Seat Fillers?

[Carol Buie-Jackson]

Someone else mentioned this idea to me a while back, but I understood its value a little better last week as Ernie and I were sitting at the Board of County Commissioners meeting. We were there to advocate for the $250 million bond package Parks & Rec is proposing for land purchases and although there were people there in support of the bonds, from the BOCC's point of view, it was hardly a ground-swell of support.

So I started thinking about the value of having a group of "seat fillers". We are concerned about wildlife habitat everywhere, not just in our own backyards, right?. What if we banded together, and supported each others' causes at meetings? For example, let's say Iredell County Commissioners (or whatever) were voting on a new rule about riparian buffers. The Lake Norman chapter could put out a call for all Seat Fillers to come to the meeting and bring tshirts for us all to wear. We show up, sit together and then the Lake Norman members get up and speak and since we are all sitting there in matching shirts, the message gets across that lots of people care about the buffers. I don't know about your town, but I can say without a doubt, that if 40-50 people walked into the Matthews Town Council meeting with HAWK shirts on, even if only one person spoke, the Council members would give more weight to what they said.

I know we are all busy and don't have time to attend public meetings all over the state on a weekly basis, but if there were enough of us, maybe we wouldn't have to do every meeting. Maybe we commit to one per month in addition to our own? I don't know what the formula is but I'm throwing the idea out there to see what other people think of it. Or if there are better ideas out there, pls pitch them here.

And brace yourselves, in Aug or Sept when the BOCC schedules the Land Bond vote, we're going to be begging for seat fillers!

[Ernie McLaney]

Carol, I think this is a great idea and I hope members will find a way to help other chapters through this and similar support methods. If we can get our chapter members to post this information on our "Events" section here, we can review them against our personal schedules. This is another great tool this site offers, where we can communicate support needs and also to find ways we can act as a voice for wildlife.

My only concern is that by being involved in so many programs now, my "extra" time is limited. Still, my interest in environmental issues motivates me to do all that I can. I hope this proves to be a very supportive initiative by this special group of people.

Thanks for the idea,
-Ernie

[Theresa Morr]

Carol, I think this is a good idea.
For me, as much notice as possible of these events could help me to work into my schedule. The paper does not publish the event until the week it occurs, so if the event could be posted in our Events list in plenty of time, that would be a big help.
Also, if we are careful to choose the events when "Seat Fillers" would really make a difference, I think that would show that we respect and value everyone's time investment.

[Debbie Foster]

Great idea! Could the chapters have access to each other's e-mail lists to send out notices?

[cindi mills]

I like the idea, there is definantly power in numbers.