All Ages All Backgrounds Diversity Key To Club and Chapter's Longevity

In early 2007, the Sierra Club Board of Directors launched a Clubwide initiative to increase diversity within the club and established a Diversity Council to bring forth proposals to promote and expand diversity throughout the organization. The creation of the Diversity Council was a response to the Board's realization that the demographics of the Club did not match the emerging demographics of the country, and that to successfully implement the Club's conservation priorities would require building a broad-based movement of people from all backgrounds who are united by commonly held conservation values.

Similarly, in 2007, the Angeles Chapter's Outings Management Committee established a Diversity Task Force to explore and implement ways of diversifying the Chapter through its enormously successful outings program. The idea for the task force came about during the 2007 Chapter Outings Assembly. It was clear that the demographics of the Chapter membership did not reflect the current demographics of Los Angeles and Orange Counties, and that to successfully achieve the Chapter's goals and to provide for the long-term survival of the Chapter and the Club, it was necessary to attract people of all ages and backgrounds. The Chapter outings program seemed a logical place to start. After all, if people aren't familiar with the local mountains, parks, etc., why would they care about saving them?

In the words of the Diversity Council: Accelerating diversity in the Club is necessary to achieve our conservation mission and remain a leader of the environmental movement. This also is critical for the long-term health of the organization. But it will not happen automatically. We have a choice: wait until our relevance has declined before we act, or work now to increase our effectiveness and credibility in all communities.

In February 2009, the Chapter's Inner City Outings (ICO) Committee sponsored an outing for the LULAC (League of United Latin American Citizens) National Education Service Center (LNESC) in East L.A. Some 15 high school students, a few parents and some LNESC staff members, together with me and my ICO and co-leader Gerard Lewis, spent the day in the San Gabriel mountains sledding, building snowmen and having snowball fights. For almost all of the participants, it was the first time they had been in these mountains and the first time they had seen snow up close. The following day, under the guidance of Juana Torres, Wilderness Organizer for the Southern California Forests Campaign, the same group council wrote letters to their congressperson in support of wilderness protection for the San Gabriels. Obviously, the letter writing would have had far less meaning for them if they had never spent time in our magnificent mountains.

Several months later, and in no small part due to the tireless efforts of the Angeles Chapter's own Forest Committee, Santa Clarita Valley Group, and Antelope Valley Group, President Obama signed the Omnibus Public Land Management Act into law. Significant additional acreage in the San Gabriel mountains received wilderness designation and the LNESC participants felt a sense of pride in having played a part in protecting their mountains.

Obviously, the work of the Diversity Council and the Chapter's Diversity Task Force is far from complete. In fact, it's just beginning. As this issue goes to press, the Diversity Council is planning to introduce the pilot version of its 'Diversity 101' training on January 30 at the Eaton Canyon Nature Center in Pasadena. The Council hopes to make this kind of diversity training widely available to Club leaders in the future. The Angeles Chapter is honored to be the first to receive this important training.

Ann Pedreschi Shields led the Chapter's Diversity Task Force in its inaugural year. I took took the reigns in October 2008. For more information and to get involved, please contact Melody Grace.

More information regarding the Diversity Council can be found on the Clubhouse site.