SUSPS Home     Overview     What You Can Do     History     Democracy     Misc

 
The Sierra Club is purportedly a democratic institution. We would like to believe that the Club Board and management also support and adhere to the democratic process. But...
 
 

Substantive parts of the petitioners' ballot question were dropped from the 2001 ballot pamphlet mailed with the ballot. The Board's position was promoted in the introduction. The fact that the Board encouraged a "No" vote was emphasized in bold on both the pamphlet and the ballot. The results of voting "Yes" were misstated - existing Club policy would not be rescinded.
 
But more importantly, when an initiative is brought forward by the membership to address some existing policy issue, the board adopts a new policy position (worded to defeat the initiative), and then offers the membership a choice between the two as though they are mutually exclusive when they are not necessarily so.

In 1999, the Sierra Club Board of Directors tried to cut back on democracy within the Club. The Board placed on the 1999 ballot a proposed Bylaw amendment that would increase the number of signatures required to place an initiative on the ballot by 250%! Had this passed, membership initiatives would have been nearly impossible to pass. Interestingly, the membership soundly defeated this ballot question. But did the Board and Club management listen to its members support for the democratic process?
 
The facts indicate otherwise - that the Board and management have stooped to using their standard bag of unethical campaign tricks when pressed with the possibility of a membership initiative actually winning. Specifically, on the current Spring 2001 ballot, over half of the wording of population-sprawl ballot question was simply dropped from the ballot to make the Club position look more favorable! An arbitrary preamble was inserted which reinforces the opposing ballot statement. Then, the ballot inaccurately says that voting for the ballot question rescinds existing Club policy - which is most certainly not the case.
 
Page 6 of the "2001 Sierra Club Election" flyer that accompanies the ballot starts out with an encouraging statement from the board of directors about initiatives: Democracy is one of the great, and unusual, features of the Sierra Club. We are the only major environmental organization is which policy is determined by volunteer leaders and the general membership rather than by staff. Your participation is essential to our democracy. But this really doesn't accurately portray the views of the board.
 
 

 
 
In reviewing the Club's presentation of the ballot question, an even more basic issue stands out. When an initiative is brought forward by the membership to address some existing policy issue, the board adopts a new policy position (worded to defeat the initiative), and then offers the membership a choice between the two as though they are mutually exclusive when they are not necessarily so. (Note the bold statement on page six: A "YES" vote is a vote to adopt the petitioned policy as a substitute for the Board-adopted policy - which is patently untrue.)
 
In addition, the following official language from the population-sprawl initiative petitions (signed by nearly 2,000 members and approved by the Club Secretary) was excluded from the pamphlet and the ballot:
 
"WHEREAS the Sierra Club has made reducing sprawl a national priority campaign; and
WHEREAS population growth is an important driving force of sprawl development in most areas; and
WHEREAS stabilizing the U.S. population has been Sierra Club policy since 1969;"
 
Only the "resolved" portion of the initiative was printed, i.e. "Shall the Sierra Club emphasize both regional and national population stabilization as essential components in all Sierra Club sprawl materials and programs."
 
This action left out important contextual information pertaining to the initiative. Yet at the same time the board got two opportunities to state its position in the ballot material.
 
These observations seem like nit-picking. Yet it is clear that Club management and the Board have found ways to make some subtle and some not-so-subtle changes in the presentation of the ballot question in order to make it less palatable to the voters. (By the way, this was done to the Grazing ballot question, too). In contrast to the pro-democracy statement quoted above, the culture of the Sierra Club is adamantly opposed to the grass roots initiative process. It seems that those who are involved in the initiative process are seen as enemies of the club, or at the very least, irritants - rather than democrats.
 
The Sierra Club does a lot of great work. And a democratic structure is a great strength. But one gets the impression that club policy is really to be developed top-down by the Board and staff rather than democratically by the general membership.
 
Our only recourse has been to object to the Sierra Club Election Inspectors on each individual item. Kind of like complaining to the fox guarding the chicken coop:
 
 
 
March 17, 2001: Objection on Deletion of Components of Population-Sprawl Ballot Question
         - over half of the ballot question was simply dropped from the ballot!
 
March 17, 2001: Objection on Email Bylaws Violations
         - key Club committee members violated bylaws on email campaigning
           email addresses
 
March 19, 2001: Objection on Ballot Question Preamble
         - biased preamble was added before the ballot question
 
March 19, 2001: Objection on Ballot Question Policy Change Clause
         - the ballot says voting "YES" will revoke existing policy!
 

 
 

Information on Sprawl

The Sprawl Ballot Question

The Overlooked Factor in Sprawl

The Sprawl Ballot Question - Looking for the Root Cause

Facing the Future and Sprawl

What you can do to help

Sprawl and Population

Supporting statement (short)

Census Adjusted Upward

Supporting statement (long)

Sprawl: It's Too Many People

Sprawl resolutions passed by Club Chapters

www.SprawlCity.org shows
population-sprawl relationship

Frequently Asked Questions

SUSPS Home     Overview     What You Can Do     History     Democracy     Misc