It’s Getting Hot In Here

The Mass Youth Climate Action coalition is about 4 months old. Since its inception in August, MYCA has expanded from 5 students into a state-wide coalition of over 20 schools. I want to share a few lessons we’ve learned along the way, and hear from others who have done similar work.

The idea: At the Sierra Student Coaltion’s summer leadership conference the 5 students from MA started having dinner-time conversations about the next steps we could take. We were determined to be on the cutting edge. We wanted to draw together student leaders who had won campaigns on campus, who were looking for a next step. We wanted to put pressure on an already green and liberal state to do far more. We wanted to organize on a scale that was bigger than campus and yet more manageable and dynamic than national politics.

The plan: We held a meeting for student leaders as soon as possible to create a campaign that we could all work on from our different campuses. We coordinated outreach to the over 100 colleges in the state through a googledoc and started making calls and sending emails. If there was no environmental club, we contacted professors and student activities officers. We were asking them for students who wanted something bigger, something real and exciting. To the mailing lists of student activists in the state, we pitched the meeting as a conference to decide on a plan, to start a coordinated campaign. Our premise was that we are all trained and experienced leaders, so lets move to the next level.

The first meeting was intense – we planned it as a long visioning session. We talked with people we didn’t know very well yet, in a stuffy room, after a long drive. But it was also extremely exciting. After ice-breakers and small-group discussions about the best strategies and messaging for the movement, 40 people wrote a campaign plan together. We agreed on a single short term goal: to pass the MA Global Warming Solutions Act with provisions for Green Jobs and No New Coal. And then we split up into a campaign planning group, a media group and a recruiting group.

There was a sense of wonder. Here we are, just a bunch of students who came together and decided to shift how a state deals with climate change. It was also really empowering.

A rally day planned for October didn’t draw the largest crowd — something to do with the Red Sox victory parade — but a call-in day with hundreds of phone calls got the GWSA out of committee and onto the senate floor before Thanksgiving.

Gaining Steam: Our giant growth opportunity arrived at the Power Shift state break-out session. After hours of calls and planning, we cobbled together a 90 minute agenda signed up 170 new students and got everyone really fired up. Just last weekend MYCA held a dual state meeting, with a Western Mass and Eastern Mass section to reduce driving. I still can’t believe how much fun it was to come back and see these people that I’ve only been working with for a few months, and only met in person a few times. The energy flowed, lots of ideas came out and plans laid, and now we’re looking at a packed Spring semester.

Speed bumps: The first big surprise for me with MYCA was at the first meeting when we realized that many of the students were brand new to the climate movement! We had pitched the event as something for leaders looking for something to follow a Campus Climate Challenge victory, to put their accumulated experience and skills towards a biggere challenge. But lack of experience did little to hamper the strategic thinking and determination of the first MYCA gathering. Clearly, the movement is growing and changing so fast that new leaders can be quickly assimilated into the mix.

A structure for MYCA formed early on, and without a lot of heated discussion. People who wanted to be in leadership roles stepped into those roles, while those that felt the need to step back were able to do so. Committees were formed and began working. The steering committee, ostensibly consisting of two students from each of the three committees, has been open to those that wish to take part. Given that things have worked out so far, we can only hope that people and structure will continue to fall into place next semester.

There are a lot of environmental organizations in Massachusetts. Trying to envision how we fit into that mix was and continues to be difficult. First, we are the only student network that unify all schools on the same campaign. MassPIRG is clearly the largest and most active student organization in the state, connecting 20 colleges and universities through campaigns, shared resources, training and funding. However, for students at the 80 colleges and countless high schools that don’t currently have PIRG chapters, how to focus state pressure was not as clear. Just as with the structure, maintaining close communication and being open to all suggestions has allowed us to be dynamic and proactive despite uncertainties.

It also really helps to focus on a specific goal. MassPIRG runs several campaigns. Environmental groups generally have many concerns. Youth organizations can become spread out and ineffective. By keeping a single goal from the start, our role in relation to other groups is clear: we can mobilize students in the state. We don’t need to do the legislative research, we don’t need to choose a macro-policy, we don’t need to pay a staff to support students. All we do is get students excited about pressuring their legislators. When our goals are very clear, it makes it easier for other groups to deal with us, and easier for students to plug themselves in.

Lessons learned: There is a huge potential to organize in state-wide networks. Just as with campus groups, combining skills with a lot of energy and creativity produces results.

Focusing on a single, specific goal drives the organization. Working with new people in different places with no centralized structure could get very messy. Agreeing on a goal is a huge step towards getting action to be coordinated and acts as a test of whether we should pursue an action or idea.

Everyone comes to the table with different skills and experiences. Some people don’t know what a googledoc is, others have never been on a conference call. Some don’t know how a state legislature works, and still others have never taken on a leadership role in a group. Believe in these people, because they can learn if there’s enough of a reason.

What are you doing?

In the ’60s, the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee chose Mississippi as their arena of operations to break the back of Jim Crow. They set out to change a state by doing the hard work of organizing every church, every town and every county. By and large, they were successful.

Our strength as the youth movement lies in our ability to operate in literally hundreds and thousands of different campuses at once. When we coordinate our work (aka Campus Climate Challenge and beyond) we make waves. Lets broaden our movement, bring more schools in and bring more leaders into leadership roles. Lets build strong state networks as we fight climate change on the global, national, state, local and campus fronts.