On Saturday, September 20th, 40 people gathered at Northeastern University in Boston, MA to kick off the new year of Massachusetts Power Shift, a youth-organized statewide network of student, youth and community environmental activists. 13 schools and 10 community organizations were represented at the meeting, bringing MAPS representation from every region of the state. At this meeting, members were introduced to the campaigns we are working on this year: Power Vote and the We Campaign, following Al Gore's call for 100% renewable energy by 2018.

During the meeting, MAPS members came up with a list of problems facing youth environmentalists today, and it includes dependency on foreign fossil fuels, continuance of business as usual, unemployment, home foreclosures and worsening imbalance of wealth, the economy and environment seen as separate issues, inactivity and passivity of our current elected officials, youth not knowing where to plug in, disconnect between communities and student groups, higher cost of green solutions, exploitative relationships to nature and people, addiction to the growth market, capitalism, consumerism and a disconnect between direct action and political organizations.

We came up with a list of actions to take! We've decided it is due time to hold politicians accountable, build massive outreach, build this incredible national movement even stronger, guiding people to make day to day changes to lessen their carbon footprint, Power Vote, expose dirty money in politics, empower people, create the story of a sustainable and just lifestyle, following up with the Power Vote volunteers, utilizing all of the tactics and tools in our boxes in strategic ways and not stopping after the elections!

After the brainstorming portion of the MAPS meeting, we got to do some hands on training. We all learned the ways of clipboarding and getting Power Vote pledges signed, and took to the streets of Boston with the illustrious green cards. Within about an hour, 132 pledges were signed and 21 people said they would volunteer which is 15% of the pledges. The overwhelming agreement was that pledging is fun and you will get some really unexpected people to have conversations with and get signatures from. We learned the art of class raps as well, and came out with 13 schools represented and ready for class presentations!

We had regional breakouts to strengthen relationships between organizers around the state, and to be able to train new and existing activists in the Power Vote ways. Connections with the many different skills and resources present was built strongly as well. Schools around the state came out with goals to get thousands of pledge cards signed.

In April 2008, Massachusetts Power Shift was a 3 day conference held in Boston with about 450 students and community members in attendance. We had workshops and trainings in everything from lobbying to mountaintop removal to confronting the root causes of climate change. We had a lobby day at the State House in Boston to pressure our officials to pass the Global Warming Solutions Act, which was victoriously passed this July by a vote of 154 to 0. This bill requires reductions of carbon emissions of 80% below 1990 levels by 2050 and between 10% and 25% by 2020

Inter-group relationships were strengthened after the meeting at a MAPS house party with performances by Melodeego, an awesome environmental and socially conscious funk band (www.melodeego.com), using bike-powered PA systems for a carbon neutral show and party, demonstrating one of the many ways we will enter into our vision of a just and clean new world for all!

For more info about Massachusetts Power Shift, check out www.masspowershift.org