Developing Your Chapter Action Plan

Find the center of your climate advocacy

Use this Venn diagram to find the center of your chapter’s climate advocacy. Note: This image and approach is adapted from Dr. A.E. Johnson’s TED Talk and book

For this step, you may want to (1) use a whiteboard, (2) give attendees a piece of paper, or (3) make a copy of this Google form (cclusa.org/chapter-plan-form) and share the link with attendees. 

Ask attendees to write down their responses to the three reflective questions below (see image):

1. What CCL work brings you joy? What enlivens and energizes you?
2. What work are you good at? What are your skills, resources, and networks? 
3. What CCL work needs doing? What additional support for climate action/policy do you need to build in your community and with your members of Congress in 2025? 

Next, ask some or all of your attendees to briefly share their responses aloud. If you used the Google form, you might project the spreadsheet onto a screen. As people share, discuss common themes and work together to recognize where the three sets of collected responses overlap. This is the center of your chapter’s climate advocacy.

Doing this exercise will help prepare your chapter for January 2025 when we’ll ask you to apply the center of your chapter’s climate advocacy to create your 2024 Chapter Action Plan. 

How To Use our 2025 Chapter Action Plan Template

Make a copy of our Chapter Action Planning Template (cclusa.org/plan-template). Note that the “Example Activities” tab in the spreadsheet offers a menu of activities that might help you fill in your copy of the template. 

Connect a computer to a big TV screen and/or share your screen on Zoom so that your attendees can see the template. 

• In the Who’s Who in our Chapter section, fill in the names of your chapter’s leaders. Make sure you include leaders of any additional teams you have formed, for example, an Electrification or Carbon Pricing team,  as well as Group Leaders, Liaisons and Media Managers. 
• In the Chapter Plan Activities section, fill in the designated spaces on the left for Chapter Growth & Building Our Grassroots Strength and Policy Focus Areas (your chapter’s centers of climate advocacy).

Then work together to fill in as many of the boxes in the remaining columns as you have time for and plan a time for a group of chapter team leaders and other interested folks to get together for a work party to finish it. 

For more help with this, plan to attend our Developing Your Chapter’s 2025 Action Plan training in January or watch the recording afterward.

Post your chapter’s goals to get everyone’s commitment

Once you have a good draft of your plan, share a link to it via email, and ask your chapter members to reply with how they can help your chapter reach its goals. When you have a final draft, post a summary of your 2025 goals on your chapter’s CCL Community  home page in the About Us section and your chapter’s forum. 

Template

Here's the link to make a copy of CCL's chapter action planning template, click the link to see the example and make a copy.


 

Volunteer Opportunities Role Descriptions and Email Templates

If it's helpful to build out additional roles and responsibilities, you can use CCL's Role Description and usage instructions here and the Email Template here.

• Todd Elvins

• Download this guide for your Take Action Chapter Worksheet

• Where has your group had the most success moving forward with local actions?