by Alan Journet from Southern Oregon Climate Action Now (SOCAN)

Climate organizations are constantly urging us to reduce our footprint, but SOCAN (Southern Oregon Climate Action Now) is hoping to increase its footprint. The footprint that climate activists seek to reduce is that resulting in our direct and indirect emissions of greenhouse gases. The footprint that SOCAN seeks to increase is that of its influence.

For over a decade, SOCAN has been deeply rooted in the Southern Oregon community. SOCAN promotes awareness of the science of global warming and the climate chaos it is imposing and, within the framework of resolving a history of social injustice, stimulates individual and collective action to address it. As a result, SOCAN is well positioned to continue promoting climate action.

Established in 2012 with a relatively small group of supporters, SOCAN has now grown to several hundred volunteer activist supporters and a mailing list of over 2,000.

Over the more than a decade of its existence, SOCAN has consistently engaged with state and federal legislators on climate proposals, delivered testimony to state agencies developing climate-related programs, offered encouragement for local communities to undertake meaningful action to adapt to and mitigate the climate crisis, assisted educators through workshops and in-class presentations, offered community-wide opportunities to learn about climate science through events such as the 2015 Climate Summit and the annual Master Climate Protector – a Primer for Action course available for interested community members, collaborated with other non-profit organizations across the region and state in efforts to address the climate crisis through the lens of climate justice.

Since SOCAN was established as the first grassroots climate activist organization in Southern Oregon, other concerned residents have established effective organizations such as Rogue Climate and Southern Oregon Citizens Climate Lobby Chapter while other organizations have added climate components to their programs. Since SOCAN has achieved success with a corps of volunteer activists and leaders, the annual budgets have been relatively modest.

As a result of their recent and ongoing fundraising campaign, SOCAN Board President Hogan Sherrow recently stated: “We at SOCAN are thrilled to announce that our fundraising campaign ‘Reaching a New Level of Climate Action’ was very successful and as a result we are hiring our first Executive Director!

We will be advertising the position over the next several weeks and plan to hire the right person to lead our organization to a new level of climate action in early 2024. Thank you to all of the supporters, donors, foundations and friends who helped make this first step possible. Over the next few months, we will be reaching out as part of our new campaign, so please look for that! I especially want to thank my fellow board members who worked tirelessly to make all of this possible. It is a pleasure working with all of you. Here’s to a new level of climate action and an even larger footprint for SOCAN moving forward!”

SOCAN’s first Executive Director opportunity will be widely advertised. Anyone interested in exploring
this opportunity will find more information at https://socan.eco/2023campaign/.