[Sustain] Sierra and PIRG Chapter Autonomy

[John Rizzo]

Well, not quite.

Sierra Club chapters are democratically run, but are not completely
autonomous. There is a hierarchy of groups from city, chapter or state,
and national. Chapters cannot work against national policy. (Chapters
are not free to support coal, for instance.) If they do, they can lose
their charter. Chapters also don't endorse for president.

It isn't top down, though, like PIRG. National doesn't get involved in
local issues. It's more like government, with local, state, and national
jurisdictions. Democratically run at all the levels.

JR

>Local Sierra Club chapters are democratically run and very autonomous.
>
>However PIRG chapters, and their spin-offs like Environment California, 
>are part of a hierarchy that is run from the top (with the exception of 
>New York, which broke off and became autonomous decades ago).
>
>Eric B
>
>anniegarrison at mac.com wrote:
>> http://www.siteselection.com/ssinsider/snapshot/sf060810.htm