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Mike Ewall - "Student Organizing 101 - Greening the Campus"

Mike Ewall is a full time (80 hrs/week) volunteer organizer with the ACTION Center in Philadelphia, PA. He has been actively involved for over 11 years in student and community environmental justice organizing. Since 1995, he’s presented over 150 workshops at over 70 schools and at least 30 activist conferences.

Mike has a strong background in addressing waste, toxics, energy and nuclear issues. His accomplishments include defeating two local incinerator projects in his home county and helping halt a nuclear waste dump project in Pennsylvania. He has long been active in campaigning for corporate accountability. His experiences range from fighting for environmental justice in rural and suburban communities in Pennsylvania to helping protest environmental racism in the state's urban centers to protesting corporate investments in the military regime in Burma.

Since 1993, he’s been actively involved in the building Pennsylvania’s grassroots movement for environmental justice. Since 1996, he’s been active in student environmental organizing, mostly through the Student Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC) and 180: The Movement for Democracy and Education. He's currently working on building a new national organization called the Energy Justice Network, to advance clean energy policies while aiding grassroots fights against "biomass" incinerators, new fossil fuel power plants and other proposed dirty energy technologies.

Outline of Workshop Topics:
· Service projects vs. Issue Campaigns
· Democratic decision-making
· Organizing in circles vs. in steps
· Power mapping
· Strategy charts (goals, organizational considerations, allies/opponents, targets, tactics)
· Visibility
· Breaking down apathy
· Plug into national groups for various constituencies
· Recruiting / why people join
· Cliques
· Collecting full info on members / alumni network building
· Keeping records (web, files)
· Effective meetings / facilitation
· Campus-community connections
· One on ones (with new people in group, with leaders of other groups, etc.)

 

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