Blog

Madeleine Para Uncategorized

Working together gets it done: Zoom co-working Tuesdays at 9:30 a.m.

Have fun turning your good intentions into completed actions, and make a difference this election year! Whether you know what exactly you need to do or you are figuring out your election activities, co-working on Zoom gets it into your schedule and gives you a bit of company (muted most of the time) while you work. You can make a plan for how you want to work on election engagement when you join the meeting, or come with your tasks in front of you already. Our personal worksheet can give you ideas, or you can ask the Zoom co-working host.  And we’ll cheer each other on.

Our Zoom co-working takes place on Tuesdays at 9:30 a.m., hosted by Madeleine Para and Katy Grogan. (We are no longer hosting it on Saturday mornings.) Tuesday zoom link: https://citizensclimate.zoom.us/j/86403066619?pwd=lrOXb1RSpeKoUj4BGEHaHc9ACh06VH.1 Meeting ID: 864 0306 6619 Passcode: 123

Madeleine Para WI Climate Voter Campaign

Turn out the environmental vote: Phone bank Tuesday mornings and Thursday evenings!

Join us in encouraging 30,000 low-voting Wisconsin environmentalists to vote! No experience is required–there will be a training portion at the beginning of every session for people new to phone banking!

We gather on Zoom for training and support, and to get access to the automated system we are using (called HubDialer).

Thursday evening phone banking is from 6:00 to 7:45 p.m. Use this Zoom link:  https://citizensclimate.zoom.us/j/87024242304?pwd=OWKcfiUiaARQUE7MNcpr1f2GLPcceZ.1

Tuesday morning phone banking is from 10:00 to 11:30. Come at 10:30 if you don’t need training. Use this Zoom link: https://citizensclimate.zoom.us/j/86403066619?pwd=lrOXb1RSpeKoUj4BGEHaHc9ACh06VH.1

Get ready:

 You need a cell phone and a computer. HubDialer will send calls to you through the phone (callers never see your number) and you use the computer to use the script and record what took place. After a few times you’ll get the hang of it.

Madeleine Para Events, WI Climate Voter Campaign

Script training: Our new approach to phone banking and climate conversations! Thursday September 12th 6:00 to 7:30 pm CDT

Our next round of phone banking is going to lead with exploring people’s urgency around climate action before pivoting to their voting plans. Please join us on Thursday September 12th from 6-7:30 pm central for our script training. We’ll get a little practice with a technique called Deep Canvassing as well as a good look at the new script we’ll use. We think this script training will be useful not just for phone banking to our voter list, but also for talking with the people around you! Everyone is welcome, whether phone banking is your cup of tea or not.

Watch a short role play to get a taste of our new approach to conversations!

At this training our consultant, Brandyn Keating, will review the script which is designed to focus on exploring voters’ climate concerns as a motivation for voting in the general election. We’ll also have the opportunity to practice and get our questions answered.  We encourage you to attend live if you can, however the recording of this more in-depth training with Brandyn will be available on our cclwi.org website afterwards. 

No registration is necessary. Join the Zoom Meeting on September 12th at
https://citizensclimate.zoom.us/j/89276812829?pwd=P7Qws0na8ojKgiVhGU30fpxC66qkkT.1 Meeting ID: 892 7681 2829 Passcode: 123

Resources for you:

Following this training we’ll begin our phone banking every Thursday night. We’ll be calling Wisconsin voters who care about the environment but don’t vote regularly. We want to reach as many people as possible before the November 5th election, so we hope you’ll give it a try. Every phone bank starts with training for people new to it and includes support on Zoom. We need you!!

Madeleine Para Strategy/plans, WI Climate Voter Campaign

Wisconsin CCL’s Action Plan for the November election

The Wisconsin Climate Voter campaign is moving ahead to turn out thousands of environmental voters for the November 5th general election. We did a fantastic job of educating voters through our postcarding, phone banking and conversations leading up to the August primary, and we also helped defeat the constitutional amendments that would have slowed down our transition to clean energy in Wisconsin.

Here’s the plan for our work this fall as we head into the November election:

  1. Postcarding! We will again mail 20,000 handwritten postcards to encourage low frequency voters to be sure to vote in November. Most of those are already distributed to people. the postcards must be put in the mail on October 15th. Email cclwisco@gmail.com if you or someone in your chapter would like to get involved. More info here.
  2. Phone banking starts Thursday, September 19, 6-7:45 pm and will continue every Thursday night until the election. We would love to have more help with this. The interactive script will be more climate-focused and, as always, training is provided each week. In addition, we’ll hold a special training on our new script on Thursday September 12th. More info here.
  3. Individual action by each of us to reach out to our personal and casual networks remains important.  You have many tools for doing that: email, postcards, social media, and personal conversations. You can get ideas and make a plan using our November Election Personal Worksheet. 
  4. Join our new Zoom co-working sessions! Climate work is more fun when you have company, so bring your work to the zoom session and work alongside other people. You can also get ideas or help while you’re there. We’re holding them twice a week in September and October (on Tuesday and Saturday mornings from 9:30-10:30 am). Learn more about it on our website post. 
  5. Stay up-to-date on our plans, and get everything you need at our campaign website page:  https://cclwi.org/wisconsin-climate-voter-campaign/ or in the CCLWI calendar.  

Thank you to everyone who has participated in our Climate Voter Campaign. Your work has made a difference! Hundreds of us have taken action both big and small and it adds up on election day.

Madeleine Para WI Climate Voter Campaign

Celebrate our primary election work! WI CCL Zoom gathering Tuesday Aug 20 6pm

We laid out an incredibly ambitious plan at our Giant Work Party back in March, for both the August 13th primary and the November 5th general election. Whatever happens in this unpredictable and unprecedented election year, we think it’s important to gather together to appreciate all that we learned and accomplished by August 13th. And being the committed and determined badgers that we are, we will also lay out our plans for the general election!

Zoom Link to Join the Party!

So put on your party clothes and come with the beverage of your choice: 6 pm Tuesday August 20th. No registration required, just put it in your calendar! (And it’s in our calendar on this website).

Zoom Link:  https://citizensclimate.zoom.us/j/4713169688 or by telephone:  (929) 205-6099; use Meeting ID:  471-316-9688 and Passcode: 123

Madeleine Para Uncategorized

Great Lakes regional conference Oct 5-6th in Rockford, IL

Are you ready to level-up your climate advocacy efforts? Join us for the 2024 Great Lakes Regional Conference: Keep On Keeping On! With curious minds and open hearts, we will strengthen our skills so we can “keep on keeping on” in our climate advocacy.

REGISTER for the conference

The conference is being held at Rock Valley College, Rockford, Illinois. It starts at 1 pm on Saturday October 5th and ends at noon on Sunday October 6th.

We’re building an exciting agenda based on input from our region’s volunteers. Here’s what you can look forward to:

  • Madeleine Para, President Emeritus and volunteer superstar as our keynote speaker
  • Dr. Ammara Khalid, PsyD and Dr. Yvonne Collins, MD, will discuss climate change impacts on our mental and physical health
  • Breakout sessions on Pocket Forests, Nuclear Energy, Federal Funds for Local Action, Climate Collage Art and more

You’ll find more details, including lodging information, on the registration page.  The Great Lakes region includes Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. Make new friends and renew old friendships with our wonderful midwestern counterparts.

We can’t wait to see you in Rockford!

Madeleine Para Uncategorized

Our Climate Voter Conversations – One By One

by Holly Jorgenson, Madison CCL

I don’t know about you, but the flood of climate and political news in the past few weeks has kept me up at night. How are we ever going to keep the gains we’ve made and move faster and further from here given the political climate? It prompted me to think about what attitude I want to hold onto as a CCL member this fall and in the coming years. As we continue to speak out and persist, I considered putting more of my attention not just on what we’re fighting for, but on who we’re fighting alongside.

Based on 2023 Yale Communications Project figures for Wisconsin:

  • 69% of us think global warming is happening.
  • 60% are worried about it.
  • 69% think global warming will harm future generations.

That means most of the people around me are aware to some degree and would supposedly want something done about it. They may affiliate with either party. Too many are not engaged or informed, and unfortunately many skip the polling booth. Our Wisconsin CCL Climate Voter Campaign and our Wisconsin Environmental Voter Project are geared to reaching out to those people.

We can talk to the people we know one at a time. I ran into an old acquaintance recently at our neighborhood farmer’s market. I asked if he planned on voting in the Primary; he wasn’t aware of that election. I told him about the two referendums aiming to modify our state constitution; how they could force the Governor to get approval from the legislature before allocating any federal money, which could hold up federal funds for disaster relief in Wisconsin. He listened, interested. I recommended he vote NO on both referendums to prevent that from happening. He enthusiastically agreed. I reinforced the August 13th date and the No and No for the amendments and I made a note in my calendar to remind him. It was easy. One by one.

See more information about having Courageous Climate Conversations and the other opportunities on our Climate Voter Campaign webpages.  Choose an action that fits your life. Give it a try!

Madeleine Para Uncategorized

Growing Wausau’s Annual Earth Day Celebration

By Dan Barth, Rib Mountain-Marshfield CCL

CCL has organized an Earth Day Celebration in Wausau, Wisconsin for the past eight years.  We have always centered our event around people and tree planting. We plant in various city parks with the cooperation and assistance of the Parks Department. We started with one tree and a handful of people, but over the years our Earth Day has evolved. 

Several years ago, with the help of another organization we network with, we received a grant for enough money to plant 15 trees. About the same time, Wisconsin CCL offered a presentation that inspired us to recruit 15 planting teams with inclusivity foremost in our minds.  Since then, we have raised the money for the annual tree plantings from donations and the sale of reusable shopping bags. 

We partner with the local Native American Community who ceremonially bless us and the trees, and lead a Talking Circle after the planting. We celebrate our wonderful, nurturing planet and the diversity of life it so lavishly supports.

We plant trees and form a Talking Circle to express our environmental concerns and to celebrate our own amazing diversity. We are African American, Hmong, LBTGQ, Native American, Hispanic, Palestinian, Jewish, Christian and White, and have representatives from a wide variety of allied groups. One of our Indigenous friends always jokes that every time he sees us, he gets his hands dirty.

This year, over 100 folks took part. It was a superb day, graced by beautiful weather, and we raised almost enough money for next year’s celebration!

No matter our cultural background, no matter our politics, no matter our spiritual preferences or gender identity, we come together as a community in our reverence for our home amidst the stars.

Madeleine Para Uncategorized, WI Climate Voter Campaign

Wis. primary phone banking July 31, Aug. 1, Aug. 7, Aug 8 and Aug. 12, from 6:00-7:30 pm

Join us in encouraging 30,000 low-voting Wisconsin environmentalists to vote! No experience is required–there will be a training portion at the beginning of every session for people new to phone banking!

We gather on Zoom for training and support, and to get access to the automated system we are using (called HubDialer). You can come to any and all of the sessions using this Zoom link: https://citizensclimate.zoom.us/j/83640131912

You don’t have to register, but we encourage it (and it encourages us!) Click the “Yes” button on the top right corner of the page to RSVP!

 You need a cell phone and a computer. HubDialer will send calls to you through the phone (callers never see your number) and you use the computer to use the script and record what took place. After a few times you’ll get the hang of it.

Optional ways to prepare:

Madeleine Para WI Climate Voter Campaign

Courageous Voter Conversations Team Check-in, Thursday July 11, 6:00 – 6:45 CDT

Join our next support check-in meeting on Zoom Thursday July 11th from 6 to 6:45 Central. We are holding these every other Thursday (except July 4th). These meetings are for everyone who is or intends to be holding conversations with people in their personal networks who are environmental supporters but don’t vote regularly. Paticipants have loved them!

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO PRE-REGISTER FOR THIS MEETING! Join Link: https://citizensclimate.zoom.us/j/86803325129?pwd=xdj9NyqLp026JaOpl24Ya35avgAfbi.1 Meeting ID 868 0332 5129; Passcode 123 It’s also posted on our calendar for July 11th.

Between now and the August 13th Wisconsin primary election we are focusing on being a voting resource to our climate-concerned neighbors friends and family members. It’s easy for the primary to fall by the wayside as people go off on vacation or relax and play in the summer. Ask everyone you see if they are planning to vote, make sure they know that CCL opposes the constitutional amendments on the ballot, and help them find whatever information they need.

We know that conversations with the people around us are important, and yet it also can be hard to do. We are all learners in this undertaking so the Zoom check-in lets us share what we are learning, practice our techniques, set personal goals and cheer each other on! If you missed the training, you can watch the videos and learn more at the check-ins. [Note: We are not recording the check-in meetings]

Conversations with people in our social networks make a difference because:

  • We can reach people that aren’t registered, aren’t on campaign lists, or don’t respond to phone calls from unknown callers.
  • We can take more time to listen and respond to them, and talk more than once.
  • We learn communication skills that are useful throughout our advocacy work and lives.
  • We start or deepen relationships in our community

You can get more information on our team page on our cclwi.org website.