Starting or Reviving a Group
Organizing is the most important way we as environmentalists can ultimately create positive social change. All other progressive movements in the past have made changes in our society by organizing: the labor movement, the civil rights movement, the antiwar movement, etc. Like these movements, organized together we can be many times more powerful than we are as individuals.
Knowing Your School and Community
The first step is to become familiar with your school. There are a number of questions you want to answer:
- What other activist groups are on campus? (get to know them and their leaders)
- How do other groups organize?
- Who are the campus leaders?
- How do you “officially” register a new group?
- Is there student activity money available for campus groups?
- How do you get these funds?
- Do you need a faculty sponsor?
- How do you reserve rooms to meet?
- Where do people gather?
- What other environmental groups exist in your community?
- What support can these groups give?
- What are the major environmental problems in your school and community?
- What’s the history of environmental organizing on campus? (Ask professors and recent alumni and read old school newspapers.)
Often there is a student activities office, or student government office which will help you answer some of these questions, but don’t get bogged down in the bureaucracy. You will be learning about your school all year, so don’t let a lack of information stop you from organizing the group.
