation Act Materials