Chapter Legislative Intern (Part-time)

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Sierra Club

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Delta, CO, United States

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10 days ago

Job Title: Chapter Legislative Intern (Part-time)
Department: Delta Chapter
Location: Baton Rouge, LA
Reports To: Intern Liaison and Manager and Legislative Mentor/Conservation Coordinator
Supervises: n/a
Duration: up to 30 hours a week for 15 weeks

Context: At the Sierra Club, we believe in the power of togetherness. Together, we remain committed to the fight for a healthy climate built on a foundation of environmental, racial, economic, and gender justice – a future where all people benefit from a healthy, thriving planet and a direct connection to nature. As the climate crisis and deeply entrenched systemic racism all fuel inequity, we will continue to fight for a bold, transformational agenda that recognizes the interconnectedness between our planet, our humanity, and our democracy. By recognizing that our destinies are tied, we continue to name that all things are fundamentally connected, and the overlap between ecology, race, gender, and representative government will move to either advance our collective humanity or to oppress it.

Sierra Club is comprised of staff across the country and a network of volunteer leaders and local chapters that support our grassroots engagement. We are also proud to be a unionized employer, with two labor unions representing more than half of our employees.

Scope: For many decades, the Delta Chapter of the Sierra Club has been focused on fighting bad legislation at the State Capitol. Our chapter staff needs assistance in coordinating legislative session 2023, in attending and planning for hearings and comments, and in recruiting attendees.

The role of the chapter's lobbyist is to fine tune the work done thus far during the legislative session and help construct a chapter-wide process for engaging staff, volunteers, and partners in the legislative session for 2023. The intern will provide regular updates, attend regular national, regional, and statewide calls to remain abreast of legislation moving throughout statehouses in the United States and the South. The intern will gain further experience advocating and testifying and will report back potential alliances, relationships we may build upon in future sessions.

Job activities include but are not limited to:

  • Meet multiple times a week with Conservation Coordinator to build the bill tracker for 2023 – read all relevant bills to determine the position of the Chapter on said bills and develop strategy for tackling bills and hearings each week
  • Attend weekly check in meetings with all Delta Chapter staff, coordinate and assist one another in tasks relevant to respective roles
  • Attend FRED/field calls regularly
  • Attend hearings at the capitol particularly for House and Senate natural resources, environmental quality committees, transportation committees in the House and Senate, others.
  • Coordinate other folks to attend from the volunteer database.
  • Report back to the chapter during quarterly chapter ex com meetings, and the monthly optional meetings as they occur
  • Facilitate the meetings and evaluate the strategy and progress of the transit committee. Lead, send calendar invites and zoom call details for, and plan the agenda for the transit committee meetings. Set a regular schedule with members and delegate work. Keep up the regular directory of members.
  • Digest readings from December 2022 final wrapup luncheon notes and hold the group to the plans, tasks per the next steps outlined in that document and in the January 30, 2023 joint transit and political committee meeting. Read relevant Delta Chapter transit committee materials, articles, and be familiar with past plans and victories in order to have a strong foundation in state, local, IRA and IIJA political dynamics, opportunities and concerns
  • Work with the Delta Chapter political committee, allies and partners as appropriate on both legislative priorities and election priorities. Continue relationships with partner organizations, legislators, and other stakeholders from the transit summit, and the past 3 years of transit campaigns and congressional and legislative engagement. Understand the previous asks and priorities.
  • Regularly attend calls held by National Campaign for Transit Justice on Thursdays at noon, Louisiana 4 Corners Coalition once a month on the 1st Tuesday, OneRouge mobility/transportation committee calls as needed, and Clean Transportation for All calls once-a-month on the 4th Thursdays of the month.

The successful candidate must demonstrate the following skills, experience and competencies:

  • Strong Communication skills. Able to ask clarifying questions to gather necessary information and context. Responsive to communication from partners, teammates and other collaborators
  • Comfortable with working collaboratively with staff and peers and connecting with legislators, their staff and other officials
  • Self-awareness. Keen on time management, limitations, and capacity. Able to communicate needs with manager and teammates/collaborators
  • Awareness of the legislative process and willing to do deeper dives to understand different legislative committee processes and protocols
  • Adaptable. Able to pivot, adjust and strategize through challenges and new information that may lead to different outcomes and approaches
  • Equity Analysis and Practice. You are aware of your group identities and how they have shaped your life and experiences at work. You have an analysis of how racism and other forms of oppression in society impact relationships, systems and culture. You bring experience and skills for working effectively with colleagues across group identities and position/role.

Compensation and Benefits

The salary range for this position is $22.22/hour, non-negotiable.

This is a category 99 non-exempt, non-represented, temporary position.

Sierra Club is a 501(c)(4) non-profit organization. Sierra Club employees are not eligible to participate in the Federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program.

Sierra Club values the expertise and talents of foreign nationals. Sierra Club sponsors both nonimmigrant and immigrant visas when certain criteria are met, based on immigration laws and organizational needs. Such sponsorship is at the discretion of the Department Head and Sierra Club Human Resources in consultation with the employee's manager. The Sierra Club cannot guarantee the approval of a visa petition. The Sierra Club is an equal opportunity employer committed to workforce diversity.

To Apply

This position does not have an undergraduate education requirement. If you choose to include your education history, please remove your schools from your resume. You may leave your degree (e.g., "B.A. Philosophy"), but please remove any undergraduate and graduate school names.

This anonymous process is aimed at opening this opportunity to more candidates, reviewing applicants on performance assessments and mitigating bias in the decision-making process.

Lastly, we are intentionally not asking for a cover letter, so please do not send one in with your application.

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