12 Aug Leadership Council: Shaping Austin’s EcoMovement

THEN to NOW

Austin EcoNetwork has been around for over six years but we have only recently become a website. In case you aren’t familiar, here’s a very short history:

In 2003 I wrote a letter inviting dozens of environmental community leaders to a meeting to explore what we could do to collectively be more successful as sustainability advocates by communicating, cooperating, and collaborating more.

Approximately 45 of Austin’s leading nonprofit, government, business, and community leaders participated in that initial meeting held at Casa de Luz.

Three goals emerged:  1) better digital communication 2) more social interaction 3) a physical building/development where multiple green endeavors could co-locate, share resources, host events, eat healthy and more.  From that meeting the very first step was to set up a Yahoo group listserv (where our earliest posts are still archived).

Over time the AEN listserv became the go-to-place for green groups to announce their events and green-minded citizens to connect to current information.
 

NEXT STEPS

The stage has been set, and Austin EcoNetwork is ready for the next level of engagement from the community.

We now have a website with an EcoCalendar and Blogs, as well as the ability to suggest listings for the directory.  Over the next month we will be rolling out the Eco Directory and forums.  Soon to follow will be the ability to post jobs and your resume, actions we can take in the community, an interactive EcoMap, and much, much more!!

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP BUILD THE NETWORK

Contribute your talents, knowledge, and resources
•    Become a blogger, post events, plan community events, or be a topic editor
•    Join the Leadership Council*, (a board of advisors for the direction and development of the Austin EcoNetwork) 

* Meeting Saturday, August 15th from 1-4 at the Casa de Luz auditorium*

 Spread the word
•    If you aren’t signed up for the daily newsletter, click here. 
•    Forward your Austin EcoNewsletter to friends and associates
•    Click the share button on calendar events or Blogs to post on facebook, etc.
•    Join our social media groups and invite others to do the same (facebook, twitter, linked-in)

Be a stakeholder
Thank you to those who have already joined! We deeply appreciate your contributions, and if there is anything more you can do, we need the help now!
•    Individuals: Join as a Founding Member. 
•    Represent an organization or green-oriented business: Join as a Founding Partner or Partner Plus click here for details
•    Want to do more: Sponsor a project, website page, or event (contact: Erin@AustinEcoNetwork.com)

A CASE STUDY FOR CONNECTING

When I was in Leadership Austin I heard a story about what the arts community of Philadelphia did to make them all more successful. ALL the different arts groups, from the tiniest theater troupe to the ballet and symphony, combined their lists and chipped in to cooperatively produce a brochure that was sent to ALL their contacts and distributed widely in Philly.  What happened?  Across the board, participation in the arts went way up.

GROWING THE PIE

I’m guessing that each of Austin’s eco-groups and businesses has a list of 400-4000+ people with whom they communicate regularly and who represent a slice of the proverbial eco-pie. What if each group invited their members to join/subscribe to the Austin EcoNetwork newsletter? If we added just these people together, the ones easily within our collective reach, with no further promotion we could be reaching 10s of 1000s of people who care about at least one green issue, and help them learn about other important eco-topics and resources. But why would we stop there? We can do more.
 

TOGETHER WE ARE STRONGER

Very few green businesses or nonprofits have enough budget to have a marketing and outreach department. Even those who do are pressed to produce lots of outreach with few resources. By having community contributions as well as each group chipping in a little bit we can maintain a staff dedicated to supporting the WHOLE community, helping each be more effective with meeting goals of information outreach, volunteer recruitment, fundraising and sales. We can also influence policies and support issue campaigns to promote or defeat measures that will help or harm Austin and the environment.

 
TRUSTED & FABULOUS

The media already looks to the Austin EcoNetwork for story ideas, leads to find issue leaders, and to keep up with the green events that need to be reported on. Community groups now use the calendar to post their own events but also make sure they are not scheduling on top of each others’ events.

Imagine our community site featuring every single eco-group or business with a full description of their services and why they are green, their knowledgeable leaders profiled, and every one of their events in the EcoCalendar. Picture an interactive map of all the hundreds of green resources and features in Austin, from parks to recycling centers to farmers’ markets and more, with details on how to get there by bus or bike…participation in all green activities will go up.

We are making it EASY for the public and the media to find out what’s going on in Austin’s Green Scene.

What we have what other green sites popping up don’t have, specific Austin local information and resources and the connectivity to the EcoCommunity.

We invite YOU to be a part of it all!
Join us: Please attend our leadership event this Saturday, 1-4pm at Casa de Luz.

RSVP at: http://budurl.com/aenl1